Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently said he would be open to considering pardons for members of the Biden family “in the interest of moving the nation forward.”
“After we have shut down the FBI, after we have refurbished the Department of Justice, after we have systemically pardoned anyone who was a victim of a political [sic] motivated persecution — from Donald Trump and peaceful January 6 protests — then would I would be open to evaluating pardons for members of the Biden family in the interest of moving the nation forward,” Ramaswamy reportedly told the New York Post.
“It is a broad theme of this candidacy, leading us to a national renewal rather than a national divorce. It’s part of a broader vision of an American revitalization,” he added.
Ramaswamy’s comments come after attorney general Merrick Garland announced he would appoint U.S. attorney David Weiss as a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Garland’s announcement allows Weiss to continue his investigation into the president’s son free from the conventional DOJ oversight.
The attorney general said Weiss requested special counsel authority on Tuesday. Garland said he chose to grant the request “after consideration” and that Weiss will continue to oversee the “ongoing investigation” of Hunter as well as “any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.”
The appointment “reinforces for the American people the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” Garland said.
Weiss insisted last month that he had “ultimate authority” over the Hunter Biden probe, despite IRS whistleblower allegations that the IRS, DOJ, and FBI interfered with the investigation.
The two IRS whistleblowers told the House Ways and Means Committee they pushed for felony charges against Hunter Biden in the tax probe and that Weiss wanted to bring charges against the younger Biden in the District of Columbia and Southern California last year but was denied by DOJ officials both times.
Weiss also asked to be appointed special counsel in the case on several occasions, including in Spring 2022, but those requests were also rebuffed by the DOJ, according to the whistleblowers’ testimony.
Ramaswamy previously reacted to the news of the special counsel appointment by resharing a post he wrote in June, in which he called for a special counsel to “investigate and publish all findings relating to Hunter Biden and Biden-family business dealings.”
“I am deeply skeptical of special counsels,” he wrote two months ago. “We should dispense with the charade that a ‘special’ counsel is somehow unbiased or immune from the Administrative State’s corruption. It’s a lose-lose proposition: either the special counsel still reports to the attorney general and is bound by DOJ rules and policies in which case it’s a farce, or else the special counsel is entirely unaccountable which creates an Inspector Javert dilemma.”
But though he suggested neither situation is good, “there cannot be a two-tiered justice system in this country.”
“If there’s a Trump-focused special counsel, there *must* be a Biden-focused special counsel too – to investigate mounting evidence of Biden’s potential criminal violations,” he said.
On Friday, he responded to the old post and wrote: “It happened. Good. Now let’s see if it’s more than a fig leaf.”
The appointment comes weeks after Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart plea deal” fell through. Under the deal, Hunter would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and submit to a diversion agreement related to a felony gun charge in exchange for broad immunity from future charges related to foreign influence peddling. But Judge Maryellen Noreika challenged the terms of the deal, calling such a broad immunity deal unprecedented.
Just before Garland made his statement on Friday, prosecutors said in a court filing that the revised deal had fallen through and that they expect the case to go to trial.