During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, two IRS whistleblowers asserted that the Justice Department deliberately delayed its investigation into Hunter Biden and disregarded suggestions to pursue felony tax charges.
What Happened: IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler claimed that the U.S. Attorney David Weiss, appointed by Donald Trump and heading the Hunter Biden investigation, faced restrictions in filing charges outside of Delaware, reported CNN.
Ziegler, whose identity remained undisclosed until Wednesday, revealed that prosecutors from DOJ’s tax division prepared a 99-page memo in August 2022 suggesting felony and misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden. However, these recommendations were not acted upon, which Ziegler considered part of several instances of “abnormal” decision-making and resistance from political appointees at the DOJ.
"It appeared to me, based on what I experienced, that the U.S. attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other U.S. attorneys," Ziegler said.
Meanwhile, the whistleblowers also revealed that Justice Department officials obstructed their investigation into President Joe Biden and his grandchildren after uncovering potential links to Hunter Biden’s financial issues.
"When the subject's father is somehow related to the finances of the subject, in the normal course of any Investigation, we would have to get that information to properly vet the financial flows of money and determine what we end up charging," Shapley said adding that his team was prevented from pursuing leads concerning the president and his grandchildren.
The Justice Department and White House have refuted the whistleblowers’ claims of political interference in the Hunter Biden probe, a stance consistent with their earlier closed-door testimony, released last month. President Biden has also maintained that he had no involvement in his son’s business dealings.
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