WASHINGTON—The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability today held a hearing with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers on the Biden criminal investigation. IRS whistleblowers who investigated Hunter Biden’s evasion of taxes on his $8.3 million in income today exposed the Department of Justice’s politicization and misconduct during the investigation. The Department of Justice prevented investigators from following evidence that could have led to Joe Biden; divulged sensitive information to Hunter Biden’s attorneys; and allowed the clock to run out to prevent charging Hunter Biden with felonies. President Biden’s politically appointed U.S. Attorneys for D.C. and Central District of California denied the U.S. Attorney in Delaware’s request to bring charges, which has now put Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal. Additionally, the IRS whistleblowers’ testimony confirms the Oversight Committee’s findings about the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes.
Key Takeaways
The testimony offered by two career IRS whistleblowers shows the DOJ, FBI, and IRS’s investigation of Hunter Biden confirms the Oversight Committee’s findings about the Biden family.
- According to financial records obtained by the Oversight Committee, the Biden family set up over 20 shell companies, most of which were created when Joe Biden was vice president. IRS whistleblowers have confirmed the existence of these companies.
- Bank records obtained so far by the Oversight Committee show the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ and their related companies. The Bidens engaged in many intentionally complicated financial transactions through their associates to hide these payments and avoid scrutiny.
- Both the Oversight Committee and whistleblowers have confirmed Hunter received millions of dollars from China, Ukraine, and Romania. IRS whistleblowers also presented evidence of Joe Biden’s knowledge and possible involvement in his family’s business schemes.
IRS whistleblowers provided evidence of the Justice Department’s politicization and misconduct in the Biden criminal investigation.
- Joe Ziegler, a 13-year Special Agent with the IRS, testified how the Bidens were given preferential treatment during the Justice Department’s investigation:
- “In the Criminal Tax Manual, Chapter 10, found on the Department of Justice website, Tax Division policy states, ‘Cases involving individuals who fail to fil tax returns or pat a tax but who also commit acts of evasion or obstruction should be charged as felonies to avoid inequitable treatment.’ In early August of 2022, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice Tax Division drafted a 99-page memorandum. This memorandum recommended approving felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017m 2018, and 2019 tax years. If the Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss followed DOJ policy as he stated in his most recent letter, Hunter Biden should have been charged with a tax felony, and not only the tax misdemeanor charge. We need to treat each taxpayer equally under the law.”
- “The assigned prosecutors did not follow the ordinary process, slow walked the investigation and put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case.” Ziegler noted that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf and DOJ-Tax Attorney Mark Daly tipped off Hunter Biden’s attorneys about his storage unit, which potentially allowed evidence to be “destroyed, manipulated or concealed.” He was also prevented from interviewing and getting records from Hunter Biden’s adult children and members of the Biden Family, calling this “abnormal and a deviation from normal procedure.”
- IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley testified, “I am here to tell you that the Delaware USAO and Department of Justice handling of the Hunter Biden tax investigation was very different from any other case in my 14 years at the IRS. In this country, we believe in the rule of law, and that applies to everyone. There should not be a two-track justice system depending on who you are and who you’re connected to. Yet in this case, there was. At every stage decisions were made that benefited the subject of the investigation.” He noted how evidence, including the laptop, was concealed from investigators. The Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office also slow-walked interviews, serving document requests, and pursuing physical search warrants.
IRS whistleblowers confirm they were not allowed to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden.
- Supervisory Special Agent Shapley testified, “After an electronic search warrant on Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud led us to WhatsApp messages with several CEFC China Energy executives where he claimed to be sitting and discussing business with his father Joe Biden, we sought permission to follow up on the information in the messages. Prosecutors would not allow it. Around this time, a search warrant for the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence was being planned. Yet, despite agreeing that there was probable cause, AUSA Wolf cited the ‘optics’ of executing a search warrant at President Biden’s resident as the deciding factor for not allowing it to be completed … AUSA Wolf also told investigators they should not ask about President Biden during witness interviews even when the business communications of his son clearly referenced him.”
- Special Agent Ziegler stated, “I would like to point out that one of the [WhatsApp] messages shown on Exhibit 11 on 8/3/2017 shown toward the end of the conversation, Director Zhang says that he wants to convey ‘his best regards to you, Jim, and VP.’ This may be direct contradiction to what President Biden was saying about not being involved in Hunter’s overseas business dealings.”
- When asked about the FBI’s FD-1023 form alleging Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme with a Burisma executive, both Shapley and Ziegler confirmed they never had seen or heard of it during the investigation. Ziegler went on to say that they had potentially corroborating evidence.
Attorney General Merrick Garland may have perjured himself.
- On March 1, 2023, Attorney General Merrick Garland testified that “The United States Attorney has been advised he has full authority to make those referrals you’re talking about or to bring cases in other districts if he needs to do that. He has been advised that he should get anything he needs. I have not heard anything from that office that suggests they are not able to do anything that the U.S. Attorney wants them to do.”
