On Tuesday, House Republicans announced a new investigation into the treatment of whistleblowers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who came forward over concerns about a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden that was being slow-walked.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep Jason Smith (R-MO), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-OH) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding records that could reveal communications between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Hunter Biden’s legal team.
Garland must hand over the documents by September 25, according to the chairmen.
🚨 #BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan, @RepJamesComer, and @RepJasonSmith Open Inquiry into Efforts to Smear and Prosecute IRS Whistleblowers pic.twitter.com/TvglrT73xs
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 12, 2023
Smith, Jordan, and Comer went on to cite a letter that Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell sent to Smith in late June “asserting without evidence” that IRS agents-turned-whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler had violated federal law through their whistleblower disclosures.
The chairmen also cited a New York Times report that revealed Hunter Biden’s legal team had told the DOJ that the whistleblowers had broken the law and should be prosecuted.
“Hunter Biden’s legal team is engaged in a brazen effort to intimidate and harass the brave Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers who exposed numerous apparent irregularities in the Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden,” the letter read.
Smith, Jordan, and Comer defended the IRS whistleblowers — arguing that they “followed the appropriate process by raising their genuine concerns about how the Department conducted its investigation into Mr. Biden.”
After the IRS whistleblowers testified before Congress earlier this year, the DOJ reached a plea agreement with Hunter Biden involving tax evasion and gun charges, where he would plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and receive probation while paying back the taxes he owes — while receiving no punishment for lying on a gun purchase form, instead only entering into a diversion program. However, that “sweetheart” plea deal fell apart amid outrage from the public and scrutiny from the judge who expressed concern about an immunity clause hidden in the agreement.
Now, it appears that new charges against Hunter Biden are in the works — as the DOJ indicated last week that Special Counsel David Weiss intends to seek an indictment against him on gun charges by the end of September. However, Hunter Biden’s attorney claimed in a statement earlier this month that a pre-trial diversion agreement “remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed.”
