Not surprising, but definitive.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley describes how the Hunter Biden case was obstructed by the Department of Justice from the very beginning.
As early as March 6th, 2020, I sent a sensitive case report up through my chain of command at IRS reporting that by mid-March the IRS would be ready to seek approval for physical search warrants in California, Arkansas, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Special Agent drafted an April 1st, 2020, affidavit establishing probable cause for these physical search warrants. We also planned to conduct approximately 15 contemporaneous interviews at that time. Yet, after former Vice President Joseph Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in early April 2020, career DOJ officials dragged their feet on the IRS taking these investigative steps. By June 2020, those same career officials were already delaying overt investigative actions. This was well before the typical 60- to 90-day period when DOJ would historically stand down before an election. It was apparent that DOJ was purposely slow-walking investigative actions in this matter.
On a June 16th, 2020, call Special Agent and I had with our chain of command up to the Director of Field Operations, I pointed out that if normal procedures had been followed we already would have executed search warrants, conducted interviews, and served document requests. Nevertheless, my IRS chain of command decided we would defer to DOJ.
Every attempt at actually investigating the rich trove of evidence left behind was shut down.
For example, in August 2020, we got the results back from an iCloud search warrant. Unlike the laptop, these came to the investigative team from a third-party record keeper and included a set of messages. The messages included material we clearly needed to follow up on. Nevertheless, prosecutors denied investigators’ requests to develop a strategy to look into the messages and denied investigators’ suggestion to obtain location information to see where the texts were sent from.
Search warrants were likewise obstructed. Especially Joe Biden’s guest house where Hunter had stayed.
In a September 3rd, 2023 [2020], pros meeting, the Assistant United States Attorney, Lesley Wolf, told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze. She continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to 15 execute a search warrant. She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.
The prosecutors even wanted to remove Hunter Biden’s name from electronic search warrants, 2703(d) orders, and document requests. Special Agent said on the call he felt uncomfortable with removing the subject’s name from those documents just based on what might or might not be approved, as that seemed unethical. But his concerns were ignored.
The FARA investigation was also shut down at the DOJ level.
On September 4th, 2020, Deputy Attorney General Donoghue issued a cease and desist of all overt investigative activities due to the coming election. AUSA Wolf made several odd statements, to include that DOJ was under fire and it was self-inflicted. She stated that DOJ needed to repair their reputation.
The FBI was predictably helming the cover-up.
At the next pros meeting, on September 21st, 2020, the FBI tried to dictate that we only do five of the planned interviews so FBI management could reevaluate if they wanted to continue assisting. Special Agent told them it seems inappropriate for 16 them to dictate in an IRS investigation who should be interviewed.
The intimidation appeared to become overt.
Later that day, I learned the FBI case agent in Delaware had only recently moved back to his hometown of Wilmington with his wife and family and was concerned about the consequences for him and his family if they conducted these sensitive interviews and executed a search warrant of the President Biden guest house.
And the DOJ prevented investigators from accessing the information which is simply stunning.
My email led to a special meeting on October 22nd, 2020, with the prosecution team and the FBI’s computer analysis team to discuss Hunter Biden’s laptop. We once again objected that we still had not been given access to the laptop. Special Agent asked about the full filter reviewed copy of the contents of the devices. He stated he had not been provided with the data. AUSA Lesley Wolf stated that she would not have seen it because, for a variety of reasons, prosecutors decided to keep it from the investigators. This decision is unprecedented in my experience.
That’s certainly a convenient way to make sure Hunter Biden wouldn’t be charged.
Investigators assigned to this investigation were obstructed from seeing all the available evidence. It is unknown if all the evidence in the laptop was reviewed by agents or by prosecutors.
Also on an October 22nd, 2020, pros team call, AUSA Wolf stated that United States Attorney David Weiss had reviewed the affidavit for search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause had been achieved. Even though the legal requirements were met and the investigative team knew evidence would be in these locations, AUSA Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden.
The integrity of the investigation or cover-up then had to be protected.
United States Attorney Weiss stated on November 10th, 2020, that he had to delay the day of action because it was a contested election. He also stated that because there was no leak in the investigation to date, therefore not public at the time, the 18 primary focus was to protect the integrity of the investigation, which meant to keep it concealed from the public.
But what was there to investigate when the evidence was being kept under lock and key from not only the public, but the investigators.
On December 3rd, 2020, we had around a 12-hour long meeting at the United States Attorney’s Office in Delaware with the prosecution team. United States Attorney Weiss came in at the beginning of the meeting and jubilantly congratulated the investigative team for keeping the investigation a “secret,” quote.
The U.S. Attorney specifically worked to shield Joe Biden.
Weiss was in and out for the rest of the meeting, but it went downhill from there. We shared with prosecutors our outline to interview Hunter Biden’s associate, Rob Walker. Among other things, we wanted to question Walker about an email that said: “Ten held by H for the big guy.” We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden. But AUSA Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about “dad.” When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning.
Wolf appeared to go even further by colluding with Hunter Biden’s people.
On December 10th, 2020, the prosecutorial team met again to discuss the next steps. One piece of information that came out of the day of action was that Hunter Biden vacated the Washington, D.C., office of Owasco. His documents all went into a storage unit in northern Virginia. The IRS prepared an affidavit in support of a search warrant for the unit, but AUSA Wolf once again objected. My special agent in charge and I scheduled a call with United States Attorney Weiss on December 14th just to talk about that specific issue. United States Attorney Weiss agreed that if the storage unit wasn’t accessed for 30 days we could execute a search warrant on it. No sooner had we gotten off the call then we heard AUSA Wolf had simply reached out to Hunter Biden’s defense counsel and told him about the storage unit, once again ruining our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed.
Speaking of defense counsel…
Two weeks later, I learned how defense counsel felt about the case when prosecutors told us on a pros team call that Chris Clark, Hunter Biden’s counsel from Latham and Watkins, told them that if they charge Hunter Biden, they would be committing “career suicide,” end quote.
There’s plenty more there, including material that dismantles the myth peddled in the media that a “Trump-appointed” prosecutor had the total and final say on charging Hunter Biden, but the essence is here.
This is how things work in corrupt banana republics. It’s how they work under Biden.