IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s attorneys are asking the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate an “intentionally misleading” court filing by federal prosecutors in the Hunter Biden tax case.
Shapley’s attorneys wrote a letter to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and a referral to the OIG on Tuesday over a court filing in which special counsel David Weiss’s team of prosecutors appeared to imply Shapley and IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler were under investigation for alleged misconduct. But, Shapley’s attorneys assert the court filing was actually referring to an ongoing OSC investigation of Ziegler and Shapley’s whistleblower retaliation claims.
“We write to refer the conduct of the Office of Special Counsel David Weiss. As described in the attached letter to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Weiss’s office hid and twisted the significance of OSC’s investigation into the whistleblowers’ own allegations that the IRS and Special Counsel Weiss retaliated against them,” Shapley’s attorneys wrote to OIG.
“Rather than acknowledging the truth that OSC is investigating the reprisal against the whistleblowers, the DOJ filing falsely suggested to the public that some unnamed agency was investigating the conduct of the whistleblowers themselves.”
Special counsel Weiss’s office declined to comment. OSC told National Review it “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of open investigations.”
Shapley and Ziegler came forward last year with allegations the Justice Department was slow-walking and obstructing the Hunter Biden tax investigation. The two veteran IRS agents testified last spring before the House Ways and Means Committee and publicly testified shortly thereafter.
The IRS agents turned over a trove of evidentiary documents to the Ways and Means Committee last fall and testified privately again a couple months later. House Republicans released a report in December on the agents’ allegations being confirmed by testimony from various FBI, DOJ, and IRS officials, including Weiss himself.
Shapley was particularly critical of how Weiss handled the case as the U.S. Attorney for Delaware before U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him special counsel last summer. His attorneys accused Weiss’s office of harboring animosity towards the whistleblowers and “intentionally misleading” the public.
“This raises serious questions about whether Special Counsel Weiss’s office engaged in sanctionable misconduct by intentionally misleading the public or the court with its filing merely to generate a false public relations narrative as further reprisal for the protected whistleblower disclosures about his office,” they wrote to the OSC.
“It is clear Weiss’s office harbors animus towards the whistleblowers.”
Weiss is prosecuting Hunter Biden on three federal gun charges and nine federal tax charges, the latter being similar to the charges recommended by the IRS agents. When Hunter Biden was indicted on tax charges in December, the whistleblowers expressed vindication for speaking out.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the tax charges earlier this year, and his criminal trial is scheduled to take place next month, after his criminal trial concerning the gun charges.
Now, Hunter Biden is suing the IRS for alleged illegal disclosures by the IRS whistleblowers. Biden’s attorneys have asked Weiss to criminally investigate the IRS whistleblowers and unsuccessfully tried to have the tax charges dismissed because of the IRS whistleblowers.
Last week, the government acknowledged Shapley and Ziegler’s whistleblower disclosures were legally protected in a court filing for the IRS lawsuit. The whistleblowers have accused Biden of trying to silence them with the lawsuit.
Shapley and Ziegler’s testimony is part of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden over his apparent role in his son’s foreign business dealings. Republican lawmakers have asked the Justice Department for more information on whether the IRS whistleblowers are facing retaliation for coming forward.