Merrick Garland appointing special counsel in Hunter Biden investigation

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, sent shockwaves through US politics on Friday when he announced he is appointing a special counsel in the Hunter Biden inquiry, deepening the investigation of the president’s son ahead of the 2024 election.

The move is a momentous development from the usually cautious Garland and comes amid a pair of sweeping justice department investigations into Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s election.

It comes as House Republicans are mounting their own investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The party has long sought to make Hunter Biden’s life and business dealings a political headache for his father.

Garland named David Weiss, the US attorney in Delaware who has been investigating the financial and business dealings of the president’s son, as the special counsel.

Republicans have long claimed Weiss was being blocked from becoming a special counsel – a claim he and the justice department strongly denied. By being named special counsel Weiss will now have much broader authority to conduct a more sweeping investigation.

Garland said Weiss had told him on Tuesday that “in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be appointed”.

“Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Garland said.

Hunter Biden has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, banker, consultant and artist in a globe-trotting career laced with controversy that has proved a consistent thorn in his father’s side. At the same time he has long admitted to struggling with substance addictions.

He has been accused of failing to pay taxes on more than $1.5m in income in 2017 and 2018. He is also charged in a separate case with unlawfully owning a firearm while addicted to and using a controlled substance.

Late last month Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to tax charges, after a federal judge in Delaware said she needed more time to review a proposed deal with federal prosecutors to avoid a felony gun charge. The collapse of the plea deal was unexpected and seemed to signal that Hunter’s legal woes were far from being settled.

The Associated Press contributed to this report