In a moved some Department of Justice officials to question if he was politicizing the office, Attorney General Bill Barr instructed the US Attorney based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to accept and to vet information on Hunter Biden that came from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, the New York Times reports.

US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott W. Brady held a four-hour meeting with Giuliani in late January to review the information Giuliani had on alleged corruption by the Biden family.  Brady was viewed by DoJ and FBI colleagues as a Trump loyalist.

At the time, the Delaware US Attorney was also investigating Hunter Biden for alleged tax issues, and the Southern District of New York US Attorney as well as the New York State Attorney General were investigating Giuliani.

Hunter Biden had been under investigation by the Delaware US Attorney for alleged money laundering for his dealings in China and Ukraine, but the US Attorney did not find any cause to bring charges.  However, during the investigation, evidence turned up regarding potential tax evasion, which is still being investigated.

Giuliani reportedly approached the DoJ with information regarding a money laundering scheme involving Hunter Biden, as well as an influence peddling claim against Joe Biden, his father and then-Democratic candidate for president.  Joe Biden ultimately won the election in November to become President-elect.

Giuliani and his attorney, Robert Costello, sent the Brady reams of information about the Bidens after setting up a January 29th meeting.  Giuliani arrived in Pittsburgh for the meeting, and after having breakfast with his FBI drivers, had a near-four hour meeting with Brady and his two top assistants, Stephen Kaufman and Ira Karoll.

Giuliani and Costello gave the Pittsburgh office information as well as the names of contacts in Ukraine from whom they got the information.

One week after the meeting, Barr announced that the DoJ had received information on Hunter Biden’s dealings with Burisma, for which the DoJ had taken steps to obtain the information and which they would “assess its provenance and its credibility.”

Why Barr assigned this task to Brady and what information was collected from Giuliani isn’t clear, given that neither the Bidens nor Burisma had any connection to the Western District of Pennsylvania.