Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate potential ties to Hunter Biden within the Department of Justice. According to Grassley, Garland has refused to even respond to multiple congressional oversight requests.
“As I say to many nominees, either you run the Department or the Department runs you. Right now, it looks like the Justice Department is running Attorney General Garland,” Grassley said. “I voted to confirm the Attorney General. I had high hopes he would follow through on his public statements of ridding the Department of political infection. Instead, I fear he’s taking the Justice Department to new politically-charged heights. To date, I haven’t received a full and complete response to a single oversight request from the Biden Justice Department.”
The primary issue at hand is a request Grassley, along with Sen. Johnson, R-WI, made twice this year about Nicholas McQuaid, who is acting assistant attorney general.
“McQuaid was employed by a law firm until January 20, 2021, and worked with Christopher Clark, who Hunter Biden reportedly hired to work on his federal criminal case. This arrangement poses a clear potential conflict.” Grassley said.
Grassley, who has requested a recusal memo for McQuaid, said he could not believe his concerns about the potential conflict have gone unaddressed.
“Here, we’ve got a federal criminal case that implicates the President’s son and the Attorney General won’t even answer Congress as to whether or not an employee of his Department – who has an apparent conflict – is recused from the matter,” according to Grassley. “It certainly looks like the Garland Justice Department is doing all that it can to protect the president’s son.”
Grassley said his staff has made phone calls, arranged meetings, and sent emails that are left unanswered by Garland’s DOJ.
“At my level, I’ve made every effort to get the Attorney General on the phone to discuss my oversight requests,” Grassley said. “It took him two months to get on the phone with me for a one on one call.”
McQuaid is set to be replaced by Kenneth Polite upon confirmation, but Grassley said he will object to unanimous consent in committee because of the DOJ’s refusal to respond to his oversight requests.
“I do so not on the basis of his [Polite’s] credentials,” Grassley said. “I do so as a message to the Attorney General that he needs to improve.”
