WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — On the same day U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a special prosecutor in the case against Hunter Biden, a new poll has Garland’s popularity among likely voters to be fairly low.
Rasmussen Reports, a right-leaning polling company founded in 2003, puts Garland’s favorability at just 36% with an unfavourability rating of 44%.
Garland on Friday appointed David Weiss, a U.S. attorney for Delaware, as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case. Weiss began investigating allegations of certain criminal conduct by the president’s son in 2020.
The president’s son was supposed to plead guilty in late July to misdemeanor charges for failing to pay taxes. But U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Delaware put the brakes on the guilty plea after raising concerns during an hourslong hearing about the structure and terms of the agreement and another deal that would allow him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge if he meets certain conditions.
Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees opened a joint investigation into the federal case of Hunter Biden days after it was announced in June that he would plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with the Justice Department.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Jason Smith of Missouri have since issued a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior officials at the Justice Department, FBI and Internal Revenue Service as they investigate what they claim is improper interference.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
