(WASHINGTON) — The FBI has revoked the security clearances of three agents for issues related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a letter from the bureau to congressional investigators obtained by ABC News.
One of the agents was among the pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol, according to the FBI, and the two others are alleged to have hindered investigative efforts.
At least two of the agents — Steve Friend and Marcus Allen — are expected to testify Thursday before the Republican-led House select subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government as part of its probe into the federal government’s purported wrongdoings against conservatives.
The letter could lead to a contentious hearing, providing what could be fresh ammunition to Democrats as they attempt to undercut the credibility of the committee’s witnesses and bolster their claims that Republicans are seeking to whitewash the seriousness of the assault on the Capitol.
Russell Dye, a spokesperson for committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the letter was an act of desperation by the FBI.
“This is a last minute Hail Mary from the FBI in a desperate attempt to salvage their reputation … before brave whistleblowers testify about the agency’s politicized behavior and retaliation against anyone who dares speak out,” Dye told ABC News.
According to the letter, agent Brett Gloss knowingly entered a restricted zone around the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, in violation of the law.
“The FBI reviewed communications in which Mr. Gloss expressed support for the protestors’ unauthorized entry into the Capitol building and support for their criminal acts against the U.S,” said the letter, which was sent Wednesday.
The letter also said Gloss provided false or misleading information during an interview about what he observed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and whether he entered the restricted zone.
The agents’ security clearances were revoked earlier this month, the letter said.
“Specifically, the Security Division found Mr. Allen espoused alternative theories to coworkers verbally and in emails and instant messages sent on the FBI systems, in apparent attempts to hinder investigative activity,” the letter to investigators said, alleging that Allen failed to provide relevant information about criminal activity at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The bureau also says that Friend refused to participate in a court-authorized search and arrest of a criminal suspect and also espoused an alternate narrative of Jan. 6.
In addition to these concerns, the FBI also said in their letter that Friend would post sensitive FBI information on his social media accounts and did an interview with a Russian news agency without approval from the FBI’s office of public affairs.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a slate of legislation Wednesday targeting the LGBTQ community, including restrictions on transgender health care, content on LGBTQ identities in schools, transgender bathroom use and drag performances in the state.
The news comes on the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, May 17.
What the new laws say
Florida state bill DB 254 will restrict gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people under the age of 18, allowing the state to take temporary custody over any child who receives such treatment.
“Sex-reassignment prescriptions and procedures are prohibited for patients younger than 18 years of age,” the legislation reads.
Gender-affirming care has been found to be associated with improved mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to research in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Pediatrics.
House Bill 1069 will expand the Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics. The new measure will restrict classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation from prekindergarten through grade 8. From grades 9 through 12, such content must be “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” However, the Florida Board of Education had already voted to expand the restriction from kindergarten through 12th grade.
House Bill 1521 will require transgender people to use the bathrooms that correspond with their gender assigned at birth.
A 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found no evidence that laws requiring transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender at birth lead to decreases in safety or privacy violations.
Senate Bill 1438 prohibits minors from attending any “adult live performances,” which may impact drag performances.
The legislation defines “adult live performance” as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which … depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities … lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts,” as well as other stipulations concerning the interest, conduct and value of the performance.
The debate over LGBTQ rights
Advocates and allies criticized the legislation, arguing that the bills will harm the LGBTQ community which already faces higher rates of discrimination and violence.
Nadine Smith, of Equality Florida, said the legislation uses vague language “to inflict maximum harm.”
“They use the vagueness as a shield so they can, in court, feign innocent and political accountability for the harm — the very real harm that they’re inflicting,” Smith said in a press conference following the legislation. “The harm DeSantis is inflicting on Florida is real and it will outlast his time in office. Florida has become synonymous with book bans, whitewashing history, anti-LGBTQ attacks, radicalized right wing groups often armed, menacing our families.”
DeSantis applauded the legislation, saying that the new restrictions allow “kids to be kids.”
