Lawyers for two IRS whistleblowers who informed Congress about the Hunter Biden criminal probe are seeking an inspector general investigation into Special Counsel David Weiss, alleging he \u2018hid and twisted\u2019 information \u2013 prompting more angst on Capitol Hill amid inquiries into Biden family conduct and alleged politicization of the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
Empower Oversight, the legal group representing IRS special agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, allege that Weiss\u2019 team \u2013 in a March 11 federal court filing \u2013 deliberately misled the public by suggesting an unnamed federal agency was investigating the two whistleblowers for misconduct. However, the vague reference to the \u2018potential investigation(s)\u2019 is a reference to a probe the whistleblowers sought, alleging the Justice Department and IRS were retaliating against them for their disclosures.<\/p>\n
Shapley and Ziegler testified last year to Congress alleging political considerations led the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service to go soft on its probe of Hunter Biden\u2019s finances. Now, they have taken fire from both the defense and prosecution, noted House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.<\/p>\n
\u2018Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the two brave IRS whistleblowers who made legally protected disclosures to Congress about misconduct within the Justice Department, have been attacked by Hunter Biden\u2019s legal team,\u2019 Comer told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n
\u2018Special Counsel Weiss has been part of this smear campaign as he misled the public that the IRS whistleblowers were under investigation when in fact they were not,\u2019 Comer continued. \u2018Ever since Special Counsel Weiss got caught trying to give Hunter Biden a sweetheart plea deal, he\u2019s been trying to cover his tracks. There must be accountability for this misconduct.\u2019<\/p>\n
Empower Oversight wants two Justice Department agencies \u2013 the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility \u2013 to investigate the conduct by Weiss\u2019 office.<\/p>\n
\u2018David Weiss has been retaliating against Gary Shapley ever since Shapley objected a year and a half ago to letting the statute of limitations lapse on 2014 felony tax charges against Hunter Biden,\u2019 Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, told Fox News Digital. \u2018Weiss then learned from internal IRS communications that Shapley had been telling his IRS chain of command about Weiss\u2019 office pulling punches in the Hunter Biden probe.\u2019<\/p>\n
In a letter this week, representatives for the two whistleblowers also asked the Office of Special Counsel \u2013 an independent whistleblower protection agency known as OSC, not to be confused with Weiss\u2019s office \u2013 to clarify for the record that the two agents are not under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u2018Weiss\u2019 response is exactly why Shapley filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint with OSC in the first place,\u2019 Leavitt continued. \u2018DOJ OIG or OPR need to investigate to see whether Weiss\u2019 office intentionally misled the public in order to further retaliate against the IRS whistleblowers.\u2019<\/p>\n
Reached by Fox News Digital, Weiss spokesperson Kim Reeves declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Hunter Biden entered a plea deal with Delaware U.S. Attorney Weiss\u2019 office. However, Shapley and Ziegler \u2013 who worked on the investigation \u2013 presented the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight Committee with new information about the case. Shortly thereafter, a federal judge rejected the agreement.<\/p>\n
After that, Attorney General Merrick Garland gave Weiss special counsel status, allowing him to bring charges outside his jurisdiction. Weiss secured an indictment on a gun charge in Delaware and a tax evasion case in California. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In February, Hunter Biden\u2019s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the tax case in California, arguing in part that Shapley and Ziegler made disclosures that put political pressure on prosecutors.<\/p>\n
The March 11 filing by Weiss\u2019 office in federal court in the Central District of California was in opposition to the motion to dismiss the case, and attempted to rebut that claim about the influence of whistleblowers \u2013 though in doing so, suggested they were under investigation.<\/p>\n
The Weiss response to the motion to dismiss said Shapley and Ziegler \u2018made unsubstantiated claims that prosecutors\u2019 decision-making in this investigation was infected by politics.\u2019 It adds the \u2018IRS has taken responsible steps to address Shapley and Ziegler\u2019s conduct.\u2019 It directs the court to Exhibit 2, redacted from the public.<\/p>\n
The Weiss team explains redactions in Exhibit 2 are because, \u2018Here, the potential investigation(s) may involve allegations of wrongdoing, and the potential investigation(s) could be frustrated, not served, if the public were allowed access to these materials in the midst of the potential investigation(s).\u2019<\/p>\n
On May 14, the advocates for the IRS whistleblowers wrote a letter to the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Office of Professional Responsibility Counsel Jeffrey Ragsdale.<\/p>\n
\u2018Weiss\u2019 office hid and twisted the significance of OSC\u2019s investigation into the whistleblowers\u2019 own allegations that the IRS and Special Counsel Weiss retaliated against them,\u2019 the letter to DOJ internal watchdog officials says. \u2018Rather 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.\u2019<\/p>\n
The letter was signed by Leavitt, Empower Oversight founder Jason Foster, as well as attorneys Marke Lytle and Justin Gelfand.<\/p>\n
The same day, the four signed a lengthier letter to the OSC acting principal deputy counsel, Karen Gorman. The letter notes the vague reference to investigations in Exhibit 2 was an OSC probe of the IRS and Justice Department initiated by Shapley and Ziegler. Whereas, the Weiss filing suggested the investigation is targeting Shapley and Ziegler. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The letter to Gorman says the OSC should \u2018not allow the Justice Department to mischaracterize your work for the purposes of a retaliatory attack on the reputation of whistleblowers who have done nothing wrong.\u2019<\/p>\n
An OSC spokesperson acknowledged receipt of the letter to Fox News Digital, but could not confirm or deny the existence of an open investigation.<\/p>\n
The OSC has been under scrutiny for other reasons loosely related to the case involving President Biden\u2019s son. The president appointed Hampton Dellinger, a former colleague of Hunter Biden at a law firm, to run the agency. Dellinger has recused himself from this case.<\/p>\n
\u2018However, it would be entirely improper if the rest of OSC were to stay silent as the Biden Justice Department mischaracterizes OSC\u2019s work probing the reprisal against the IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden case,\u2019 the letter to Gorman says. \u2018Accordingly, we respectfully request that you correct the record as soon as possible.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
Lawyers for two IRS whistleblowers who informed Congress about the Hunter Biden criminal probe are seeking an inspector general investigation into Special Counsel David Weiss, alleging he \u2018hid and twisted\u2019 information \u2013 prompting more angst on Capitol Hill amid inquiries into Biden family conduct and alleged politicization of the Justice Department. Empower Oversight, the legal <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}