CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Thursday that Attorney General Merrick Garland “struggled” at Wednesday’s hearing and left many questions about Hunter Biden unanswered.
Garland testified before the House Judiciary Committee at an hours-long hearing on DOJ oversight.
CNN’s Phil Mattingly asked Honig if anything “new stood out” during the hearing.
“So Merrick Garland struggled with this,” Honig responded. “I think there was more questions than answers provided yesterday about the Hunter Biden prosecution. The one thing Merrick Garland did stress is that the person running this case is David Weiss, who was a U.S. attorney and has now become a special counsel. As Merrick Garland stressed several times, [Weiss] was nominated by Donald Trump and Merrick Garland stressed that I, Merrick Garland, the attorney general, have not had direct involvement in this case.” (RELATED: Here Are The Biggest Takeaways From Merrick Garland’s Testimony About The Hunter Biden Case)
Although Trump did nominate Weiss, the former president has claimed that Weiss was actually “picked by the two Democrat Senators from Delaware” under a longstanding precedent known as senatorial courtesy.
“There are certain questions, important questions, that remain,” Honig continued. “Why was David Weiss made special counsel five years into the investigation? What necessitated that and why was DOJ willing to go into court about two months ago and take a plea to a misdemeanor for probation? That clearly has changed now. Those questions linger.”
Honig said he expects Republicans like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan to possibly subpoena the DOJ if they’re not provided answers. Honig added that the Justice Department will likely defy the subpoenas and that the House may hold the department or Garland himself in contempt of Congress.
Garland declined to answer a question about the topic of his discussion with Special Counsel David Weiss and stumbled over himself when he was asked about his contacts with the FBI headquarters in regards to the Hunter Biden investigation.