"Face the Nation," August 13, 2023

Interview

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Thank you.

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Yes.

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Well, obviously, there are concerns. You know, one, like Catherine Herridge (ph), I also looked at the appointment. And the appointment seems more narrow than what Bill Barr had given him. The -- Attorney General Barr.

The -- this says that it's limited to the case that - that was brought before him initially. That that's the scope, instead of all of the matters related to unpaid taxes.

The concern here, obviously, with - with Barr being special counsel -- excuse me, Weiss being special counsel, is that he was the one that allowed the statute of limitations to expire on some very critical felony charges that could have been brought against Hunter Biden.

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The IRS whistleblower said that it was - that interference from the Department of Justice. There's some question as to whether or not it's prosecutorial misconduct. But it - it certainly could be, you know, prosecutorial malpractice.

In any event, when you - when you've been given the charge to handle claims of - of such explosive nature and allow the statute of limitations to expire, resulting in, you know, Hunter Biden has in his pocket $125,000 worth of taxes that were owed to the United States that, as a result of these being expired, remain in his pocket.

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Well, I -- it's not conspiracy. That's an actual - that actually occurred, that those --

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I think those are questions that he has to answer.

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And why did this occur? The IRS whistleblowers said that it was interference from the Department of Justice that allowed them to expire. Now, the prosecutor, Weiss, had been working with Hunter Biden and his attorney and actually getting waivers from -- for those statutes of limitations period, and he stopped getting the waivers. So, he certainly was knowledgeable, aware that it was going to be inspiring, and then something occurred where he allowed those to expire.

But, you know, also his appointment is coming right on the heels of James Comer's release of bank records that indicate that we're now up to $20 million worth of funds that came from foreign sources.

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But there are actual bank - they are actual bank records.

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These are not - no, the bank records are right up -

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The - the bank records are right on the website of the House Oversight Committee, over $20 million released August 9th that went to Hunter Biden, his family, and business associates that come from China, Russia.

You know, as the chairman of the Armed -

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As chairman of the Intelligence Committee, serving on the Armed Services Committee, this is a great concern because you have foreign individuals that are making payments to the son of the vice president, now son of the president -

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And - and, obviously, they're buying something.

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They weren't buying his business advice. They were buying influence.

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Well, he's representing Hunter Biden because he's in court for crimes.

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Well, no, I think what he just did was actually very political. He's not in court when he's on your show.

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I would love you (ph) to ask about it.

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Well, we - we haven't really been briefed. And that's certainly the concern. The - what --

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At this -- at this point we have not received the - the - the terms of the deal or even what the - the proposed deal is. The administration has signaled that the release of these detainees is part of a broader negotiation with respect to reinstating some controls on the nuclear weapons and - and enrichment programs of Iran dating back to the JCPOA. And the concern is that -- "New York Times" has reported is that the administration may be pursuing an informal deal as opposed to the formal deal that we had before that had congressional oversight.

And what we don't want -- obviously everybody wants the detainees to come home and - and hostages to come home. We want the administration to work diligently to bring American home - Americans home, whether they're in Iran, or Russia, or elsewhere. And our hearts certainly go out for them.

But in this instance, the administration is signaling, if this is part of a broader deal concerning Iran's enrichment program. And if that becomes a secret deal, then that's obviously a great concern to - to Congress.

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Well, I think -

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No, what -

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What we need -

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Well, actually, there's -- there's no real reports of anything being reduced. They're currently at 60 percent enrichment prior - prior --

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They were at 3.5 - they were at 3.5 percent in the JCPOA.

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They're at 60 percent. They had one-year breakout with the -- in getting to the enrichment level that could result in a weapon. They're now weeks away.

Freezing them now, where before in the JCPOA agreement they actually surrendered some of the enrichment that they had had that was over the levels that were sought.

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In this, if we just have a deal that freezes where Iran is, and really without the understanding of all aspects of their program because they had thrown out the U.N. inspectors from the IEA, they had removed the cameras from sites, we really don't have the fidelity of understanding of where they are and what they're doing at this point.

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Absolutely.

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And certainly in negotiations I think, as they're going forward, are -- are - are certainly critical. But the terms of the deal are absolutely important because, you know, last time we had an insufficient inspection regime. We had terms that were critical that expired. In this instance they appear to be careening toward a deal that would be informal, not subject to congressional oversight, because we wouldn't know all the terms. You know, on the last deal that actually came before Congress for a vote, they had to disclose what the deals were.

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Right. And at this point -

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What we're concerned about is, we don't want a secret deal with Iran.

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I think it's - it's some -- it should be certainly considered. I think the - I know you're going to have, coming up, one of the family members of one of the detainees. And - and I think her message is incredibly important. People should not be going to Iran.

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Thank you.

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