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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, this week, news reports made public a May 2019 subpoena from the Justice Department. That subpoena requested financial records relating to Hunter Biden as part of the Department's criminal investigation into his activities.

Notably, that subpoena also requested records relating to James Biden, Devon Archer, and Eric Schwerin. That subpoena sought records relating to companies that Senator Johnson and I discussed in our Biden report.

If the reports are accurate, this subpoena is yet another stake in the heart of a totally unsubstantiated claim made by the liberal media and Democrats that the Grassley-Johnson report on Biden was Russia disinformation.

Today, I come here to speak about a matter directly related to the recent news--specifically, the Biden Justice Department's failure to answer fundamental questions related to Hunter's criminal investigation.

I have asked serious ethical questions of the Justice Department that the Department so far has refused to answer. In fact, the Department has actually publicly contradicted itself.

Just one example of contradiction: On May 31, 2021, Senator Johnson and I wrote to Attorney General Garland. Our letter noted that Hunter Biden had a close association with Patrick Ho, an individual who is associated with the communist Chinese Government and its intelligence services. Patrick Ho was also charged and convicted of international bribery and money laundering offenses relating to his work for companies connected to that communist regime.

After his arrest, his first call was reportedly to James Biden, President Biden's brother. Hunter Biden reportedly represented Patrick Ho for $1 million.

In our letter, we noted that a Justice Department Federal court filing said DOJ had FISA information on Patrick Ho. Not only did they possess this information, the Department informed the court that they intended to use it to prosecute that person.

Senator Johnson and I asked the Justice Department for that FISA information as well as FISA information for other Chinese nationals linked to Hunter Biden. In response, I quote the Justice Department:

Unfortunately, under the circumstances described in your letter, we aren't in a position to confirm the existence of the information that is sought (if it exists in the Department's possession).

Now, get that--``if it exists in the Department's possession.''

Simply put, that is not a true and accurate statement unless the Department's statement to the Federal court in the Patrick Ho matter wasn't true and accurate.

So, then, as we naturally followed up, on November 15, 2021, we asked Attorney General Garland to explain the discrepancy. No response to this very day.

Both statements can't be true. Either the Department possesses the information or it doesn't possess the information.

So we can legitimately ask Attorney General Garland again: What is your answer?

Now, this doesn't end there with that question. On February 3, 2021, and March 9, 2021, Senator Johnson and I asked Attorney General Garland if Nicholas McQuaid is recused from the Hunter Biden criminal case. Now, this McQuaid works in the Department's Criminal Division but worked with Hunter Biden's criminal attorneys before joining the Department. This poses a clear conflict of interest. Attorney General Garland has refused to answer to this very day.

On June 29, 2021, Senator Johnson and I asked Attorney General Garland whether Susan Hennessey, a National Security Division employee, is recused from the Durham investigation. Before working for the Department, she made negative comments about the Durham investigation.

In Attorney General Garland's July 13, 2021, response letter, he failed to answer our questions. However, at the Senate Judiciary Committee's oversight hearing October 27, 2021, the Attorney General said she ``has nothing whatsoever to do with the Durham investigation.''

Although this statement doesn't fully answer our questions, such as whether she has been formally recused from the matter, it is more than what we were provided in the Department's letter response.

Likewise, the Justice Department said that Margaret Goodlander ``has no role in Mr. Durham's investigation.'' She is married to Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. Sullivan worked for the Clinton Presidential campaign. While there, he peddled the false Alfa- Bank story about the Trump Organization having a secret back channel to this Russian bank. Those false allegations were reviewed as part of Crossfire Hurricane.

Now, with all that said, let's take stock of where we are. On the one hand, Attorney General Garland has publicly said Susan Hennessey and Margaret Goodlander have no roles in the Durham investigation. On the other hand, Attorney General Garland refuses to say the same for McQuaid and the Hunter Biden criminal investigation.

So we can really ask, ``Why is it that way? Why won't the Attorney General say that McQuaid has no role in the criminal case involving the President's son?'' because this is a fundamental ethical question.

Our letters have provided Attorney General Garland the opportunity to hit the ball right out of the park. Instead, he doesn't even try to make a swing.

What is the Biden Justice Department hiding? This blatantly inconsistent treatment has cast a cloud over Hunter Biden's criminal case.

Just imagine if this fact pattern had evolved between President Trump and his sons. The media would have gone nuts over it. You wouldn't hear the end of it--also from my Democratic colleagues here in the Senate. Yet not a sound from them, not a peep.

The American people are rightly skeptical of how the Justice Department is handling the Hunter Biden criminal investigation. And the secrecy and the lack of public transparency will only increase the skepticism that the American people have.

So I and Senator Johnson won't stop doing good government oversight on this issue. The American people deserve answers, one way or another.

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