The Biden Justice Department has come under fire after evidence revealed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith revealed that the Department had interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden‘s taxes.
In a press conference on Thursday, Smith said the evidence from two IRS whistleblowers reveals that the Biden DOJ had engaged in a “campaign of delay, divulge, and deny“ to prevent the investigation from proceeding.
The whistleblower testimonies were made public by Smith and included claims of a lack of US attorney independence, frequent and unwarranted delays to the investigation, unusual and unorthodox actions from the prosecution team, and threats from defense counsel which impeded the investigation.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith:
“Recurring unjustified delays pervaded the investigation, including authenticating a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden demands payment from Chinese officials, noting that his father is in the room.”pic.twitter.com/xWDDeFHBzZ
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 22, 2023
Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley with the IRS Criminal Investigation spoke with the Committee on May 26, 2023 and revealed that since October 2022 he and his team had been the subject of IRS CI retaliation.
He explained that even after evidence of impropriety from DOJ had been exposed, IRS CI senior leadership had acquiesced to DOJ requests to remove his team from the Hunter Biden case, a case they had been working on for over five years.
Shapley has chosen to “blow the whistle“ on the preferential treatment that the Delaware US Attorney‘s Office, Department of Justice Tax, and Department of Justice had been providing and how it had been undermining the impartiality of the investigation.
He also noted that due to delays, the investigation failed to authenticate a WhatsApp message between himself and Chinese officials in which Hunter Biden had noted that his father was present.
Moreover, Shapley said that in August 2020, the iCloud search warrant yielded messages which should have been followed up on, but prosecutors denied investigators‘ requests to develop a strategy as well as their suggestion to obtain location information of origin.
Ladies and gentleman: JOE BIDEN WAS IN THE ROOM pic.twitter.com/sGEd09Ljbv
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) June 22, 2023
In September, Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf questioned whether the “juice was worth the squeeze“ in pursuing a physical search warrant at the guest house in Biden‘s Delaware residence, stating that “optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant.”
By December, delays due to the election had pushed back the “day of action“ which included 12 interviews. The night before, it had been tipped off to the secret service and transition team, giving them time to “obstruct the approach on the witnesses.”
These allegations have raised eyebrow amongst Smith and other Republicans, who have called for an explanation from the Biden administration on why it appears that their actions have been impacting the IRS investigations, potentially leading to perpetrators slipping through the cracks.