“I feel very strongly as governor but also just as a dad of a six, a five, and a three year old that we need to let our kids just be kids and we have a very crazy age that we live in — there’s a lot of nonsense that gets floated around. And what we’ve said in Florida is, we are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy,” DeSantis said.
This new slate of bills is the latest move in DeSantis’ self-proclaimed war against “woke” beliefs, restricting education and content on marginalized identities.
‘Woke’ is defined by the DeSantis administration as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them,” according to DeSantis’ general counsel, as reported by The Washington Post.
(BOSTON) — The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts leaked information to help her preferred candidate for the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, district attorney, among other “egregious” violations of DOJ policy, two government watchdogs announced Wednesday.
Rachael Rollins, the first African American U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, announced her resignation Tuesday after being informed of the details that would be included in the Justice Department’s Inspector General report. The investigation began amid reports she may have violated the Hatch Act by attending a political fundraiser with the first lady in July of last year.
She did violate the Hatch Act, the Inspector General found, but that merely scratches the surface of Rollins’ alleged abuse of her position, according to the report. The Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations called it “one of the most egregious Hatch Act violations that OSC has investigated.”
Prior to being nominated to be U.S. Attorney, Rollins served as District Attorney for Suffolk County, which in Massachusetts is an elected position. She took extraordinary steps to ensure her preferred candidate to replace her would be elected, the IG found.
“Our investigation determined that Rollins, while serving as U.S. Attorney, assisted Ricardo Arroyo with his Democratic primary campaign for Suffolk D.A., providing him campaign advice and direction and coordinating with Arroyo on activities to help his campaign,” the 161-page report says. “The evidence demonstrated that at a critical stage of the primary race, Rollins brought her efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy to the [Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office], when she used her position as U.S. Attorney, and information available to her as U.S. Attorney, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to create the impression publicly, before the primary election, that DOJ was or would be investigating [Arroyo’s opponent, Kevin] Hayden for public corruption.”
The former U.S. attorney tried to give non-public sensitive DOJ information to a Boston Herald reporter to further influence the election, and she talked extensively to a Boston Globe reporter about Arroyo’s opponent and gave “off the record” tips to the reporter, who then wrote three critical stories about the opponent, the IG found.
Rollins not only violated department policy, but also potentially broke the law when misleading investigators about providing false statements to the IG about leaking the information to the Boston Herald reporter. The Inspector General made a referral of Rollins’ misstatements to the department in December, but officials declined to prosecute only three weeks later. She communicated information to reporters using her personal phone — also a violation of DOJ policy, per the report.
Rollins advised Arroyo on a myriad of issues and coordinated in some instances with Arroyo on certain campaign activities, even coordinating some U.S. attorney events to coincide with Arroyo’s campaign events and Rollins, text messages purportedly show. More specifically, the IG found that Rollins tried “unsuccessfully to convince her First Assistant U.S. Attorney to issue a letter that would have created the impression that DOJ was investigating Hayden and, when that effort failed, disclosed non-public, sensitive DOJ information directly to a Herald reporter before the primary election.” She lied when asked about it by investigators, according to the IG.
When Rollins sought the advice of the general counsel for the Executive Office for United States Attorneys on recusal because she recognized the appearance of a potential conflict of interest, she seemingly reluctantly agreed with his recommendation that she recuse herself.
“I don’t like being recused from things, but … if you think I need to be, I understand that,” Rollins said she told the EOUSA general counsel, per the report.
Eventually, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General sent her a recusal memo which she then shared with the Boston Herald reporter as evidence there was a federal investigation into Hayden, the report said. Then, after the article came out on Sept. 11, 2022, Rollins allegedly texted her staff from her personal phone expressing apparent shock about the article, asking the questions, “Wtf!?!” and “When was the office contacted about this? And why wasn’t I called? How are they quoting things?”
