Ex-Hunter Biden prosecutor refused to answer most questions in interview, Jordan says

A prosecutor who had a heavy hand in building the Department of Justice’s case against Hunter Biden would not answer most of lawmakers’ questions during a closed-door interview with Congress on Thursday, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).

Lesley Wolf, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Delaware, “refused to answer … just about every question,” Jordan told reporters after emerging from the interview.

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Wolf became a key figure for the committee this spring after two IRS criminal investigators assigned to the DOJ’s Biden case testified that she repeatedly hindered their investigative efforts, including by giving defense attorneys a heads-up about a search warrant and prohibiting investigators from following a lead about a possible campaign finance violation.

(Washington Examiner/Ashley Oliver)

The whistleblowers’ concerns first surfaced anonymously in mid-April through one of their lawyers. However, on June 22, the House Ways and Means Committee released transcripts of lengthy interviews it had conducted with the pair, during which they revealed in-depth detail about their frustrations, blaming Wolf and several others involved in the case.

Around that same time, in May and June, Wolf was handling the bulk of the communication with Biden’s defense team behind the scenes about reaching a potential deal that involved no charges against the first son, according to court records.

The DOJ had been investigating Biden for alleged tax crimes since 2019, and Wolf served as a prosecutor on the case for most of that time, working under David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware who later became special counsel.

The court records, testimony from a senior IRS official, and a New York Times report indicate that Wolf stepped back from the case in mid-June after Weiss decided to change course and move forward with since-withdrawn misdemeanor charges in Delaware. The records also indicate that at the same time that Wolf’s role was scaled back, another assistant U.S. attorney, Leo Wise, became more involved with the case.

Wise has been making court appearances on behalf of Weiss since that time.

Wolf recently resigned from the DOJ, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One said she resigned a “few weeks ago.” Another said she had “long-standing plans” to leave that predated the whistleblowers coming forward with accusations about her.

Her appearance on Thursday before the committee came after Republicans subpoenaed her in November. At the time, she was already planning to leave DOJ, but the department, which has a long-standing position precluding the disclosure of nonpublic information about open investigations, still had a stake in her interview despite her imminent resignation and placed conditions on what she could address.

She was accompanied by a personal lawyer during the interview, but Jordan said Wolf’s refusal to answer questions during the interview was “based on instructions [Wolf] was given from the Justice Department.”

Appearing frustrated, Jordan also said the committee “may need to talk to her again.”

Weiss, for his part, told the committee during his own testimony in November that he did not believe Wolf was biased, but he declined to discuss the specific accusations the whistleblowers had made against her because that was not within the agreed-upon scope of his testimony.

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“Lesley Wolf has been a dedicated public servant for more than 16 years. I believe she is an excellent lawyer and is a person of integrity,” Weiss said.

A spokesperson for committee Democrats did not respond to a request for comment about Wolf’s interview.