I’ve been advocating for Attorney General Merrick Garland to be impeached for some time now, but it finally looks like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is getting on board with the idea in light of recent whistleblower accusations.
On Sunday, McCarthy indicated in a tweet that the House GOP could initiate an impeachment inquiry against the scandal-plagued Garland if IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary A. Shapley Jr.’s claims that U.S. Attorney David Weiss wanted to appoint a special counsel for the Department of Justice’s investigation into Hunter Biden prove to be accurate.
“We need to get to the facts, and that includes reconciling these clear disparities. U.S. Attorney David Weiss must provide answers to the House Judiciary Committee,” McCarthy tweeted. “If the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, this will be a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Merrick Garland’s weaponization of DOJ.”
We need to get to the facts, and that includes reconciling these clear disparities. U.S. Attorney David Weiss must provide answers to the House Judiciary Committee.
If the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, this will be a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry into… https://t.co/Q3LLeJhW85
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) June 25, 2023
According to Shapley, Weiss expressed a desire to file charges against Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., and six witnesses observed him state that he “did not have authority to charge in other districts and had thus requested special counsel status.”
Those six witnesses include Baltimore FBI Special Agent in Charge Tom Sobocinski and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ryeshia Holley, IRS Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gary Shapley and Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who also independently and contemporaneously corroborated Mr. Shapley’s account in an email, now public as Exhibit 10, following p. 148 of his testimony transcript. Mr. Shapley would have no insight into why Mr. Weiss’s would make these statements at the October 7, 2022 meeting if they were false. That Mr. Weiss made these statements is easily corroborated, and it is up to him and the Justice Department to reconcile the evidence of his October 7, 2022 statements with contrary statements by Mr. Weiss and the Attorney General to Congress.
Garland nevertheless denies that Weiss ever asked him to appoint a special counsel.
“I don’t know how it would be possible for anybody to block him from bringing a prosecution given that he has this authority. He was never told no. I’m saying he was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own,” Garland claimed. “The only person with authority to make somebody a special counsel or refuse to make somebody a special counsel is the Attorney General. Mr. Weiss never made that request to me.”
Merrick Garland already faces multiple allegations of abuses of power, including his handling of school board protests and treatment of concerned parents as domestic terrorists, targeting of pro-life activists, and the raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Earlier this year, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) revealed documents showing that U.S. marshals who were tasked with safeguarding Supreme Court justices were instructed to avoid making arrests last year when activists protested outside their homes — despite Garland previously testifying to Congress to the contrary. The protests that started after the leak of the draft Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade violated a federal statute that outlaws protesting against a justice’s home with the intent of influencing a ruling. The protesters were never dispersed by law enforcement, and none were ever charged under that statute, except for the man who planned to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh, probably only because he called the police on himself.
Frankly, Garland’s impeachment is long overdue.