“Based upon the facts described above, the OIG concluded that U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins used her position as U.S. Attorney in an effort to influence the outcome of a partisan political election, namely the September 6, 2022 Democratic primary election that would select her likely successor as Suffolk D.A,” the IG concluded. “Additionally, we determined that days after Hayden prevailed in the September 6 primary election, Rollins sought to damage Hayden’s reputation by leaking to the Herald Reporter non-public and sensitive DOJ information that suggested the possibility of a federal criminal investigation into Hayden, a matter from which Rollins was recused.”
Regarding the political fundraiser, Rollins went without the approval of the deputy attorney general and against the ethics advice she had received, the IG said. Initially, Rollins was supposed to leave the event with first lady Jill Biden once they had a brief meet and greet outside of the event, but that is not what happened, the IG found.
“Rollins went inside the home, mingled with the guests, and stood in the same receiving line as the other fundraiser guests to meet Dr. Biden,” the report says. “Rollins’s interaction with Dr. Biden was identical to those of the other fundraiser guests whose primary purpose for being at the event was to get in line and meet Dr. Biden. She also posed for photos with the event hosts and guests, as well as a U.S. Senator, after meeting Dr. Biden and before leaving the event.”
Other alleged violations included improperly using the office to obtain tickets to a Boston Celtics game for 30 children which she also attended and improperly used office resources for, according to the report. She also made improper statements about the leaked Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling without getting approval from the Justice Department, and she continued to accept campaign contributions while serving as the U.S. Attorney in violation of department policy, the IG said.
Rollins’ resignation will take effect at the end of the week.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid intensifying pressure from House Republicans, the State Department said Wednesday it will allow select members of Congress to review a classified communication sent by American diplomats during the final days of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, marking a significant reversal in the Biden administration’s position.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, and other Republicans on the panel have been engaged in a monthslong pursuit of the document that sources say was sent in July 2021 and warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the government of Afghanistan was at risk of collapse at the hands of the Taliban.
McCaul initially issued several requests for the document, and then a subpoena in March. When the State Department refused to comply, he threatened to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress, going as far as to schedule a hearing on the matter in the coming days.
On Wednesday, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said the department would send a letter on Monday offering McCaul and the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., an opportunity to privately review the document, known as a “dissent cable,” and that only identifying information of department personnel involved would be redacted.
“Chairman McCaul himself has said this is what he is interested in,” Patel said.
The State Department repeatedly declined to produce the cable, arguing the dissent channel needed to be protected to preserve its integrity and offering McCaul and other members of the committee a closed door briefing and a summary of the document instead.
Despite the administration’s concession, Patel made it clear that the State Department still saw its previous disclosures as adequately meeting the department’s needs.
“We believe that we have provided sufficient information through our classified briefing, through the written summary, and we believe these efforts already should have and would satisfied their request for information,” he said.
ABC News reached out to the House Foreign Affairs Committee but did not immediately receive a response.
(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives is expected to consider a Democratic resolution to expel Rep. George Santos from Congress.
When the House reconvenes at 5 p.m., Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., will offer his resolution to expel Santos from the chamber.
But Republicans aren’t expected to vote on the resolution. Instead House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will hold a vote to refer the resolution to the House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting their own investigation into Santos.
“I think we can look at this very quickly and come to a conclusion on what George Santos did and did not do through Ethics, a safe bipartisan committee, equal number of Republicans and Democrats, and I think that’s when you bring it back to Congress if it rises to the ability,” McCarthy said at a press conference Tuesday.
House Democratic leaders have instructed their members to vote no on referring the resolution to the House Ethics Committee. Garcia said his resolution to expel Santos is about putting Republicans on the record.
“There hasn’t been action, and so now’s the appropriate time to make sure that Republicans are on record if they’re going to actually stand by someone that is a serial liar and a fraud. And they’re gonna have to record a vote, and the American people will be watching their votes,” Garcia said Tuesday.
Santos said in March he would comply “100%” one day after the House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to establish an “Investigative Subcommittee” to look into the claims made against Santos.
Among the accusations the subcommittee has been examining are whether Santos “engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office,” according to a news release from the House Ethics Committee.
