Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday he has appointed a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, deepening the investigation of the president's son ahead of the 2024 election.

Garland said he is naming David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who has been probing the financial and business dealings of the president's son, as the special counsel.

Garland said on Tuesday that Weiss told him that "in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be appointed."

"Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel," Garland said.

"This appointment confirms my commitment to provide Mr. Weiss all the resources he requests," the attorney general said. "It also reaffirms that Mr. Weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and to continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently, based only on the facts and the law."

By being named special counsel, Weiss will have broader authority to conduct a more sweeping investigation across various areas.

"As Special Counsel, he will continue to have the authority and responsibility that he has exercised previously to oversee the investigation and decide where, when, and whether to file charges," Garland explained. "The Special Counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official of the Department, but he must comply with the regulations, procedures, and policies of the Department."

"Today’s announcement affords the prosecutors, agents, and analysts working on this matter the ability to proceed with their work expeditiously, and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law," Garland continued. "I am confident that Mr. Weiss will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent matter, and in accordance with the highest traditions of this Department."

The move is a momentous development from the typically cautious Garland and comes amid a pair of sweeping Justice Department probes into Donald Trump, the former president, and President Joe Biden's chief rival in next year's election.

It also comes as House Republicans are mounting their own investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings.

Last month, Hunter Biden's plea deal over tax evasion collapsed after U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, raised multiple concerns about the specifics.

Weiss says plea deal talks have broken down in the tax and gun case.

Republicans had derided that agreement as a "sweetheart" deal as they pushed their own probe.

The Republicans claimed Weiss was being blocked from becoming a special counsel a claim he and the Justice Department denied.

Despite Friday's action, prominent Republican members of Congress still decried the Justice Department as untrustworthy and pledged to continue their own probes.

"This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption," wrote House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Twitter Friday afternoon. "If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel? House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people."

A Trump campaign spokesperson issued a statement shortly after the announcement celebrating the appointment, baselessly accusing the Justice Department of protecting the Biden family.

"If this special counsel is truly independent," the spokesperson wrote, "he will quickly conclude that Joe Biden, his troubled son Hunter, and their enablers, including the media ... should face the required consequences."