The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation into Hunter Biden started five years ago first as an investigation into a foreign pornography ring, newly published records show.
On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee released the transcripts of two IRS whistleblowers who detailed behind-the-scenes efforts by the Biden administration to stifle federal investigations into the president’s son.
Gary Shapley, a longtime IRS agent with the agency since 2009, told House investigators the probe into Hunter Biden began in November 2018. Code-named “Sportsman,” the IRS launched the investigation “as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.”
Just one year later, Shapley said, “the FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime.” The federal investigative bureau “verified its authenticity in November of 2019.”
Senate Republicans unearthed evidence that Hunter Biden was involved in a foreign human trafficking ring with a bombshell report published three years ago. In September 2020, GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson released their findings of a years-long investigation into the Biden family’s myriad financial conflicts of interest. In their report, Senate investigators accused Hunter Biden of making a series of payments to foreign nationals lawmakers identified with “questionable backgrounds” consistent with “organized prostitution and/or human trafficking.”
Records housed by their committees, the Senate report said, “confirm that Hunter Biden sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution.”
The testimony from two IRS whistleblowers out Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee outlined how the Justice Department interfered with the tax agency’s probe “in the form of delays, divulgences, and denials, into the investigation of tax crimes that may have been committed by the President’s son.”
Shapley made his first public appearance to speak about the Hunter Biden tax investigation with an interview on CBS News in May.
“When I took control of this particular investigation, I immediately saw it was way outside the norm of what I’ve experienced in the past,” said Shapley, who was assigned to the case in 2020.
“There were multiple steps that were slow-walked — were just completely not done — at the direction of the Department of Justice,” Shapley added. “These deviations from the process,” he added, “seemed to always benefit the subject.”
House Republican Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri outlined the whistleblowers’ testimony in a Thursday press conference.
Number one, the federal government is not treating taxpayers equally when enforcing tax laws. Number two, whistleblowers claim the Biden Department of Justice is intervening and overstepping when it comes to the investigation of the president’s son. And number three, these whistleblowers report they have faced almost immediate retaliation.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan's email newsletter here.