The congressman has previously acknowledged lying about some parts of his background, specifically about graduating from college — which he did not — but he has insisted his behavior was similar to routine resume embellishment. He has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct or any criminal wrongdoing.
Santos was indicted last week on 13 criminal counts, including seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Twenty members of Congress have been expelled, 17 of them for supporting the Confederacy in 1861 and 1862. Only five members of the House have been expelled in U.S. history.
(WASHINGTON) — As oral arguments begin in a federal appeals court case Wednesday weighing access to the widely-used abortion pill in the United States, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are sounding the alarm about data privacy.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Democrat from California, said in an exclusive interview with ABC News that restricting the use of mifepristone — a pill used to end pregnancies of less than 10 weeks — could have a greater impact than the Supreme Court’s decision last June that overruled the constitutional right to an abortion.
“This is about people having the ability to make decisions about their own lives and their own families and their own health care without government or politicians getting involved,” Jacobs told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott during an interview.
Jacobs says the issue, fundamentally, is about privacy, and she is concerned that restricting medication-based abortions would force companies to collect personal data. The California congresswoman told ABC News exclusively that she will reintroduce legislation to limit such data collection Wednesday.
“It creates a national standard,” Jacobs said of her My Body, My Data Act, which she first put forward in 2022.
“Companies can only collect and retain what is strictly necessary to provide the service you’re asking them,” Jacobs added.
Women using period-tracking apps could prohibit companies from selling or otherwise sharing such data under Jacob’s proposal. Users could also request that the apps delete personal data, and users would retain the right to sue companies they believe are misusing their data, Jacobs said.
“We know that this data can be very vulnerable, whether you’re searching online for medication abortion for where an abortion clinic could be,” Jacobs said.
While the prospect of Jacobs’ legislation passing the Republican-controlled House is unlikely, the congresswoman hopes this is an issue that will unite both sides of the aisle.
“I think we can all agree and the majority of Americans agree that government should not be using your personal private reproductive health data to prosecute a crime against you,” Jacobs said.
At the same time Jacobs is reintroducing her proposal on the House floor, three federal judges in New Orleans will hear arguments as part of an appeal to a Texas judge’s April decision to strike down the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. The judges — all with a track record of opposing abortion rights — will not rule immediately, and their decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court, which would make a final ruling.
In the meantime, mifepristone and its companion drug, misoprostol, remain available nationwide.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday has declined to block Illinois’ assault weapons ban from being enforced as a legal challenge continues, handing a win to gun safety advocates at a time when the nation is grappling with a surge of mass shootings and gun violence.
The single page order had no noted dissents.
After the 2022 Highland Park shooting, in which a gunman armed with an AR-15 and 30-round magazines killed seven people and wounded 48, the state and several cities enacted new restrictions against the sale, purchase, manufacture, delivery or importation of assault-style firearms and high-capacity magazines.
The laws immediately drew a legal challenge from gun owners and gun shops in the state.
Lower courts had declined to block enforcement of the law in the meantime. The case is set to be heard by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the coming months.
The gun rights advocates say theirs is an “exceedingly simple case” and that the Illinois laws violate the Second Amendment under the Supreme Court’s standard set forth last year in New York State Rifle and Pistol Assn v. Bruen. They say the plaintiffs want to keep and bear arms for a lawful purpose — defense of their home — and that there is no founding era precedent to ban an entire category of arms.
The state says it’s far from clear that its laws are unconstitutional. They argue that gun owners who possessed assault weapons prior to the law can continue to do so lawfully, but must submit an affidavit to State Police attesting to prior purchase.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he is “confident” the U.S. will avert default, expressing optimism a crisis could be avoided as he left for a foreign trip even as debt ceiling negotiations were coming down to the wire.
“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget that America will not default,” Biden said from the White House Roosevelt Room. He added, “We’re going to come together because there’s no alternative.”
