WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday he has appointed a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, deepening the investigation of the president's son ahead of the 2024 election.
Garland said he was naming David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who has been probing the financial and business dealings of President Joe Biden's son, as the special counsel. It comes as plea deal talks in Hunter Biden's case hit an impasse.
The attorney general noted the “extraordinary circumstances” of the matter in making the announcement at the Justice Department.
Garland said that Weiss asked to be appointed to the position and told him that “in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel."
“Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Garland said.
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Hunter Biden’s attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Friday.
The announcement of a special counsel is a momentous development from the typically cautious Garland and comes amid a pair of sweeping Justice Department probes into former President Donald Trump, who's Joe Biden's chief rival in next year's election.
It also comes as House Republicans are mounting their own investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The Republicans are struggling to connect the son's work to his father, and so far they have not been able to produce evidence to show any wrongdoing.
Justice officials did not explain what prompted the sudden move after years of investigating Hunter Biden, who used drugs and whose personal entanglements have trailed his father's political career.
Legal proceedings are dramatically shaping the 2024 presidential race in an unprecedented way. Garland has now named special counsels to investigate Trump's handling of classified records and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as well as Friday's announcement into Biden's son.
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Photos: Hunter Biden through the years
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) holds his daughter Ashley while taking a mock oath of office from Vice President George Bush during a ceremony on Capitol Hill, Jan. 3, 1985. Biden's sons Beau and Hunter hold the bible during the ceremony. (AP Photo/Lana Harris)
FILE - In this March 24, 1988, file photo, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., wearing a University of Delaware baseball cap, leaves Walter Reed Army Hospital accompanied by his son Hunter Biden in Washington. Biden had been in the hospital for 11 days so that surgeons could implant a small umbrella-like filter in a vein to prevent blood clots from reaching his lungs. (AP Photo/Adele Starr, File)
Hunter Biden, right, and his stepmother Jill Biden on stage after the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)
Vice President-elect, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., left, stands with his son Hunter during a re-enactment of the Senate oath ceremony, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Vice President Joe Biden with his son Hunter Biden, right, react to the crowd as they participate in the Inaugural Parade in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2010, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden, left, with his son Hunter, right, at the Duke Georgetown NCAA college basketball game in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2012, file photo, Hunter Biden waits for the start of the his father's, Vice President Joe Biden's, debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Family members gather for a road naming ceremony with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, center, his son Hunter Biden, left, and his sister Valerie Biden Owens, right, joined by other family members during a ceremony to name a national road after his late son Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, in the village of Sojevo, Kosovo, on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. President Joe Biden is the guest of honor during the street dedication ceremony naming the national road Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III.AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
President-elect Joe Biden, right, embraces his son Hunter Biden, left, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
President Joe Biden hugs first lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter Biden and daughter Ashley Biden after being sworn-in during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Beau Biden, right, son of Hunter Biden, second from right, holds a branch from the official 2021 White House Christmas Tree that was given to him by first lady Jill Biden, left, at the White House, Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, in Washington. This year's tree is an 18.5-foot Fraser fir presented by Rusty and Beau Estes of Peak Farms in Jefferson, N.C. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
President Joe Biden, third from left, watches as his son Hunter Biden follows his grandson Beau Biden as the family leave St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021. Today is the anniversary of Neilia and Naomi Biden's death. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
