U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves has denied he has a conflict of interest in the ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden.
On October 3, he went before the House Judiciary Committee to explain that he had donated money to the Biden campaign and served on an unpaid committee. Graves took time off from college to work for one of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, and he later worked for a legal firm that supported John Kerry’s 2004 Democratic presidential campaign.
President Biden nominated Graves, and the Senate unanimously approved him in October 2021. He assumed office in November 2021. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) database shows that he gave money to Joe Biden for president in 2020 while in the private sector. During his nomination process for U.S. Attorney in D.C., he discussed his work on the Biden campaign and his support for the Democratic party in a questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In September, Gary Shapley, an IRS whistleblower, accused the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, E. Martin Estrada, of refusing to work with the U.S. Attorney for the State of Delaware, David Weiss, on potentially pursuing Hunter Biden. Graves and Biden chose Estrada.
As Shapley had testified, the New York Times verified independently that Estrada did not want to help Weiss. Graves and Estrada turned down the opportunity to join with Weiss in prosecuting Hunter Biden, according to testimony from an FBI agent and an IRS official who collaborated with Shapley.
Before the House Judiciary Committee in September, Attorney General Merrick Garland told panel members that the U.S. Attorneys “may refuse to partner” with Weiss on the Hunter Biden case. In a letter to Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham in July, Weiss refuted Shapley’s charges and stated he was never barred from charging Hunter Biden in any jurisdiction.
In August, Weiss filed a motion to have the two tax crimes against Hunter Biden in Delaware dropped so that he could be charged in either the District of Columbia or the Central District of California. Judge Maryellen Noreika of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware agreed with Weiss and dismissed the tax allegations against Biden. Hunter Biden is taking the Internal Revenue Service to court over what he claims were improper disclosures made by agents Shapley and Ziegler.