Biden’s remarks come as he embarks on a now five-day trip to Japan to meet with G-7 leaders. The president was due to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia following his appearance in Hiroshima but canceled the back half of the trip to work on a debt ceiling deal.
The president said he’ll be in “constant contact” with his team while abroad and will be back in time for the “final negotiation.” He also teased a press conference upon his return on Sunday.
Biden, who has insisted raising the debt ceiling is nonnegotiable, made it a point to emphasize the talks are about contours of the 2024 budget.
“Not about whether or not we are going to, in fact, pay our debts,” Biden said. “All the leaders have agreed we will not default. Every leader has said that.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, holding a news conference on the Capitol steps with other GOP lawmakers just after Biden’s remarks, had a different take on the ongoing negotiations.
“The president and Leader Schumer have finally backed off their idea that they won’t negotiate,” McCarthy said. “They finally backed off the insane, unrational, unsensible idea that you just raise the debt ceiling.”
The nation is on track to be unable to pay all its bills sometime in early June, possibly as early as June 1, unless lawmakers raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
There were some signs of progress after Biden and congressional leaders met Tuesday afternoon at the White House.
McCarthy and Biden have appointed top staffers to negotiate a deal. Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, will represent the White House in talks with Rep. Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican and top McCarthy ally.
The group went to work late Tuesday night and will meet again Wednesday, Biden said.
One sticking point emerging in negotiations are working requirements for social programs. The debt ceiling and budget bill House Republicans passed in April would expand work requirements for some federal aid programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Biden said Wednesday he will not accept any requirements that would impact people’s medical or health needs, but opened the door to other provisions.
“It’s possible there could be a few others but not anything of consequence,” he said.
Meanwhile, House Democrats on Wednesday moved forward with a discharge petition — a rarely used procedural tool that would allow them to bypass traditional rules — as a possible way to raise the debt ceiling absent a deal.
“Emerging from the White House meeting, I am hopeful that a real pathway exists to find an acceptable, bipartisan resolution that prevents a default,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a letter to colleagues. “However, given the impending June 1 deadline and urgency of the moment, it is important that all legislative options be pursued in the event that no agreement is reached.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden was headed Wednesday for a less extensive-than-desired visit to Asia, cut short by crisis talks with Republicans over the debt ceiling.
The truncated trip — during which Biden will visit only Japan — comes as solving a domestic crisis took precedence over Biden’s time on the world stage.
The president had planned to focus heavily on Russia and China during summit meetings with world leaders in Japan and Australia. He also was to become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Papua New Guinea.
But on Tuesday, the White House said Biden would skip Australia and Papua New Guinea, returning early to Washington on Sunday to hammer out a deal before the U.S. defaults as soon as June 1.
Biden, under pressure, faced ‘tough decisions’
No deal appeared imminent after Biden hosted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders in the Oval Office Tuesday, although McCarthy did say a deal could be in hand by the end of the week.
Still, the looming threat of economic catastrophe threatened to completely overshadow Biden’s foreign travel.
The White House has argued it’s possible for Biden to handle domestic and foreign policy challenges at the same time, and the president said Tuesday he planned to stay in touch with McCarthy over the coming days.
“I made it clear to the speaker and others that we’ll speak regularly over the next several days and the staff is going to continue meeting daily to make sure we do not default,” Biden said after Tuesday’s Oval Office session.
But Biden had already come under fire from Republicans questioning his priorities and calling on him to completely cancel his trip.
“The president often has to make tough decisions about how and where he’s going to spend his time,” White House spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.
A U.S. default would have dire consequences for the global economy and, Kirby noted, would harm America’s reputation abroad.
“There’s countries like Russia and China that would love nothing more than for us to default, so they can point the finger and say, ‘You see the United States is not a stable, reliable partner,'” Kirby said. “That is a high priority, as it should be, for the — for the president.”
G-7 nations to confront Russia, China
But a looming default is not keeping the president away from the annual meeting of leaders of the “Group of Seven,” or G-7, industrialized nations.
