Hunter Biden investigation: GOP investigates 'brazen' intimidation of IRS whistleblowers
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Three House chairmen asked the Department of Justice Tuesday for any communications from Hunter Biden's attorneys about punishing a pair of Internal Revenue Service criminal investigators for speaking to Congress.
The chairmen, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY), and Jason Smith (R-MO), asked Attorney General Merrick Garland in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner to provide any communication to them that the department had received from Biden's lawyers "advocating for the investigation or prosecution" of the IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.
"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 chairmen wrote to Garland.
They referenced a report by the New York Times in which the outlet said it had reviewed "more than 200 pages of confidential correspondence" between special counsel David Weiss and Biden's lawyers.
Based on that correspondence, the outlet found that Biden's lawyers had "contended to the Justice Department that by disclosing details about the investigation to Congress, [the IRS whistleblowers] broke the law and should be prosecuted."
The chairmen also pointed to a letter Abbe Lowell, a longtime attorney for high-profile Democrats, wrote to Smith in June in which he accused Shapley and Ziegler of violating federal law after the two IRS employees approached Congress with their concerns about DOJ's handling of its investigation into Biden.
Lowell "slandered the brave IRS whistleblowers as 'disgruntled agents' with an 'axe to grind,'" the chairmen said, accusing Lowell of attempting to intimidate the agents and emphasizing that any legal action against them would be considered unlawful whistleblower retaliation.
Lowell, for his part, has said that the IRS agents broke a long-standing agency policy of speaking about an ongoing criminal matter. He did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
A DOJ spokesperson said the department received the chairmen's letter but declined to comment further.
Shapley, a 14-year veteran of the IRS, has said he followed proper whistleblower protocol by first reporting internally and then later to Congress what he observed as DOJ's "deviations from the normal investigative process" when it came to Biden. Shapley had for years been part of a joint IRS and DOJ endeavor to investigate alleged tax crimes by Biden and was abruptly taken off the case this spring after reporting perceived missteps in the investigation to Congress, Shapley's lawyers say.
Ziegler also reported alleged wrongdoings with the IRS and DOJ's investigation to Congress. He told Congress he was the lead IRS agent assigned to investigate Biden, that he had worked at the IRS for 13 years, and that he was a Democrat, indicating he had no political incentive to come forward about his concerns.
The chairmen said they are now looking to "determine the extent to which Mr. Biden's attorneys are attempting to obstruct the Committees' oversight" and are asking DOJ to provide any communications the attorneys have sent to the department about prosecuting the IRS agents by Sept. 26.
Tags
Who is online
66 visitors
I guess that is part of earning a law degree in the US. They leave morality & decency at the front door.
When the swamp fights back, one must stay the course and persist to bring it down. Lest the swamp continues its uncontrolled growth …..