(NewsNation) — A federal inmate and former business partner of Hunter Biden claims the Federal Bureau of Prisons retaliated against him and reversed its decision to grant him home confinement after he asserted Biden and another business partner were complicit in the same illegal acts that sent him to prison on securities fraud charges.
In a letter to BOP Director Collette Peters, the chairmen of three GOP-led House committees investigating the possible impeachment of President Joe Biden — Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; James Comer, R-Ky., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. — seek documents and interview transcripts involving inmate Jason Galanis.
In the letter, the three Republicans write that Galanis alleges he has been the victim of “a pattern of retribution” by the Department of Justice in denying his request for home confinement.
Galanis also claims he has been singled out for unequal treatment while in BOP custody after he asserted that Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were complicit in illegal activity, according to the letter. After doing so, Galanis claims that his request for home confinement was denied “for political reasons” after federal prison officials in Florida and California initially approved the move.
In 2018, Archer and several others were convicted by a federal jury on charges of defrauding a Native American tribe by selling and issuing more than $60 million in tribal bonds.
According to the letter, Galanis testified that after applying for CARES Act home confinement in February 2023, his request was approved on June 9. Three days later, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced it was issuing a subpoena to Archer regarding its inquiry into President Biden’s business dealings.
Galanis said that the subpoena would “undoubtedly,” in his eyes, expose the dealings of Hunter Biden, Archer and himself. On June 13, Galanis wrote that the BOP’s approval of his home confinement had been reversed.
He wrote that New York prosecutors “aggressively weighed in” with federal prison officials to oppose his release.
“As a result of this DOJ intervention, I was denied home confinement,” Galanis said in the interview, according to the letter.
The letter states Galanis filed a formal appeal of the decision and claims that the BOP changed its reason for denying the request at every stage of the appeal process.
The letter also states that prison officials first said Galanis had too much time remaining on his sentence and second that the CARES Act expired before the prison announced its decision.
Galanis testified that according to BOP policy, all CARES Act applications filed before May 10 would be processed, which Galanis said he witnessed firsthand with other inmates.
“I was being treated differently,” Galanis said, according to the letter.
The letter claims that the BOP provided multiple “invalid and contradictory justifications” for denying the request. In his testimony, Galanis also claims that beginning in January 2023, he was sexually harassed and assaulted by a prison official. He also claimed that despite notifying prison officials of the alleged assaults, BOP officials allowed the abuse to continue until early August, the letter states.
In light of the allegations, Jordan, Comer, and Biggs are requesting all documents and communications regarding Galanis’ interview and application for home confinement and have given prison officials until March 19 to comply with the request.
Last week, the Justice Department pushed back against a new set of subpoenas quietly sent out by House Republicans related to the Hunter Biden criminal investigation in another brewing faceoff in the President Biden impeachment inquiry.
The department said it has already taken “extraordinary steps” to rebut claims of political interference in the investigation into the president’s son despite a lack of hard evidence for the allegations, according to a letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
Six senior Justice Department officials have testified that there was no interference into the investigation from President Biden or the White House, addressing a central question in the impeachment probe, according to the letter from Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte, the head of congressional affairs.