House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH), who also serves on the House Oversight Committee, harshly criticized the Department of Justice naming U.S. Attorney David Weiss Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation.

CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked Turner if he had “confidence in him and his ability to conclude this in a fair way.”

“Obviously, there are concerns,” Turner responded. “I also looked at the appointment and the appointment seems more narrow than what Bill Barr had given him. … It is limited to the case that was brought before him initially, that that’s the scope, instead of all of the matters related to unpaid taxes.”

Then Turner targeted his central criticism, saying, “The concern here, obviously, with Weiss being Special Counsel is that he was the one that allowed the statute limitations to expire on some very critical felony charges that could have been brought against Hunter Biden.”

“Why would he have done that?” Brennan queried.

“The IRS whistleblower said that it was interference from the Department of Justice,” Turner answered. “There’s some question as to whether or not it’s a prosecutorial misconduct, but it certainly could be a prosecutorial malpractice. In any event, when you’ve been given the charge to handle claims of such explosive nature and allow the statute of limitations to expire, resulting in – you know, Hunter Biden has in his pocket $125,000 worth of taxes that were owed to the United States that, as a result of these being expired, remain in his pocket.”

Brennan then argued that Republicans seemed to be alleging that a conspiracy allowed the statute of limitations to expire, saying, “Why would a U.S. attorney appointed by President Trump working under a Republican Attorney General with career prosecutors have that level of conspiracy?”

“That’s not conspiracy. That actually occurred,” Turner noted of the expiration.

“Deliberately allow for the statute of limitations to pass?” Brennan pressed.

“I think those are questions he has to answer and why did this occur.” Turner said of Weiss.  Then he sharpened his attack: “The IRS whistleblowers said that it was interference from the Department of Justice that allowed them to expire. The prosecutor, Weiss, had been working with Hunter Biden and his attorney and actually been getting waivers for types of limitations period and he stopped getting the waivers. So he certainly was knowledgeable, aware that it was going to be expiring and then something occurred where he allowed those to expire.”

“But, you know, also his appointment is coming right on the heels of James Comer’s release of bank records that indicate that we’re now up to $20 million worth of funds that came from foreign sources … the bank records are right on the website of the House Oversight Committee over $20 million, released August 9, that went to Hunter Biden and his family and business associates that come from China, Russia,” Turner asserted. “You know, as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, serving on the Armed Services Committee, this is of great concern, because you have foreign individuals that are making payments to the son of the vice president, now son of the president, and obviously they’re buying something. They weren’t buying his business advice; they were buying influence.”

When Brennan argued that Hunter Biden’s attorney had claimed to her that no crime had been substantiated on that front, then smiled, “He has a different standard than members of Congress because what you do is political and he has to meet a legal benchmark in court as with those Justice Department prosecutors,” Turner fired back, “I think what he just did was actually very political. He’s not in court when he’s on your show.”

Only a fraction of the dozens of bodies so far recovered Maui wildfire victims have been identified, officials in Hawaii said this weekend.

The death toll for the blaze that devastated the historic town of Lahaina, as of press time, has risen to 93 victims — a grim number that could spike dramatically as hundreds of people are still feared to be missing while searches continue with the help of cadaver dogs.

So far, authorities have only said two deceased victims have been identified, a process complicated by a harrowing scene in which remains “fall apart” when they are picked up, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier explained during a press conference.

Cadaver dogs sift through the ruins of Lahaina as the death toll continues to rise, making the Maui wildfires in Hawaii the deadliest the US has seen in more than a century https://t.co/3LXfq8eqmx pic.twitter.com/T4GQ0PvUOr

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 13, 2023

“When we find our family and our friends, the remains that we’re finding is through a fire that melted metal,” Pelletier said. “We have to do rapid DNA to identify them.”

While the names of the two victims who have been identified have not yet been officially disclosed by authorities, the names of a local family of four who were found dead in a burned-out car were reported by Hawaii News Now.

“On behalf of our family, we bid aloha to our beloved parents, Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, as well as our dear sister Salote Takafua and her son, Tony Takafua,” their extended family said in a statement. “The magnitude of our grief is indescribable, and their memories will forever remain etched in our hearts.”

Multiple blazes were reported across the Hawaiian island of Maui, but fatalities and mass destruction have only been attributed to the wildfire that swept through Lahaina on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. The report said the cause of the fires is under investigation, but noted that they sparked during a dry summer and amid strong winds from a passing hurricane.

As divulged by Bloomberg, a group of lawyers suspect power lines might have ignited the fires, but the main supplier of energy Hawaiian Electric has so far stressed it did not have information on a cause as access to impacted area is “limited for safety and emergency response concerns.”

One issue in particular that has garnered headlines is how warning sirens on the island never sounded off as power and cell service cut out for many, prompting a review led by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez into the emergency response.

Hundreds if not thousands of people displaced by the disaster have led to an effort to find housing for those who survived. President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration last week to unlock federal resources to assist with the recovery efforts.

Officials have estimated that thousands of structures were damaged or destroyed, resulting in billions of dollars in losses.

“This is the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced,” said Hawaii Governor Josh Green. “It’s going to also be a natural disaster that’s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from.”