A top FBI agent on the Hunter Biden case offered contradictory answers during an interview with the House Judiciary Committee last week about whether Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, before his appointment as special counsel, could charge the president’s son anywhere he wanted.

The closed-door interview of FBI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Sobocinski raised eyebrows this week when reporting on a leaked transcript of his testimony suggested Sobocinski had refuted a key element of allegations made by two IRS whistleblowers: that Weiss had described to his investigative team last year a pattern of obstruction by the Justice Department.

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Sobocinski indeed said he did not recall Weiss telling investigators during the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting in question that he was not ultimately the deciding authority on where and whether to bring charges against Biden.

But the FBI agent admitted that Weiss had to request the cooperation of U.S. attorneys appointed by President Joe Biden to advance his case, and he refused to answer questions about when and how Weiss approached other U.S. attorneys in search of prosecution agreements that never materialized.

“It is my understanding, based upon the U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecutors making that determination, that Delaware was not the appropriate venue,” Sobocinski told the House Judiciary Committee in his interview on Thursday, according to a transcript obtained by the Washington Examiner. “They were actively exploring other locations.”

Sobocinski noted that “there was a process within the Department of Justice that [Weiss] would have to go through to bring charges outside of his assigned district, which was Delaware,” as the two IRS whistleblowers said in their testimony this spring.

“There were steps that he was going to have to take with — originating in districts he was looking to explore,” Sobocinski said of the process. “I think I mentioned earlier, he goes to that district. He asks if they want to join with them. I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know what the reasons for and against are. But that’s what happens. Then, if they agree, then I think it’s a joint case.”

“But if they don’t, then it goes back to the department,” he added. “The department can then give them some type of status that allows them to bring this case in other venues.”

That Weiss had to seek the approval of U.S. attorneys who could reject his requests appears to contradict the Justice Department’s position that Weiss had ultimate authority to pursue charges against Hunter Biden since the beginning of the case in 2018.

Weiss’s appointment as a special counsel last month also appears to contradict that position, as the appointment would have been unnecessary had Weiss faced no roadblocks.

Asked, hours into his interview, about the contradictory nature of his claims about Weiss’s authority, Sobocinski blamed “semantics and word choice.” He argued that Weiss’s inability to bring charges outside Delaware without navigating an approvals process did not mean that the Justice Department had lied about him having ultimate charging authority.

The transcript emerged hours after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced the beginning of an impeachment inquiry that Democrats have decried as illegitimate.

GOP lawmakers say the inquiry is necessary because the Biden administration has refused to answer most of congressional investigators’ questions.

Sobocinski’s ability to answer questions during his Thursday interview was significantly limited; he was authorized by the Justice Department only to share that he did not remember Weiss claiming he lacked ultimate charging authority at the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting.

Beyond that, the FBI agent declined to answer questions about virtually anything else related to the case, citing the open investigation.

The Justice Department had earlier this month rejected the subpoenas that House Republicans issued to compel depositions for Sobocinski and Ryeshia Holley, another agent at the FBI’s Baltimore field office. Per House rules, Sobocinski and Holley could not have brought Justice Department attorneys into a deposition.

Instead, Sobocisnki provided his account in a transcribed interview setting, which allowed Biden administration lawyers to accompany him. The lawyers objected to many questions that explored topics outside of the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting.

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Sobocinski confirmed that his FBI team at the Baltimore field office, which worked on the Hunter Biden investigation before Weiss’s appointment as special counsel, continues to participate in the case now.

Weiss said in court filings earlier this month that he intends to charge Hunter Biden with at least a gun violation by Sept. 29.