U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves is expected to testify Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee about his role in the Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into Hunter Biden’s taxes and firearms possession, a source familiar confirmed to the Daily Caller.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley accused Graves of refusing to partner with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss — the lead prosecutor on the Hunter Biden investigation — for potentially charging Hunter Biden in Graves’ district. Graves’ purported refusal to cooperate allowed the statute of limitations to expire for the younger Biden’s alleged tax offenses from 2014-15, Shapley and IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler testified. (RELATED: First House Impeachment Inquiry Hearing Lays Out Potential Next Steps Of Investigation)
New: The US Attorney for DC, Matt Graves, is scheduled to answer questions from House Judiciary tomorrow about his connection to the Hunter Biden probe. Graves declined to partner with Weiss to bring tax charges against the first son. Story TK
— Betsy Woodruff Swan (@woodruffbets) October 2, 2023
“However, I would later be told by United States Attorney Weiss that the D.C. U.S. Attorney would not allow U.S. Attorney Weiss to charge those years in his district,” Shapley testified to the House Ways and Means Committee in May. “This resulted in United States Attorney Weiss requesting special counsel authority from Main DOJ to charge in the District of Columbia.”
“That process meant no charges would ever be brought in the District of Columbia, where the statute of limitations on the 2014 and ’15 charges would eventually expire,” Shapley added. “The years in question included foreign income from Burisma and a scheme to evade his income taxes through a partnership with a convicted felon. There were also potential FARA issues relating to 2014 and 2015. The purposeful exclusion of the 2014 and 2015 years sanitized the most substantive criminal conduct and concealed material facts.”
Shapley’s attorneys have shared an email and handwritten notes Shapley took from an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting where David Weiss allegedly said he did not have final charging authority and that Graves refused to cooperate with him. Weiss also said in the meeting that the DOJ denied his request for special counsel authority, according to Shapley.
Shapley’s testimony about Graves and Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California E. Martin Estrada allegedly refusing to collaborate with Weiss has been corroborated by an FBI agent on the Hunter Biden case, as well as another IRS official. The New York Times has confirmed Shapley’s allegations that Estrada refused to work with Weiss. Weiss denied Shapley’s accusations in a July letter to Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
President Joe Biden nominated Graves to his position and he was appointed in November 2021, according to his official bio. Graves donated to Joe Biden and worked as an unpaid policy advisor to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign when he was in the private sector.
“I am a member of the Democratic Party. I was a member of the domestic policy committee for the Biden Campaign from May 2020 through the election; that role did not progress beyond receiving periodic email updates from the committee. The role was unpaid,” Graves told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a questionnaire.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before the Judiciary Committee on Sept. 20 and said Graves and Estrada “could refuse to partner” with Weiss on charging Hunter Biden. Garland also said Weiss could have requested additional authority under section 515 and it would have been approved.
Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August to continue investigating the Hunter Biden case. Weiss withdrew Hunter Biden’s two tax misdemeanors in Delaware to potentially charge him in D.C. or the Central District of California following the collapse of Hunter Biden’s guilty plea agreement.
Hunter Biden was indicted Sept. 14 on three counts related to his October 2018 purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver while he was allegedly addicted to crack cocaine. Biden is scheduled to appear in Delaware court Tuesday, where he is expected to plead not guilty to the gun charges.
The House Ways and Means, Judiciary and Oversight Committees continue to investigate the IRS whistleblower allegations alongside House Oversight’s probe into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
Henry Rodgers contributed to this report.