In 1971, The Temptations reminded us that smiling faces tell lies (Undisputed Truth’s version came out later that year, and the O’Jays’ “Back Stabbers” the following year). “Smiling Faces” attributes the lies and “evil that lurks within” to jealousy, misery and envy. That just might be Attorney General Merrick Garland’s motivation for appointing David Weiss to be the so-called special counsel. For an erstwhile appeals court judge, not becoming a Supreme Court justice must really sting.

Weiss’ appointment is a scam and a fraud on the American people. He is the opposite of what a special prosecutor is supposed to be.

When the independent counsel statute expired in 1999, the Justice Department adopted regulations governing the appointment of a watered-down successor referred to as a special counsel. The current regulations call for the attorney general to appoint a special counsel when he or she determines that a criminal investigation is warranted and that investigation or prosecution by a U.S. attorney’s office would present a conflict of interest. Here, that should have led to the appointment of a special counsel two years ago.

Section 600.3 of the special counsel regulations provides,

An individual named as Special Counsel shall be a lawyer with a reputation for integrity and impartial decision making, and with appropriate experience to ensure both that the investigation will be conducted ably, expeditiously and thoroughly, and that investigative and prosecutorial decisions will be supported by an informed understanding of the criminal law and Department of Justice policies. The Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government.

Weiss has few of these qualifications. He is a Justice Department apparatchik. He appears to lack integrity, impartial decision making, and an ability (perhaps, more fairly, an intention) to conduct the investigation ably, expeditiously, or thoroughly.

Weiss has been investigating for five years, long enough to run out the statute of limitations on many of Hunter Biden’s most serious crimes. It does not require much effort to identify that it is unlawful to deduct payments to pimps, escorts, and paramours as a business expense. While it requires greater effort to review statements from 20 bank accounts, it doesn’t take a year to determine that upwards of $20 million ran through accounts owned by Hunter, or for which Hunter had an obligation to report his share of income, which he failed to do.

It doesn’t take more than a year or two of part-time work to determine that Hunter and his companies promoted their services as influencing the U.S. government, and that they received millions of dollars from foreign companies for this service, though Hunter and his partners never registered as foreign agents—despite texts and emails showing Hunter was aware of his obligations. Even without those emails, it strains credulity that a graduate of Yale Law School and former lawyer at top law firms would be unaware of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

It took less than 18 months for Robert Mueller to investigate, indict, and convict Paul Manafort in a far more complicated case. By the time Mueller’s investigation ended after just 22 months, his team had indicted six former Trump associates and more than two dozen Russian nationals and entities. Many of these cases involved complexity comparable to the Biden family’s criminal activity.

In under two years, without the resources and powers of the FBI or DOJ, Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Fox News, and the New York Post have uncovered the emails, WhatsApp messages, bank records, and witnesses that have filled in most of the details on the Biden family’s unlawful influence peddling program, including RICO violations, money laundering, bribery, violations of FARA and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, mail and wire fraud, and honest services fraud. See here for an overview of the Biden family’s criminal enterprise.

Despite the fact that IRS officials recommended that Hunter be charged with evading taxes, fraud, making false statements, and willful failure to file returns, supply information, or pay taxes for over $8.3 million in income, prior to his appointment as special counsel, Weiss allowed the statute of limitations to expire over the years with Hunter’s largest unreported income. No minimally competent federal prosecutor acting in good faith would do that.

Even after his appointment, Weiss allowed the statute of limitations to expire on Hunter’s threatening exchange with Chinese executive Henry Zhao. Shaking down CFEC chairman Ze Jianming, Hunter messaged: “If I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman [Jianming], 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. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.” Within weeks, Hunter’s companies received nearly $5 million.

Weiss’ mission is to run interference for the Bidens. As the whistleblowers revealed in their House testimony, Weiss’ office tipped off Hunter and the Biden transition team about scheduled searches and interviews, effectively blocking both. He offered Hunter a deal to plead guilty to misdemeanors, avoid prison time, obtain expungement of gun charges, and likely escape liability for his other crimes—a plea deal so flawed that Federal District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to proceed.

To put this in perspective, former Baltimore Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa spent 275 days in jail for evading $67,000 in taxes, a tiny fraction of Hunter’s massive fraud. Two of the prosecutors on De Sousa’s case were also involved in Hunter’s case.

Weiss has been safeguarding Joe Biden even before he was the president. Though Biden may now be immune from prosecution, as the Mueller investigation demonstrated, a sitting president is not exempt from being investigated. Despite extensive evidence of the president’s featured role in selling the Biden brand in dinners, White House visits, and phone calls; the layering and laundering of at least $20 million by Biden family members who shared in the proceeds of the influence-peddling scheme and sparked more than 150 Suspicious Activity Reports; that Hunter told his daughter he had to share half his salary with his dad; and that Biden family financial advisor Eric Schwerin moved funds between father and son, there is no indication that Weiss has pursued these leads. To the contrary, the whistleblowers testified that he stopped any investigations that led to the president.

By and large, the DOJ and Democrats don’t dispute the facts. Rather, they disingenuously observe that Weiss was a Trump appointee. Though technically true, he was selected by the two Democratic U.S. senators from Delaware.

As special counsel, Weiss can be expected to run out the remaining statutes of limitation, limit the investigation, refuse to cooperate with the House investigation, delay adverse publicity until after the election, and then issue a report whitewashing the Biden family’s criminal enterprise.

There isn’t much that can be done about Garland’s perfidy. Section 600.10 of the special counsel regulations provide that the rules are meant as guidance, not a requirement. The House could impeach Garland, but the Senate won’t convict. That leaves the big stick, throwing Biden out in the next election.

One unintended consequence of Weiss’ appointment is that it has raised the profile of the investigation. For the first time, the mainstream media is paying attention, and views are changing. According to an ABC-Ipsos poll taken after the appointment, only 11 percent of Americans are “very confident” the DOJ is handling Hunter’s investigation in a fair and nonpartisan manner, with 21 percent “somewhat confident.” The fastest growing category in the poll is “not confident at all.”

The Temptations warned us that the task is to figure out which of the smiles is a mask that hides lies and evil intent. Garland’s inscrutable mask has been cracking for a while now. His appointment of David Weiss has ripped it off, leaving the evil for all to see.