WASHINGTON — A former federal prosecutor told lawmakers Thursday that she has been receiving threats since Republicans accused her of coddling the president’s son Hunter Biden.
“I have been threatened and harassed, causing me to fear for my own and my family’s safety,” former Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf told House members during a closed-door deposition.
“I have no doubt that after today the threats and harassment and my own fear stemming from them will heighten exponentially. This not only scares me, but as someone who loves this country, it also breaks my heart,” Wolf said in an opening statement. “We are living in a day and age where politics and winning seem to be paramount and the truth has become collateral damage.”
Republicans demanded the interview as part of their impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. They have accused him of participating in Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals and claimed that the Justice Department has gone easy on his son over unpaid taxes and other alleged crimes.
In recent years, Republicans have had a way of exposing obscure government workers to threats and harassment. Rudy Giuliani, previously an attorney for former President Donald Trump, is currently on trial for defaming two Georgia election workers who said his and Trump’s false voter fraud allegations in 2020 resulted in a deluge of threats that disrupted their lives.
Hunter Biden has been under investigation since 2018, and has been the subject of intense political attention since Trump falsely accused his father of having used the vice presidency in 2015 and 2016 to benefit a Ukrainian gas company that paid the younger Biden millions.
Prosecutors initially sought a plea deal with Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges earlier this year, but the two sides disagreed over the scope of immunity that he would receive from future prosecution. He has since been charged with felonies for alleged tax evasion and illegal gun ownership.
Despite the fact that he faces years in prison if convicted, Republicans have insisted that Hunter Biden has gotten preferential treatment from the Justice Department, especially compared with Trump, who faces federal charges over the attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the hoarding of government documents.
Whistleblowers from the IRS’ criminal division claimed in congressional testimony this year that Wolf blocked them from pursuing certain search warrants and generally disagreed with their plans to be more aggressive in investigating the Biden family.
“She limited what they could do in their investigation,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of the leaders of the impeachment effort, said on Fox News in June, shortly before requesting a transcribed interview with Wolf and other officials. Jordan subsequently sent Wolf a subpoena.
On Thursday, Wolf joined the ranks of other Justice Department officials who’ve said that politics had nothing to do with their decisions in the Hunter Biden case. She alluded to criticism of the Biden investigation, saying she followed the law with respect to “politically sensitive investigations, election year sensitivities, attorney search warrants, search warrant filter requirements, and professional conduct rules barring contact with represented parties.”
Wolf said in her opening statement that she would not be able to answer most questions from Republicans drilling into details about the case, citing Justice Department policy. She revealed that she had recently left the department, but said her departure had nothing to do with the work. She would have left sooner but stayed “because of my belief that my family and I were safer while I remained an [assistant U.S. attorney].”
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), who attended the deposition, said that Republicans peppered Wolf with questions about the Hunter Biden case for hours even though she wasn’t responding in a substantive way.
“They kept showing her documents and things that they knew that she couldn’t comment on, asking her questions about the ongoing investigation, even though they knew she couldn’t comment on it,” Ivey told HuffPost.
Ivey said he did not believe that Republicans deliberately incited harassment against Wolf, but he said it was “irresponsible” for lawmakers to be putting people’s names out in the public to the extent that they have.
“They know at this point that when they put people’s names out there and connect them in these types of investigations, and make suggestions about them being involved in cover-ups and things like that, they know that this is going to be a consequence of that,” Ivey said.