House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., on Wednesday said it is "not a coincidence" Special Counsel Jack Smith is targeting former President Donald Trump the same week two IRS whistleblowers will testify before Congress with allegations the Justice Department improperly interfered with a years-long Hunter Biden investigation.
During the House GOP leadership's press conference following Israeli President Isaac Herzog's address before Congress, a reporter asked Stefanik if she had spoken to Trump since he announced he received a letter from Smith informing him he is a target of a Jan. 6 grand jury Investigation.
"I have spoken with President Trump. I spoke with him yesterday," Stefanik, the fourth-ranking House Republican, said. "I speak with President Trump on a weekly basis, give or take. And this is yet another example of the illegal weaponization of the Department of Justice to go after Joe Biden's top political opponent.
"And it is not a coincidence that the same week that House Republicans are having a very important oversight hearing to hear from two credible IRS whistleblowers about the politicization of the Department of Justice when it came to the investigation of Hunter Biden, that this is the same week that a political arm of the Joe Biden campaign in Jack Smith goes after the top leading opponent.
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"So, we condemn the weaponization of the Department of Justice, and we will continue to work out the rot in these agencies — the politicization in these agencies. And I hope all of you in the press will focus on, again, the oversight and investigative work that House Republicans have led that have led to the realization that the Department of Justice politicized the investigation of Hunter Biden, as well as the egregious and, I believe, criminal entities of the multiple LLCs of foreign dollars flow to the Biden family while Joe Biden was vice president.
"So, yes, I spoke to President Trump," Stefanik added, garnering some applause.
Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees are leading a hearing Wednesday afternoon with two IRS employees — Greg Shapley and initially unnamed "Whistleblower X" — who claim there was a pattern of "slow-walking investigative steps" into Hunter Biden, including delayed enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election.
At the start of the hearing, Whistleblower X was identified as IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler.
It is the first public testimony from the two IRS agents assigned to the federal case into President Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, which was focused on tax and gun charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
