Axelrod: Weiss Charging Hunter in CA Shows a Difference Between Initial Handling of Case

On Thursday’s “CNN Newsnight,” CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Obama adviser David Axelrod acknowledged that there were issues as to whether Special Counsel David Weiss could file cases in venues outside of Delaware before he was made Special Counsel and the new charges against Hunter Biden were filed in California, “So, that’s a difference between now and when he wasn’t the Special Counsel.”

Host Abby Phillip said, “[I]f you’re a Republican and you’re trying to make the case that the Justice Department is going easy on Hunter Biden, that there is some hidden, nefarious thing that Joe Biden did related to Hunter Biden’s misdeeds, this indictment seems to lay it squarely on Hunter Biden and also seems to indicate the Justice Department is working. That might very well be something that the Biden administration doesn’t mind.”

Axelrod responded, “Well, pretty clearly there hasn’t been interference here, because the indictment was placed. And, in fact, David Weiss, the Special Counsel who was then not the special counsel, but was investigating this for five-and-a-half years, told Congress last fall that he had — there was no interference with him, with the case, and he was doing what he thought was appropriate. There were issues about whether he could file cases in different venues because he was in Delaware and so on, and this one is filed in Los Angeles. So, that’s a difference between now and when he wasn’t the Special Counsel. But, Abby, I expect that the Republicans are going to try — they will — you know there’s an impeachment move, the speaker said the other day that he’s ready to move to an impeachment inquiry. I think Donald Trump is very much encouraging that because he wants offsetting penalties. And it’s really important to keep in focus that what Donald Trump is — Donald Trump is on trial for things that Donald Trump did, and, apparently, the House of Representatives wants to impeach the president for things that he didn’t do.”