Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss would be given special counsel authority in the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation — raising fears among Republicans that the Justice Department was executing a bait-and-switch to hide the truth about the first family’s influence-peddling. 

In a brief midday statement, Garland said Weiss had asked for special counsel authority Tuesday, with the AG agreeing due to “the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter.”

Meanwhile, in a Friday filing with Wilmington US District Court, prosecutors said talks with Hunter’s legal team about a potential guilty plea to federal tax misdemeanors and a felony weapons charge were “at an impasse.”

“The Government now believes that the case will not resolve short of a trial,” wrote Assistant US Attorney Leo Wise.

Garland’s announcement came 10 months and four days after Weiss allegedly told officials from the FBI and IRS that he lacked authority to charge the first son, now 53, outside of Delaware.

The attorney general took no questions following his statement, ignoring a reporter who asked why Weiss had been elevated to special counsel if he had “ultimate authority” to prosecute, as Garland claimed in sworn congressional testimony earlier this year.

“Do you still have faith in US Attorney Weiss after the deal fell apart?” Garland was also asked.

President Biden similarly took no questions around 5 p.m. Friday as he departed the White House for his Rehoboth Beach, Del., vacation home. 

Biden, 80, wore aviator sunglasses and smiled as he walked straight past journalists shouting questions about Weiss’s appointment and about the president’s own alleged role in his son’s foreign business dealings.

“Why did you interact with so many of your son’s business partners, President Biden?” a Post reporter asked as Biden walked within feet of a rope line for journalists. 

The president appeared to briefly quicken his already-brisk step as he strode past the press corps.

Here are some questions that need to be answered with the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss would be given special counsel authority in the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation.

• What promises did Hunter Biden make to his clients about how he could influence his father?
• What did Joe Biden discuss with his son’s Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstani partners at Cafe Milano dinners in 2014 and 2015?
• Did Hunter talk to his dad about Ukraine, Burisma and the prosecutor whom Joe Biden pushed to be fired?
• Has the FBI corroborated details of a $10 million Burisma bribery allegation involving Joe and Hunter — or even investigated it?
• Do Joe Biden’s bank accounts show any income from foreign business dealings?
• Why did nine Biden family members allegedly receive foreign funds? And how much did each relative receive?
• How much did Hunter spend on housing, credit cards and other expenses shared by his father, thus enriching the now-president even if he wasn’t directly paid?
• Is the president “the big guy” mentioned in the emails with the Chinese firm CEFC and what was the 10% he was promised for?
• Did Hunter violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act during his work for Ukraine and China?
• Who are the buyers who reportedly spent $1.3 million on Hunter’s art since his dad became president? Did any of those sales feature illegal influence peddling?
• How did the sweetheart plea deal come about, and why was Hunter originally offered blanket immunity?
• Did Attorney General Merrick Garland commit perjury by claiming that Weiss could independently bring charges in DC and Los Angeles?

Special counsels have broad authority to bring indictments, issue subpoenas and obtain search warrants. They may also enlist the help of attorneys both inside and outside of the Department of Justice as needed. Skeptics of Weiss’ appointment pointed out that Justice Department regulations call for a special counsel to be selected from “outside the United States Government,” which would appear to render Weiss ineligible. It was not immediately clear how that conflict would be resolved.

On July 26, a probation-only plea deal that would have granted Hunter Biden immunity for any and all alleged past crimes blew up in federal court under persistent questioning from US District Judge Maryellen Noreika.

The jurist forced prosecutors from Weiss’ office to admit their investigation into potential Foreign Agent Registration Act violations and other offenses by Hunter was “ongoing” — prompting the first son’s attorney Chris Clark to scrap the deal.

The spectacular implosion came weeks after IRS investigators tasked with overseeing the case testified before Congress that US attorneys appointed by President Biden blocked Weiss from charging Hunter in Washington, DC, and Southern California.

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley also said Weiss admitted in an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting with half a dozen tax investigators and FBI agents that he had been denied special counsel status by his DOJ superiors.

Garland and Weiss have denied Shapley’s testimony, claiming in letters to Congress that the Delaware US Attorney’s office had “ultimate authority” to see its probe through.

Under the tentative agreement, Hunter Biden would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts for dodging his tax bills in 2017 and 2018, as well as entered into a diversion agreement for lying on a federal gun purchase form about his drug use.

IRS officials Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the lead investigators of Hunter’s financial crimes, testified that the first son owed a total of $2.2 million in back taxes, which were paid off in 2021 by his “sugar brother” Kevin Morris.

Both whistleblowers also said that federal prosecutors discouraged investigators from lines of inquiry that would have implicated the president — and blocked them from interviewing witnesses and seizing potential evidence.

Hunter, his family and other business associates raked in $17.3 million as part of several shady business deals with foreign nationals between 2014 and 2019, Ziegler also testified.

Critics of the probe’s conduct dismissed Garland’s announcement, which essentially prevents Weiss from disclosing any relevant information to GOP-led House committees about the investigation.

“The initial concern is that Weiss is damaged goods,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News. “These whistleblowers were critical of Weiss.”

“Making him special counsel will now make it more difficult for Congress to get answers from him,” he added. “This insulates Weiss and DOJ more than it necessarily moves the investigation forward.”

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy went further, and called the special counsel appointment “a sham.”

“There is no special counsel investigation, and there is no Biden investigation,” he scoffed to Fox. “The point of having a special counsel is to bring in someone from outside the government who we can trust to do a credible investigation.”

“This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” warned House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on X, formerly known as Twitter. “If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel? House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people.”

“David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption,”  Russell Dye, a spokesman for Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), told The Post. “Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it.

Follow The Post’s latest coverage on the Hunter Biden probe

“We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistleblowers as well as Weiss’s inconsistent statements to Congress.”

“First, David Weiss said he didn’t have the power he needed and wanted special counsel status. Then, he said he had all the power he needs,” Jordan himself added in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Now, he gets special counsel status because he didn’t really have the power he needs? Something’s not right.”

The Justice Department last month agreed to let Weiss testify to the Judiciary Committee when lawmakers return from the August recess. It was not immediately clear whether that appointment would be kept.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Weiss’ new status could “stonewall congressional oversight” but vowed that his panel would “continue to follow the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened.”

Biden, 80, is staring down potential impeachment proceedings against him in the Republican-led House, following further testimony from Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer.

Allegations from Archer put the president’s son at the center of logrolling schemes involving entities in Ukraine, China, Russia and Kazakhstan, with Biden often phoning in to business meetings and at least once greeting a Burisma executive in person.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) produced further allegations from an FBI informant file that Joe and Hunter accepted a $10 bribe from Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky.

“You just wonder how thorough Weiss is,” Grassley said Friday at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

Weiss was nominated for the Delaware US Attorney post by former President Donald Trump at the suggestion of the state’s two Democratic senators, Chris Coons and Tom Carper — both Biden allies. The president kept Weiss in place after winning office in 2020.

“The fix is in. David Weiss cut Hunter Biden an unprecedented plea deal that attempted to give Joe Biden’s corrupt son blanket immunity,” Make America Great Again Inc., spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.

“Now, Merrick Garland expects us to trust Weiss to be the Special Counsel that finally brings Hunter Biden to justice. Biden’s Justice Department will do whatever it takes to cover up the Biden Crime Family’s misdeeds.”

Trump was indicted last week by special counsel Jack Smith for making “knowingly false” statements about the 2020 election and trying to overturn its results.

Both Biden and Trump also have special counsels investigating their alleged mishandling of classified documents.