Any pressure by Joe Biden to stop prosecutors from investigating the Obama administration’s probe of the Trump campaign and his son’s foreign business deals could force the need for a special counsel, says constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley.
Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill of “rumors” that U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is leading the criminal investigation of Operation Crossfire Hurricane, “holds material undisclosed by the special counsel or the inspector general.” He was referring to Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz and former special counsel Robert Mueller, who found no Russia-Trump campaign criminal conspiracy.
Turley pointed out that Biden could shut down any investigation related to his son despite “evidence of an influence peddling scheme by him and his uncle James Biden.” Emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, “which the family has not denied are authentic, contradict claims by Joe Biden,” Turley noted.
“A former business associate also gave the investigators his sworn statement that not only was this a clear influence peddling scheme but Joe Biden knew of and was involved in it,” he wrote.
“The laptop was part of a money laundering investigation which included Hunter Biden that could implicate the president elect if the findings turn out true. There is more danger to prosecutors as the next administration can rely on the media. The only people more embarrassed by allegations of criminal conduct in the Hunter Biden scandal would be journalists who have assured the public that there is nothing here. If these investigations move ahead with perhaps criminal charges tied to Joe Biden or his family, the attorney general may have to establish the special counsel,” said Turley
He pointed out that when Trump entered office, Democrats “demanded the special counsel on less evidence, even before the firing of James Comey.”
“It turned out there was no collusion. There is relatively more evidence of the involvement of Joe Biden, including statements made under threat of prosecution, which shows why developments in the next few weeks will be interesting,” he wrote. “These prosecutors could set the investigations into the amber of the lame duck as insurance against interference from the next administration.”
“That may force the issue on the need for a new special counsel if criminal conduct is further revealed by indictments or filings. … If there is evidence of criminal conduct in any of these investigations, time does not wait for prosecutors.”
Time could be running out
Turley noted that Biden’s knowledge of how the Obama administration probes into Trump’s allies developed would be a reason to try to shut down Durham’s investigation.
“The obvious concern is that the Justice Department under Biden might scuttle or shut down pending investigations. Democrats in Congress have denounced the examination of the discredited Russia collusion case as a political ‘hit job’ and could justify closing it as a promised reform in the next administration,” Turley wrote.
Last month, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer asked federal officials to resist pressure to look into the Hunter Biden scandal. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff also denounced the Durham investigation as tainted and political.
On the campaign trail, Biden dismissed the Durham probe as an “investigation of the investigators.” And Turley noted that in a hearing on the Russia investigation, Democrats such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., likely on the short list for the next attorney general, criticized the investigations.
“If prosecutors are concerned about such intervention, they may have to move in the next two months,” the professor wrote.
Biden has obvious reasons for wanting those investigations shut down, he said.
“Disclosures contradicted his denials that he knew of or was involved in the investigation of figures like Michael Flynn. The disclosures indicated Biden may have sought to ‘unmask’ him in surveillance filings. Further, there are accounts from the Oval Office that Biden was briefed on the investigation of Flynn, which federal officials sought to end for a lack of evidence of any crime. Biden is also said to have raised the possibility of prosecuting Flynn under the Logan Act, a federal law viewed as unconstitutional,” he wrote.
During a presidential debate, Trump confronted Biden over the millions of dollars his son was getting from Russia, China, Ukraine and other nations. He cited an email showing money was to be set aside for “the big guy,” which a former partner of his son has identified as Joe Biden.
“I think you owe an explanation to the American people,” the president told Biden. “Maybe you can do it now.”
Biden claimed: “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source in my life. I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever ever.”
Biden denied there was anything wrong with his son getting paid a total of $3.1 million from Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company, despite having no experience in the industry.
The deal was made while Joe Biden was vice president and responsible for Ukraine policy. Even at the time, State Department officials raised concern about an apparent conflict of interest appearance because Burisma was under investigation for corruption.
Joe Biden later boasted of threating to withhold American aid if Ukraine’s president didn’t fire the prosecutor who at the time was investigating Burisma.
See video of Joe Biden recounting his successful effort to have Ukraine’s top prosecutor fired:
Trump’s campaign has pointed out the evidence that Hunter Biden’s firm got $3.5 million from Russian billionaire Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow; that Hunter Biden also opened a joint bank account with a Chinese national linked to the communist government; and while “Joe Biden advocated for legislation favored by big banks that made it harder for struggling Americans to declare bankruptcy, Biden’s son Hunter was ‘earning’ hundreds of thousands of dollars in ‘consultant fees’ from one of those banks, MBNA.”
