Attorney general nominee Merrick Garland said Monday that he has not discussed a Justice Department investigation involving Hunter Biden with President Biden or other members of the administration.
“I have not. The president made abundantly clear in every public statement … that decisions about investigation and prosecutions will be left to the Justice Department,” Garland said during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in response to a question from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
“That was the reason that I was willing to take on this job. So the answer to your question is no,” Garland added.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware is handling a tax probe into Hunter Biden, who announced late last year that he was under investigation.
CNN reported earlier this month that the Biden administration had asked Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys to resign, but left Weiss and U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is probing the origins of the Russia investigation, in place.
Hunter Biden was targeted by former President Trump during the primary and general election campaigns over his foreign business dealings. He served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company when Joe Biden served as vice president under the Obama administration.
Hunter Biden said in an ABC News interview last year that he used “poor judgment” when he decided to take the role, but said he did nothing improper.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in 2019 for pressing Ukraine’s president to investigate the Bidens’ affairs and was later acquitted in his Senate trial.