In Hiroshima, which this year is hosting the summit, Biden and his counterparts are expected to focus on maintaining pressure on Russia and countering China’s increasingly aggressive approach to Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Four of the seven G-7 leaders met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in recent days. They’ve already pledged more support for Ukraine as it prepares its highly anticipated counter-offensive against Russia, and while in Japan, the G-7 nations were expected to further tighten sanctions against Moscow.
The site of one of two atomic bombings of Japan by the U.S. during World War II, Hiroshima will also present an opportunity for Biden to reflect on the past amid new nuclear threats from Russia, North Korea and Iran.
Default threat harms effort to counter China
Biden’s decision to shorten his schedule will likely hamper his goal of working with allies to counter China’s growing military and economic influence in the Pacific.
His scheduled historic visit to Papua New Guinea, where he planned to meet with a host of Pacific Island leaders, had been designed to send a signal to those nations that the U.S. wants them in its orbit — instead of China’s.
And the U.S. was already playing catch-up with China, which has been courting these nations for years and whose president, Xi Jinping, visited Papua New Guinea in 2018.
In a major setback for the U.S., another archipelagic Pacific nation, the Solomon Islands, signed a security deal with China last year. In response to China’s burgeoning influence, the U.S. reopened an embassy there this year.
Biden’s visit to Australia would have also heavily focused on China.
He planned to meet with other leaders of the nations that make up the so-called “Quad”– the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — which consists of U.S., Australia, Japan and India.
Set up after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, it lost prominence for years but has become a key institution of Biden’s push to reorient American foreign policy toward Asia and the Pacific.
This would have been Biden’s fourth meeting with his Quad counterparts since taking office — and third in person. The meetings often result in agreements to increase cooperation on issues like maritime security and climate change.
White House looks for ways to make it up
But even though Biden doesn’t plan to travel to Australia, he’ll still have a chance to see his Quad counterparts in Hiroshima.
Japanese Prime Fumio Kishida, who is hosting G-7 summit, had already invited his Indian and Australian counterparts, Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese, respectively, to attend; they are among the non-G7 nations who will be represented there.
Biden, Kirby said Tuesday, will meet with the Quad leaders while in Hiroshima, although it wasn’t clear if they would meet all together.
“Revitalizing and reinvigorating our alliances and advancing partnerships like the Quad remains a key priority for the president,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “This is vital to our ability to advance our foreign policy goals and better promote global stability and prosperity.”
Biden called Albanese on Tuesday to inform him of his schedule change and invite him to the U.S. for an official state visit, Jean-Pierre said.
“We look forward,” she said, “to finding other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in the coming year.”
Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for an IRS whistleblower have informed key members of Congress that their client, who claims to have information suggesting the Biden administration could be mishandling the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has been removed from the probe into the president’s son.
According to a letter obtained by ABC News, the whistleblower’s attorneys on Monday notified several House and Senate Committee chairmen, both Democrats and Republicans, that their client — along with his “entire investigative team” — had been removed from the probe.
The attorneys wrote in the letter that the whistleblower had been “informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.”
“[T]his move is clearly retaliatory and may also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry,” the letter reads.
A DOJ spokesperson told ABC News in a statement, “The Department cannot comment on the matter. As to any investigation of Hunter Biden, as the Attorney General has said that investigation is being handled by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who has full authority to make investigative decisions and to bring charges in any jurisdiction as he deems appropriate. I refer you to U.S. Attorney Weiss for any questions concerning his investigation.”
Weiss’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ABC News previously reported that the lawyer for the IRS whistleblower said in a letter that their client is an IRS criminal supervisory special agent “who has been overseeing the ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020 and would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.”
The letter does not name Hunter Biden specifically, but lawmakers have been made aware he is the “high profile, controversial” subject that the lawyer is referring to.
While the letter refers to preferential treatment that Hunter Biden has allegedly received, there are no specific examples provided to support the accusations.
Weiss, a Trump-era appointee, has been leading the investigation into the younger Biden and his tax affairs since 2018.
