Thanks in large part to the testimony of two IRS whistleblowers, Congress, and the American people were able to hear new evidence of apparent corruption or incompetence within the Department of Justice as it related to stalled investigations into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
According to the IRS Whistleblowers, Hunter Biden skipped out on paying over $100,000 in owed taxes for money received from Burisma.
If President Biden is looking for someone to pay their fair share, he should start with his son.
Watch @RepMikeTurner https://t.co/VlRCXEt24M pic.twitter.com/9735MwmLLQ
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 19, 2023
Now that President Joe Biden’s son is facing new charges in connection with allegedly lying on a federal form about his drug use, he is suing the IRS over the testimony by Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler earlier this year.
Specifically, Hunter Biden’s attorneys claim that the agents involved in the investigation violated his right to privacy. By revealing personal information about his taxes, the lawsuit claims, the whistleblowers intended to publicly embarrass him.
The lawsuit seeks $1,000 in damages for “each and every unauthorized disclosure” of Biden’s tax returns as well as a statement from the IRS that it “willfully, knowingly, and/or by gross negligence, unlawfully disclosed” that information.
As for the whistleblowers themselves, the lawsuit claims that their status as such “cannot and does not shield them from their wrongful conduct in making unauthorized public disclosures that are not permitted by the whistleblower process.”
In a statement released shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Shapley’s attorneys denounced the allegations against him.
“This suit against the IRS is just another frivolous smear by Biden family attorneys trying to turn people’s attention away from Hunter Biden’s own legal problems and intimidate any current and future whistleblower,” the statement asserted.
Citing a previous federal court ruling that dismissed complaints about the whistleblowers who “exposed the secret backroom deal between Hunter Biden and the Department of Justice,” the attorneys insisted that neither “Shapley nor his attorneys have ever released any confidential taxpayer information except through whistleblower disclosures authorized by statute.”
After lawmakers made that testimony public, however, Shapley “has a right to discuss that public information,” the statement concluded.
Some legal experts have already weighed in on the viability of this lawsuit, including Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, who indicated that Biden’s attorneys face an uphill battle.
“The core of these allegations will turn on the initial public disclosures before Congress and whether the privacy laws override the congressional oversight interests in these hearings,” he wrote. “Most courts are leery in limiting the scope of such oversight hearings and investigations.”
