Garland Pushes Back at GOP Claims of Bias in Hunter Biden Investigation

It is not clear what he meant, but the declaration will have a near-term chilling effect on greater disclosure, effectively preventing Mr. Weiss from speaking publicly about the investigation until it is officially closed.

The release of the transcripts by the House committee came 48 hours after Mr. Weiss announced that Mr. Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of failing to file his taxes on time and would enter a pretrial diversion program intended to allow him to avert prosecution on a separate gun charge.

House Republicans sought to portray the testimony by the I.R.S. officials as evidence that Hunter Biden had gotten a sweetheart deal from the Justice Department and that the department had been subject to political influence.

“If the federal government is not treating all taxpayers equally, or if it is changing the rules to engineer a preferred outcome, Congress has a duty to ask why and to hold agencies accountable and consider appropriate legislative action,” Representative Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri, chairman of House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement on Thursday.

In the testimony released by the committee on Thursday, the lead I.R.S. agent investigating whether Hunter Biden committed tax crimes told Congress his team uncovered evidence that Mr. Biden had invoked his father, who was then out of office, while pressing a potential Chinese business partner in 2017 to move ahead with a proposed energy deal, House Republicans said.

According to a summary of a WhatsApp message provided to the committee, Mr. Biden told the business partner that he was sitting with his father and that “we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.”

“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Mr. Biden wrote, referring to other participants in the proposed deal, according to the testimony. “And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”