Was appointing a Hunter Biden special counsel the right thing to do?

Attorney General Merrick Garland has named Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case after a plea deal with the president's son fell apart. Hunter Biden unexpectedly pleaded not guilty to tax and gun charges after a judge objected to the terms of his agreement with prosecutors, which would have allowed him to avoid jail time in exchange for guilty pleas and granted him broad immunity from future charges. Weiss' office now says negotiations on reviving the plea deal are at an impasse.

Hunter Biden's lawyers on Sunday accused Weiss of reneging on a key part of the deal — his agreement to participate in a diversion program for gun offenders. The allegation was the latest sign of an escalating dispute over Hunter Biden's finances and personal life that "Republicans have made a central prong in their attacks on President Biden," according to The New York Times.

Despite the clash between Hunter Biden's legal team and Weiss' office, many Republicans are complaining about Garland's appointment of Weiss, whom then-President Donald Trump appointed to investigate Hunter Biden in 2018. Russell Dye, a spokesperson for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), said Garland had chosen Weiss "to whitewash the Biden family's corruption." But the Justice Department says this is all about transparency and ensuring a fair investigation. Is Hunter Biden being treated fairly, or is he being singled out for special treatment?

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Garland is trying to sweep this under the rug

Garland isn't getting tough with Hunter Biden by naming a special counsel, said Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. He and Weiss "desperately want to bury this matter as quietly as possible" by salvaging Hunter Biden's sweetheart plea deal. Their goal is to keep the president's son out of prison "and quash any more efforts to pry open the Bidens' bank records." Weiss didn't renege on the deal as Biden's lawyers claim. The House Oversight Committee raised "a stink" about it, and a judge rejected it. Weiss and Garland want to make "a dressed-up version of the old plea deal more credible." Weiss is hinting at a change of venue, which means the plan is to try again with a more sympathetic judge.

Weiss has already shown he's not seriously investigating the Bidens, said the National Review in an editorial. IRS whistleblowers have testified to Congress about the slow-walking of the investigation, "on Weiss' watch." Weiss has already spent five years on the Hunter Biden case and all he has to show for it is a "highly irregular, extremely generous plea agreement" that would have let Hunter Biden off with "a couple of misdemeanor tax charges." That "blew up on its first contact with a judge," sending Garland back to the drawing board. He picked Weiss because he can trust him to "make a politically inconvenient case go away" while the "statute of limitations has begun to lapse on a crucial period of Hunter's overseas 'work.'"

Garland is doing the right thing

It's hard to argue that Garland is going easy on the Bidens, said the Houston Chronicle in an editorial. In January, the attorney general appointed a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden's mishandling of classified documents, and now he's assigning Weiss to "continue probing Hunter Biden's drug use, taxes and foreign business dealings." Garland is showing the kind of independence the nation needs from an attorney general. That "firewall between politics and justice can sometimes have drastic consequences, such as when FBI Director James Comey announced an investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton weeks before the 2016 general election." And the Hunter Biden investigation might have a "similar drag" on his father's reelection prospects. But boosting Joe Biden's campaign isn't Garland's job. "Prosecuting Hunter Biden for alleged federal crimes is."

Appointing a special counsel "was the right move," said The Washington Post's editorial. It shows the public "that the process will be independent and transparent and, therefore, that it is more likely to be fair." That's crucial now that the original plea agreement has fallen apart under a judge's "scrutiny," justifying complaints that it might have "given special treatment" to the president's son. The IRS whistleblowers' complaints revealed "political sensitivities" that justify granting Weiss "the formal independence that comes with being a special counsel." The goal in this case should be to "treat Hunter Biden, as far as possible, like any other defendant" — not tougher or more gently than anybody else. As a special counsel, Weiss will have "all the independence and resources he needs" to do just that.