An IRS agent known for coming forward with allegations of misconduct against his colleagues during the Hunter Biden tax case is being named Acting Commissioner of the agency that previously retaliated against him.
The Trump administration named IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley Acting Commissioner after recently promoting him to senior adviser at the Treasury Department, according to multiple reports.
“Congratulations to my friend Gary Shapley on being named Acting Commissioner of the IRS,” Tristan Leavitt, an attorney for Shapley, posted on X in response to a Wall Street Journal story on his client’s promotion.
“Couldn’t think of a single better person, both as a dedicated leader and as a whistleblower who has seen the agency’s weaknesses and had the courage to speak up about them,” Leavitt added.
Shapley replaces veteran government official Melanie Krause after she resigned over a data sharing agreement between the IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Krause is expected to remain IRS Commissioner through May 15 as the tax-collecting agency handles its busiest time of year.
Shapley is one of two IRS agents who came forward to Congress in 2023 with detailed allegations of misconduct by IRS and Justice Department officials on the long-running Hunter Biden tax case.
Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Shapley and Ziegler informed lawmakers that their superiors at the agency were slow walking the Biden tax probe and not allowing them to pursue relevant lines of inquiry. The pair followed up their testimony by substantiating their allegations with a pile of documents. The IRS agents also testified publicly and later delivered additional testimony and documents about Biden’s taxes and business dealings.
Last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promoted both IRS agents to senior advisory roles to help the Treasury Department’s efforts to modernize and reform the IRS. Their promotions came after a push from Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), a longtime advocate for whistleblower protections, to reward the courage of the IRS agents.
Reacting on X, Grassley called Shapley’s promotion “GR8 NEWS” and praised the Trump administration for rewarding patriotic government whistleblowers.
The Trump administration is attempting to dramatically downscale the IRS’s workforce and shrink its budget as part of its broader quest to streamline the federal administrative state. Trump’s pick for IRS chief, former Representative Billy Long (R., Mo.), has yet to be confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate.
Shapley and Ziegler’s whistleblower revelations were a component of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The IRS whistleblowers’s allegations were further corroborated by testimony from Special Counsel David Weiss and other officials involved with the Hunter Biden case who were testified for the congressional inquiry.
For coming forward, Shapley and Ziegler faced improper retaliation from the IRS, an independent federal monitor recently concluded after a long-running investigation. Shapley previously faced an ultimatum from the IRS to accept a demotion or resign from the agency, a threat the IRS backed off from after pressure from House Republicans.
The IRS whistleblowers had publicly accused the agency of retaliating against them before the watchdog report confirmed their allegations. Shapley has also accused Weiss of having him removed from the Hunter Biden case and pursing retaliation against him.
Hunter Biden is suing the IRS for alleged illegal disclosures by the whistleblowers, a case they have attempted to join as defendants to better advocate for themselves. The IRS agents have also sued Biden’s well-known attorney Abbe Lowell for defamation after Lowell accused them of criminal misconduct.
The high-profile congressional investigation primarily focused on Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings during his father’s vice presidency. In total, congressional investigators found more than $27 million of payments from foreign sources to Hunter Biden and his business partners. The money flowed primarily from Ukrainian, Chinese, and Romanian individuals and businesses to Biden and his associates during and after Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, became special counsel after a generous guilty plea deal between Delaware federal prosecutors and Biden’s legal team fell apart in summer 2023 shortly after the IRS agents testified publicly. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland promoted Weiss to special counsel once the plea agreement fell apart, and Weiss proceeded to prosecute the younger Biden on federal gun and tax charges.
Hunter Biden was convicted on three federal gun charges in June for purchasing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine and lying about his drug usage on gun forms. He later plead guilty to nine federal tax charges stemming from his failure to pay over $1.4 million of federal taxes in a timely manner last decade.
Shapley and Ziegler said they were vindicated for blowing the whistle when Weiss brought the tax charges against Biden in December 2023. The charges were in line with what the IRS agents recommended to the Justice Department during the drawn-out investigation into Biden’s taxes.
Joe Biden pardoned his son in December right before his sentencing dates for both sets of charges. The sweeping pardon covered Hunter Biden’s actions from January 2014 to December 2024, making it one of the most generous in American history. On the last day of his presidency, January 20, Joe Biden handed out pardons to other family members to protect them from the Trump administration.