Grassley Challenges Garland to Explain Why He Won’t Answer Key Biden–China Questions

Hunter Biden, left, and Joe Biden celebrate during a rally in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 7, 2020. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

Attorney General Merrick Garland has refused to answer Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-Iowa) “fundamental questions related to the Hunter Biden criminal investigation,” and the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee isn’t taking it sitting down.

“I’ve asked serious ethical questions of the Justice Department (DOJ) that the department refuses to answer. In fact, the department has actually publicly contradicted itself,” Grassley said during a Senate floor speech on Feb. 2.

The contradiction came, according to Grassley, in a federal court filing by the DOJ in which it said it had information about Patrick Ho, a Chinese businessman with deep connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Beijing’s intelligence apparatus. The information had been obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“Patrick Ho was also charged and convicted of international bribery and money laundering offenses relating to his work for companies connected to the communist regime,” Grassley told the Senate. “After his arrest, his first call was reportedly to James Biden, President [Joe] Biden’s brother. Hunter Biden reportedly represented Patrick Ho for $1 million.”

Grassley, along with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), asked DOJ in a March 2021 letter to share the FISA information about Ho and other Chinese nationals connected with Hunter Biden.

Grassley and Johnson have been investigating Hunter Biden’s dealings for nearly two years, and issued a September 2020 report and a November 2020 update that together detailed extensive links between the Biden family and business interests and individuals with close ties to Beijing. Grassley was Senate Finance Committee chairman and Johnson chaired the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs when the report and update were issued.

The DOJ response to the March 2021 letter, Grassley explained, said: “‘Unfortunately, under the circumstances described in your letter, we aren’t in a position to confirm the existence of the information that is sought (if it exists in the department’s possession).’

“‘If it exists in the department’s possession.’ Simply put, that’s not a true and accurate statement,” Grassley told the Senate, noting that either DOJ has the FISA information, as it told the court, or it doesn’t.

Grassley and Johnson asked Garland in a November 2021 letter to clear up the contradiction. To date, Garland hasn’t responded.

Grassley also told the Senate that he and Johnson “asked Attorney General Garland if Nicholas McQuaid is recused from the Hunter Biden criminal case.”

“McQuaid works in the Department’s Criminal Division but worked with Hunter Biden’s criminal attorney before joining the Department. This poses a clear conflict of interest,” he said.

Again, no answer has been forthcoming from Garland, Grassley said.

In a third example of Garland failing to respond to the senators, Grassley said Garland initially didn’t say if Susan Hennessey—a DOJ National Security Division employee who was publicly critical of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation of issues linked to the Russiagate accusations against former President Donald Trump—was recused from that probe.

Garland claimed in a November 2021 appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Hennessey has no role “whatsoever” in the Durham probe. Garland said the same thing when asked if Margaret Goodlander, a DOJ employee who is married to Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, is recused from the Durham investigation.

Grassley told the Senate: “Sullivan worked for the Clinton presidential campaign. While there, he peddled the false Alfa Bank story about the Trump Organization having a secret back-channel with the Russian bank.

“On the one hand, Attorney General Garland has publicly said Susan Hennessey and Margaret Goodlander have no role in the Durham investigation. On the other hand, Attorney General Garland refuses to say the same for McQuaid and the Hunter Biden criminal case. Why? Why won’t Attorney General Garland say that McQuaid has no role in the criminal case involving the president’s son? This is a fundamental ethical question.

“What’s the Biden Justice Department hiding? This blatantly inconsistent treatment has cast a cloud over the Hunter Biden criminal case. Just imagine if this fact pattern involved President Trump and his sons.

“You wouldn’t hear the end of it from my Democratic colleagues and the media. Yet not a sound from them in this case. The American people are rightly skeptical of how the Justice Department is handling the Hunter Biden criminal case. And the secrecy and lack of public transparency will only increase that skepticism.”

The DOJ media relations office didn’t respond by press time to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

In a related development, it was learned last week that U.S. Attorney David Weiss issued a grand jury subpoena in 2019 for bank records of Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president’s brother. Little else is known about the DOJ’s continuing investigation of Hunter Biden’s lobbying, financial activities, and tax problems.