- IRS Supervisory Special Agent Shapley memorialized in an email a meeting where U.S. Attorney David Weiss told multiple people that he was not the deciding person on whether charges are filed. Weiss stated that he went to the D.C. U.S. Attorney to request charges there but was denied. Weiss also requested special counsel authority when it was sent to D.C. and the Justice Department denied his request. No witnesses at the meeting have refuted Shapley’s summary of the meeting. In fact, his supervisor said he “covered it all.”
- Special Agent Ziegler testified, “While the impression was that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware has essentially the powers of special counsel in this case, free rein to do as needed, as is clearly shown, this was not the case. 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.”
IRS whistleblowers have faced retaliation from the federal government for providing evidence of politicization, misconduct, and wrongdoing.
- Special Agent Ziegler stated, “DOJ-Tax have a clear target on me and my supervisors back and I believe that they are just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on us. My own agency retaliated against me and threatened me with criminal conduct in response to an internal email I sent to IRS leadership, even years after of essentially being left on an island when it came to this investigation.”
- Supervisory Special Agent Shapley stated, “The senior leaders who are my immediate supervisors are currently making the mistake of retaliating against me for simply reporting outside the chain of command what I genuinely believed was wrong and could not be addressed internally. IRS senior leadership is allowing this retaliation and possibly assisting. My direct supervisor has not spoken with me in six weeks. Suddenly, all kinds of unusual scrutiny came down on me and my agents.”
The Committees on Oversight and Accountability, Ways and Means, and Judiciary are working to present facts to the American people that the Biden Administration continues to deny, even when faced with overwhelming evidence.
- House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) have called on senior leaders at the Department of Justice, IRS, and Secret Service to make over a dozen employees available for transcribed interviews who possess information concerning allegations of politicization and misconduct at their agencies with respect to the investigation of Hunter Biden.
- The Committees will continue to follow the facts to provide the answers, transparency, and accountability that the American people demand and deserve.
Member Highlights
Supervisory Special Agent Shapley told Chairman Comer that prosecutors prevented investigators from following evidence contained in WhatsApp messages about the Bidens’ work with CEFC, a CCP-linked energy company.
Chairman Comer: “There was a message from Hunter Biden to Kevin Dong, who is with CEFC, and it said, ‘the Biden’s are the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairman wants from this partnership.’ Now the chairman he’s referring to is Chairman Ye of CEFC, is that correct?”
Mr. Shapley: “I believe so, yes.”
Chairman Comer: “Can you tell me what the Bidens are best at? Can you tell me what he would’ve meant by that?”
Mr. Shapley: “With respect to the WhatsApp messages, we clearly needed to follow up on and that was really one of the major deviations in this case is that investigators and Special Agent Ziegler asked to take some investigative steps to review that and it just simply wasn’t supported by the prosecutors.”
Special Agent Ziegler told Ways and Means Committee Chairman Smith (R-Mo.) that in a first in his career at the IRS, the agency was prevented from interviewing witnesses – Hunter Biden’s adult children – as part of an investigation.
Chairman Smith: “Mr. Ziegler, on page 32 of the transcript of your testimony, you discuss the need to interview Hunter Biden’s adult children regarding certain deductions that you listed earlier of Hunter Biden included on his tax returns. You also testified that Assistant United States Attorney Lesley Wolf told you that you would get into hot water if interviewed the president’s grandchildren. In other cases that you’ve worked over your career, have you ever had a prosecutor tell you that you couldn’t interview a relevant witness?”
Mr. Ziegler: “There are certain things that come into whether we talk to a witness or not. So, if they’re an attorney, if there’s some special situation that might come up that might cause caution to interviewing that witness, but I’ve never been told that we couldn’t approach someone to interview them as a part of an investigation. I mean there’s certain situations where you have to do a further analysis of the information that you might get, like I said if they’re an attorney, but in this case, we needed to talk to witnesses related to things that were deducted on the tax return. In this case it was the adult children that we needed to talk to.”
Supervisory Special Agent Shapley discussed with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) how U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss told multiple people that he was not the deciding person in whether charges were filed. No witnesses at the meeting have refuted Shapley’s recollection of the meeting.
Mr. Shapley: “Yes [Weiss] told me that he was not the deciding person in whether or not charges were filed. He told us that D.C. U.S. Attorney had declined to allow charges, he told us that he had requested special counsel authority from Main DOJ.”
Rep. Jordan: “And was denied?”
Mr. Shapley: “That’s correct.”
Rep. Jordan: “Were you the only guy in that meeting?”
Mr. Shapley: “I was not.”
Rep. Jordan: “How many other people were there?”
Mr. Shapley: “There were seven total people including me.”
Special Agent Ziegler confirmed to Rep. Byron Donalds that the Bidens received $17.3 million income from China, Ukraine, and Romania from 2014-2019. The House Oversight Committee has identified $10 million and counting, revealing how the IRS whistleblowers’ testimony confirms the committee’s investigation.
Rep. Donalds: “There are elements at the DOJ who did not want this information out, who did not want to go down the line of prosecution, actually going through the evidence gathering process to the depths to which this international pay-for-play scheme, that was actually happening around Joe Biden, through Hunter Biden, and all the money that the Biden family was recurring…last question, how much did you uncover that was coming from Ukraine, Romania, and China?”
