House Republicans are pressing the Justice Department on whether it is investigating two IRS agents who blew the whistle on abnormalities in the Hunter Biden tax probe, National Review has learned.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R., Mo.) wrote letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, special counsel David Weiss and IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel on Tuesday demanding all documents and communications on the possibility of retaliation against IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. The letters were first reported by Axios.
“Hunter Biden and his lawyers have waged an aggressive intimidation campaign against Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler, slandering them with false allegations and demanding that the Justice Department investigate them for making protected disclosures to Congress,” the letters read. His attorney Abbe D. Lowell wrote a letter to Weiss right after his special counsel appointment urging the DOJ to investigate the whistleblowers, Politico first reported last year.
“Any efforts, including those by the [Justice] Department and the IRS, to investigate whistleblowers for making lawful disclosures raise serious concerns about the continued weaponization of the federal government. Any and all attempts to intimidate or retaliate against Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler for their protected disclosures to Congress must stop,” the GOP lawmakers added. National Review has reached out to the Justice Department and IRS for comment.
House Republicans are asking the DOJ and IRS to turn over any relevant documents and communications pertaining to a potential investigation of Shapley and Ziegler by April 15.
The three committee chairmen are leading the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden primarily concerned with Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, particularly the events that took place before Weiss became special counsel, is another aspect of the inquiry.
Shapley and Ziegler came forward to the Ways and Means Committee last year with allegations that the Justice Department gave Hunter Biden special treatment by slow-walking and obstructing investigative steps throughout the criminal tax probe. Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, was not yet special counsel when the IRS agents first testified behind closed-doors to the Ways and Means Committee last spring.
Both IRS agents spent years working on the Hunter Biden case and provided a trove of documents to the Ways and Means Committee last fall substantiating their testimony. Hunter Biden is suing the IRS for what his lawyers argue are illegal disclosures by the whistleblowers.
Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August after Hunter Biden’s initial guilty plea deal on two tax misdemeanor charges and a pretrial diversion agreement for a single felony gun offense fell apart in court. The explosive public testimony from Shapley and Ziegler last July took place weeks before the guilty plea and diversion agreement collapsed in court due to skepticism from Delaware U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika.
Garland testified about the Hunter Biden case in September and largely deferred to Weiss on specific aspects of the IRS whistleblower testimony. Weiss himself was among the DOJ officials who testified behind closed-doors, and he defended the integrity of his probe. House Republicans produced a report on the testimony from IRS, DOJ, and FBI officials and how it confirmed core allegations made public by Shapley and Ziegler.
Hunter Biden is now facing nine federal tax charges in California resulting from Weiss’s criminal probe. His motions to dismiss the tax charges were rejected Monday by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who wrote a lengthy order dissecting each of Biden’s eight motions.
Among the motions Scarsi rejected were claims of selective prosecution by Weiss and prosecutorial immunity under the terms of the diversion agreement. Hunter Biden is being prosecuted on charges related to his alleged failure to pay over $1 million in taxes over the 2016–19 tax years.
The IRS whistleblowers expressed vindication in December when Hunter Biden was indicted on the tax charges by a federal grand jury.