US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday that Attorney David Weiss will be appointed special counsel in the ongoing probe of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden.
Weiss will be responsible for the “ongoing investigation" of President Joe Biden's son "as well as for any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation," the Justice Department said in a statement quoted by NBC News.
Weiss, who was already overseeing the Hunter Biden probe and is based in Delaware, asked to be appointed special counsel on Tuesday and Garland agreed it was "in the public interest" to do so, the attorney general said.
The move was announced shortly before prosecutors from Weiss's team revealed in a court filing that the plea talks over tax and gun charges against the President's son had broken down and the case would likely have to go to trial in California or Washington, D.C.
The Department of Justice noted that Weiss was nominated by then-President Donald Trump in 2017 and confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate in 2018.
Garland said the appointment "reinforces for the American people the Department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters."
Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges related to his failure to pay income taxes earlier this year, but while standing in court last month waiting to enter the plea, the agreement fell apart over confusion about a separate gun charge.
The judge asked the parties to hammer out the agreement and return later, leaving Hunter Biden to enter a not-guilty plea while it's litigated.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden had also indicated they believed that the plea agreement would settle all matters facing the president's son, but prosecutors said that other investigations continued.
"After the hearing, the parties continued negotiating but reached an impasse. A trial is therefore in order," prosecutors said in their Friday filing, according to NBC News.
A source familiar with the situation told NBC News the White House had no advance notice of the special counsel appointment.
The White House declined comment, referring reporters to the Justice Department and Hunter Biden's lawyers.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)