According to a pair of Special Agents that work for the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS, the United States Justice Department gave First Son Hunter Biden preferential treatment when investigating his tax crimes. The two agents testified before the House Oversight Committee and talked about their experience investigating Hunter Biden and went onto say that the Justice Department “Slow walked” the entire process of the investigation.
Overview
About a month ago, President Biden’s son, Hunter agreed to a plea deal after he was charged with two misdemeanor tax crimes and a charge of illegally possessing a firearm. Just a few short days after the First Son took his plea, testimony from the two IRS whistleblowers was released. The whistleblowers are accusing prosecutors of not pushing for felony charges, and purposely allowing the statute of limitations to run out some of Hunter’s tax crimes. Once the whistleblowers called this out, they were removed from the investigation for voicing their concerns.
Whistleblower Testimony
“I sit here before you not as a hero or a victim but as a whistleblower compelled to disclose the truth,” said Special Agent Joseph Ziegler. “That said, I’m coming forward. I believe I’m risking my career, my reputation and my casework outside of the investigation we are here to discuss. I ultimately made the decision to come forward after what I believe were multiple attempts at blowing the whistle at the Internal Revenue Service. No one should be above the law, regardless of your political affiliation.”
The second whistleblower is Special Agent Gary Shapley, and he was not afraid to voice his frustration on how Hunter Biden’s investigation was handled. “There should not be a two-track justice system depending on who you are and who you’re connected to, yet in this case, there was,” he said. “Based on my experience, I’m here to tell you that the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office and Department of Justice’s handling of the Hunter Biden tax investigation was very different from any other case in my 14 years at the IRS. At every stage decisions were made that benefited the subject of this investigation. For example, prosecutors concealed the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop from investigators. The DOJ slow-walked steps including interviews, serving document requests and executing search warrants — warrants that were ready as early as April of 2020, but were delayed until after the November 2020 election and never pursued. Investigators were not allowed to follow up on WhatsApp messages from Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud backup, where he suggested he was sitting next to his father.”
Bad Optics
Gary Shapley also testified that the assistant U.S attorney of Delaware stated that the main reason they did not execute a search warrant of President Biden’s residence in Delaware was because of “Bad optics.” Shapley also went onto say that assistant U.S. attorney did agree with him that there was probable cause to execute a search warrant.
Wrap Up
“These are just some of the examples of how our investigation was stymied,” said Shapley. “I’m not here to support partisan agendas on either side. I’m here because our tax system relies on the American people having confidence it is administered fairly and equally for everyone regardless of your last name or political connections. If the handling of this case was inappropriate, it doesn’t matter whether it happened under a Republican or Democrat administration.”