Two IRS whistleblowers testifying before Congress Wednesday allege that Hunter Biden benefited significantly from “abuse of authority” and interference from President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice in the inter-agency investigation into the younger Biden’s several alleged tax crimes.
Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, both IRS employees with a combined 27 experience years at the agency, said Hunter Biden’s preferential treatment was different than other cases in their experience.
In particular, they testified that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf helped block investigators’ plan for an interview of the president and a search warrant of the Biden residence in Delaware.
As The Center Square previously reported, court documents made public last month show that Hunter Biden, who pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanor tax-related charges, will also face a charge related to possessing a gun while being a drug user. However, that firearm charge will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement, meaning Hunter Biden’s lawyers brokered a deal and will likely not see prison time for the gun charge.
Hunter Biden’s plea deal was immediately criticized by Republicans as a “sweetheart deal” and was a key point of focus for Wednesday’s hearing.
Shapley worked on Hunter Biden’s case and said both the IRS and Delaware State prosecutors recommended charging Hunter Biden with multiple felonies and misdemeanors related to his tax filings from 2014 to 2019. Shapley testified that President Biden’s political appointees “were allowed to weigh in on whether to charge the president’s son” and the final plea deal ended up being much less than the IRS originally recommended, in part because the investigation dragged on beyond the statute of limitations for some alleged crimes.
Shapley said evidence was concealed from investigators and decisions were made at every turn to benefit Hunter Biden and President Biden, calling it an “undeniable pattern of preferential treatment and obstruction of the normal investigative process.”
Ziegler echoed many of his concerns about ethical violations and abuse of authority, saying Hunter Biden failed to report and pay large tax sums but that there was “gross mismanagement” in regards to Hunter Biden’s case. He called for a special counsel to investigate.
Both IRS employees said they attempted to report the behavior within their agency, but when enough was not done, they came to Congress as whistleblowers.
Wednesday’s testimony is the latest in a litany of claims of financial impropriety against the Biden family.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., laid out the allegations against the Biden family at the hearing, saying the family and their business associates created more than 20 shell companies, most of them while Biden was vice president, and that those companies received at least $10 million.
Comer alleges money poured into the companies from companies in foreign countries like China, Ukraine and Romania.
“After foreign companies sent money to business associates’ companies, the Bidens then received incremental payments over time to different bank accounts,” Comer said. “These complicated financial transactions were used deliberately to conceal the source of the funds and total amounts.
“What were the Bidens’ selling?” he added. “Nothing but influence and access to the Biden network.”
Biden has repeatedly dismissed accusations related to overseas payments to him or his family.
Comer said the committee has obtained financial records to the tune of thousands of pages, including bank records for the Biden family and their associates as well as Treasury Department “suspicious activity reports” which were compiled by the Treasury officials because of the large transactions with foreign businesses.
He pointed to one instance in particular where the committee said it was able to obtain documentation from the FBI about an alleged bribe from an executive at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, one in which Hunter Biden previously served on the board.
“During our investigation, our committee became aware through whistleblower disclosures provided to Senator Chuck Grassley that the FBI has an unclassified record that details an extortion and bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a Burisma executive,” Comer said. “This record was generated by a trusted confidential human source that the FBI has used for over a decade. It memorializes the source’s conversations with a Burisma executive who claimed that he paid Joe Biden $5 million in exchange for certain actions.
“The Burisma executive told the confidential human source that he didn’t pay the ‘big guy’ directly but that he used so many bank accounts that it would take ten years to unravel,” he added.
U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said at the hearing called for more whistleblowers to come forward and said there would be “zero tolerance” for any retaliation against them.
“Clearly, the president only believes in making taxpayers pay their fair share if they don’t share his last name,” Smith said. “The IRS recommended multiple felony charges against Hunter Biden for tax years 2014 through 2019, relating to at least $8.3 million in income from foreign companies, including ones based in China, Romania, and Ukraine.
“The Department of Justice engaged in a campaign to delay, divulge, and deny that investigation,” he added.
Smith went after the IRS as well, saying the agency “delayed investigators for years, leading to the expiration of the statute of limitations for many of the crimes involved.”
“They divulged key investigative details to Biden’s attorneys, and even the President’s transition team,” he said.
