WASHINGTON — The FBI agent who oversaw the agency’s investigation into Hunter Biden disputed a claim by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley that the Justice Department gave preferential treatment to President Joe Biden’s son, according to a transcript of an interview obtained by NBC News.
In an interview Sept. 7 with the House Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, Thomas Sobocinski rebutted Shapley’s claim that U.S. Attorney David Weiss had said he was not the deciding person on whether to bring charges in the case.
After an Oct. 7 meeting with Weiss’ team and investigators from the FBI and the IRS working on the case, Shapley prepared an email of notes that stated that Weiss said he was “not the deciding person on whether charges are filed.” That claim has been central to the House GOP’s scrutiny of Weiss’ investigation.
Sobocinski, who oversaw the FBI’s work on the investigation when he became the special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office in July 2021, said he did not remember Weiss making that statement.
“I was consistently aware that David Weiss had the authority in the U.S. to bring the charges where venue presented itself,” Sobocinski said. “The minute I got there in July of ’21, it was always the understanding and the communication between David Weiss and myself is that he had that authority to bring it on behalf of the Department.”
Later, he added, “In my recollection, if he would have said that, I would have remembered it.”
In response to news reports about Sobocinski’s remarks, Shapley’s lawyers sent a letter to Jordan and other top lawmakers on the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees Wednesday saying their client’s contemporaneous notes during the Oct. 7 meeting corroborated his account. The lawyers i
