IRS whistleblowers air claims of 'slow-walking' Hunter Biden case

House Republicans raised allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.

Lawmakers heard from the two IRS agents assigned to the Hunter Biden case, which looked into his failure to pay taxes, for six hours of what was often grueling back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax charges in what Republicans have derided as a “sweetheart” deal.

House Republicans are deepening their own investigation, making broad claims of corruption and wrongdoing by the Bidens.

“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, as he opened the session. The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ allegations. And the White House, in a statement, called the investigation and subsequent hearing part of “politically-motivated attacks on a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, the rule of law, and the independence of our justice system.”

IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley, and a second agent, Joe Ziegler, claimed there was what Shapley called in testimony a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months before the 2020 election.

One of Shapley’s most detailed claims was that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, asked for special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California, but was denied.

The second IRS whistleblower, Ziegler, described his frustrations with the way the case was handled. The tax agency employee said he started the investigation into Hunter Biden in 2015 and began to delve deeply into the now 53-year-old’s life and finances.

Ziegler, whose name was withheld in closed-door interview transcripts released last month by Republicans, said Wednesday that he decided to come forward publicly “not as a hero or a victim,” but as a married, gay Democrat “compelled to disclose the truth.”

Democrats on the committee pushed back on the whistleblower claims that Hunter Biden received special treatment because his father was the nominee for president in the upcoming 2020 election. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., made the point that it was Donald Trump who was president during the 2020 time frame when the whistleblowers allege there was interference.

Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, questioned whether this was an investigation into the president or “of his son, who does not and has never worked at the White House.”

In one instance, Shapley testified that in a meeting with Weiss and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf after the 2020 election, he and other agents wanted to discuss an email between Hunter Biden associates where one person made reference to the “big guy.” Shapley said Wolf refused to do so, saying she did not want to ask questions about “dad.”

Republicans have moved ahead, issuing a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior Justice officials, including Weiss.

Weiss said in a letter to Jordan earlier this month that he would be happy to testify before the committee when he is legally able to share information with Congress without violating the longstanding department policy of discussing an ongoing investigation.



(AP Photo)