Biden won't ask his attorney general candidates about potential investigations into his son, Hunter
- President-elect Joe Biden has not yet selected his nominee for attorney general but will not ask candidates for the position about their plans surrounding any investigations into his son, Hunter, incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday on Fox News.
- When Attorney General Bill Barr leaves the White House this week, he will be replaced for the remainder of Trump's term by Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.
- According to a previous report from the Associated Press, Trump has floated the idea of firing Rosen should he refuse to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden.
- Rosen has previously declined to comment whether or not he's interested in pursuing an investigation into the president-elect's son.
President-elect Joe Biden has not yet selected the person he will nominate to serve as attorney general in his administration, but he will not ask candidates about their intent to investigate his son, Hunter Biden, incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday.
"He will not be discussing an investigation of his son with any attorney general candidates," Psaki told Chris Wallace during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday. "He will not be discussing it with anyone he is considering for the role and he will not be discussing it with a future attorney general."
She added: "It will be up to the purview of an attorney general in his administration to determine how to handle any investigation. As you know, U.S. attorneys, that's a personnel decision, we're far from there at this point in the process."
Biden has already announced a number of appointees to his administration, including people he hopes will fill high-level positions like Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense. Biden cannot officially make any nominations until after he is inaugurated in January and his nominees will also need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Biden has also named a number of other officials who will work in his administration. At a press conference Saturday, the president-elect named a team of individuals leading his administration's charge against climate change.
Throughout his failed bid for re-election, Trump and his allies attempted to undermine Biden by targeting his son, 50-year-old Hunter, leveraging theories and conspiracies against him, many relating to his work with the Ukrainian oil company Burisma.
Earlier in December, the president-elect's son announced that his "tax affairs" were the focus of a federal criminal investigation, further raising questions about his father's intent to take a hands-off approach to the dealings of the US Department of Justice. The investigation reportedly stemmed from a 2018 money-laundering investigation, The New York Times previously reported.
More recently, Trump has reportedly expressed interest in pressuring the attorney general to nominate a special counsel to investigate the president-elect's son. On December 14, Trump announced that Attorney General William Barr would resign from his position, which he has held since 2019, on December 23. During Trump's final weeks in office, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen will serve as acting attorney general.
Barr reportedly knew about the criminal investigations into Hunter Biden's financial dealings prior to the November election but kept them from the public, reportedly drawing ire from the president.
Last week, The Associated Press reported that Trump would consider firing Rosen if he did not announce special counsel investigations into the president-elect's son relating to his taxes and Trump's baseless allegations over voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Rosen on Wednesday declined to stay publicly whether he will appoint a special counsel to investigate the president-elect's son, saying he would continue "to do things on the merits and to do things on the basis of the law and the facts."