The Department of Justice prevented a former federal prosecutor from answering questions about the case involving Hunter Biden before a House panel, according to multiple reports.
Former Assistant Delaware U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, who worked on the DOJ's case against the first son, last week refused to answer nearly every question from members of the House Judiciary Committee.
Wolf, sitting alongside her personal lawyers during a closed-door interview, told panel members that the DOJ had "significantly constrained" her in terms of what she could discuss, the Washington Examiner reported.
The New York Post reported that Wolf testified 79 times to Congress that she was "not authorized" by the DOJ to answer questions about the case.
"My voluntary appearance here today is not without an overwhelming feeling of frustration and disappointment because as much as I would invite the opportunity to explain the decisions made and accurately describe the actions taken, I will not be permitted to answer most of the questions you have for me," Wolf said at the start of her testimony, according to a transcript reviewed by the Examiner.
The Post previously reported Wolf had been subpoenaed to appear before the committee chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, because IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said she stymied, blocked, or slow-walked no fewer than four investigations of corruption allegations involving President Joe Biden.
During her testimony before the Judiciary Committee, Wolf revealed she longer worked at the department.
The Examiner verified that Wolf had received lengthy written instructions from the DOJ, which told her that she, even as a former employee, was expected not to disclose nonpublic information about the probe and prosecution of Hunter Biden.
Internal policies and a statute governing the disclosure of grand jury-related material were the reasons cited by the DOJ for Wolf to remain quiet.
The DOJ repeatedly said senior officials, rather than line-level officials like Wolf, were better suited witnesses to address those topics, the Examiner said.
Wolf served on the team of prosecutors that signed off on a probation-only plea deal in June for Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges, the Post reported. The agreement fell apart the following month under the scrutiny of a federal judge.
Although she said she could not discuss why she emailed prosecutors to remove Joe Biden's name from a search warrant, she discussed the process of drafting warrants.
"I think that's important for people to understand that search warrants ... are limited," she told the panel, the Examiner reported. "They're intrusions on people's rights. And the default is an intrusion on someone's rights. So that there are protections built into the process by the Constitution that the magistrates are responsible for enforcing.
"If you're presenting a warrant to a magistrate, you don't want to overstate your case. You don't want to be too broad, so you need to line things up."