IRS whistleblowers: DOJ interfered in Hunter Biden investigation

Two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers allege that the Justice Department and Delaware US attorney's office interfered with their investigation of Hunter Biden's failure to pay taxes, preventing enforcement actions by the IRS against President Joe Biden's son.

Testimony by the two former agents who worked on the federal investigation into the younger Biden's taxes and foreign business dealings was released Thursday by the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee after a closed executive session.

Testimony by one of the agents, Greg Shapley, to the committee directly challenged congressional testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland, in which he said that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss — who was appointed by President Donald Trump— had full authority to lead the investigation into Hunter Biden and could do whatever he wanted in the case.

The Justice Department denied the whistleblowers' claims and reiterated what Garland had said, that Weiss had full authority over the case, "including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so". 

The White House on Thursday night said President Biden has upheld his commitment to let the investigation proceed free of any political interference. There was no immediate comment from Hunter Biden's attorneys. 

The committee led by Missouri Representative Jason Smith exercised its unique authority to publicly release information in the five-year federal investigation into Biden's son's failure to pay about $1 million in federal taxes. Tax information is generally barred from disclosure by strict taxpayer privacy laws.

Testimony from Shapley and an unidentified IRS agent detailed what they called a pattern of "slow-walking investigative steps" and delaying enforcement actions months before elections.

Justice Department policy has long warned prosecutors to take care in charging cases with potential political overtones around the time of an election, to avoid any possible influence on the outcome. 

The release of the testimony comes two days after Hunter Biden, 53, announced he will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement with the Justice Department. The agreement made public will also avert prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he adheres to conditions agreed to in court.

Congressional Republicans called the plea deal a "sweetheart deal" for the president's son and another example of a "two-tiered justice system" that goes easy on Democrats.

Shapley came forward in April when his attorney reached out to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a "failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition" of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden.

In hours-long testimony, Shapley described several roadblocks that he and the several other IRS agents on the case faced when trying to interview individuals relevant to the case or issue search warrants. Shapley told Congressional investigators the IRS findings supported more severe penalties of two felony tax evasion charges.

He said that Weiss asked the Justice Department in March 2020 to be given special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including Washington, DC, and California, but was denied.

The second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. He said he started the investigation into Biden in 2015 and delved deeply into his life and finances.

The individual said he was taken off the investigation in October 2022 and informed of the decision by IRS officials, but believes his removal was actually ordered by officials in the Justice Department. He provided no evidence of that, instead citing what he had witnessed internally as he pushed for various investigative steps. His supervisor, Shapley, was removed at the same time.

Democrats on the committee, who all voted against releasing the documents, protested that Republicans improperly used their powers for law enforcement purposes and that government watchdogs for Justice and the IRS should be allowed to separately investigate the whistleblowers' allegations.

"There's no corroboration of any of what happened today," said Representative Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the committee. Neal said that law enforcement agencies should be able to interview 50 other government employees who were named in the transcript.

The Democrats also objected to the disclosure of tax records, calling the GOP efforts payback for their release in December of Trump's tax records. 

Agencies contributed to this story.