Mr. Ziegler: “$17.3 million approximately.”
Mr. Donalds: “$17.3 million dollars through your investigation and your and Mr. Shapley, you are the guys that investigate criminal tax evasion on an international scale, is that correct?”
Mr. Ziegler: “That is correct.”
Mr. Donalds: “Question for the Chairman, through the investigation of the Oversight Committee, about how much money have we seen come from Ukraine, Romania, and China?”
Rep. Comer: “Over $10 million.”
Mr. Donalds: “So we have two separate investigations, one done by the investigative branch of the IRS that is charged with doing these types of investigations, these are the people you want doing them, and an independent investigation of the Oversight Committee and were coming up with the same amount of money, give or take, going through the same person in Hunter Biden. His investigation is slow walked and we’re supposed to sit here and think that Joe Biden knows nothing?”
IRS whistleblowers told Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) that critical evidence was withheld from investigators during the investigation, including the FBI’s Biden Bribery Record and the Hunter Biden laptop.
Rep. Palmer: “The oversight committee recently viewed an unclassified document from the FBI called an FD-1023 form which is a form used by the FBI to memorialize information related to a confidential human source. The FD-1023 form was created in June of 2020, this is not a tip sheet, this is not a hotline, it’s not a suggestion box. It’s a legitimate source used by the FBI…Mr. Shapley did you every review the June 2020 FD-1023 form with the information about Hunter Biden and President Biden?”
Mr. Shapley: “No I did not.”
Rep. Palmer: “Was there other evidence that in this investigation that you were denied access to?”
Mr. Shapley: “Yes there was…One piece was the Hunter Biden laptop, there’s a memorandum in that document…that states what Assistant US Attorney Leslie Wolf told us on that day, I think it was September 3, 2020, and that’s that they had information from the laptop that they were not providing to the investigators.”
Supervisory Special Agent Shapley told Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) that the FBI never obtained geolocation data to determine whether Joe Biden was in the room when Hunter Biden demanded payment from a Chinese company.
Rep. Gosar: “Did the DOJ prosecutors deny your request to look into the famous quote, ‘I’m sitting here with my father’ texts from Hunter Biden? Did they allow you to obtain location information to see where the text was sent from?”
Mr. Ziegler: “So I know it was an issue that came up whether we can get the location data, and I know that that was a conversation that I would have had with the assigned prosecutors. I recall them saying to me, ‘how do we know that he’s there, how do we know that that’s true the statement that’s being made there, And then I said that we would get the location data. So as a part of my normal investigation, that’s what I would do. What I can tell you is I know I didn’t do it. I don’t know if the FBI ever ended up doing it. It was kind of like a ‘I need to think about it,’ I guess is the proper response.”
IRS whistleblowers confirm Joe Biden is the “big guy.”
Rep. Biggs: “The day of action, you guys were intending to interview twelve people, one of whom was Rob Walker, and a business associate of Hunter Biden. And in particular, you wanted to talk about, I think the quote is ’10 held by H for the big guy’, right? Who did you infer that the big guy might be?”
Mr. Zeigler: “So, all I can do is speak to the evidence there. What I can say is, I think I know what you’re referring to is when we’re preparing for that interview and we’re referencing that email, ‘ten held by H for the big guy’ and from what I understand that to be his dad, President Biden.”
Rep. Biggs: “So I’m sorry, I just want to ask Mr. Shapley a similar question, because the ‘AUSA Wolf interjected,’ and I’m reading from your transcript now instead, ‘she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad.’’ in quotes. Who did you take dad to be when she refers to dad?”
Mr. Shapley: “The father of the subject is President Biden.”
Supervisory Special Agent Shapley told Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) that investigators were prevented from asking questions about Joe Biden, even though there was evidence that he was involved with his son’s foreign business dealings.
Rep. Grothman: “The US Attorney Leslie Wolf told you she did not want you to ask questions about Dad, meaning Joe Biden is that correct?”
Mr. Shapley: “That is correct.”
Rep. Grothman: “Assistant US Attorney General Wolf was, you felt, conceding that the big guy was Joe Biden, do you think that’s accurate?”
Mr. Grothman: “And did Rob Walker tell you that President Biden had ever showed up to a meeting with his son’s business associates?”
Mr. Shapley: “He told us that [President Biden] had shown up to the meetings…the witness described an instance where CEFC executives were meeting at the Four Seasons and that the subject’s father, President Biden, showed up at that meeting.”
Mr. Grothman: “So President Biden was there physically?”
Mr. Shapley: “That’s what the witness said, yes.”
Supervisory Special Agent Shapley details to Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) how FBI headquarters tipped off Secret Service headquarters and the Biden transition team about the planned interview with Hunter Biden. As a result of this disclosure, investigators never were able to interview Hunter Biden.
Mr. Shapley: “So, the FBI, SSA and I were assigned with interviewing Hunter Biden that day, and the day previous we went to the LA FBI field office and asked the Special Agent in Charge to contact the Secret Service Special Agent in Charge from the LA Field Office at 8am on the morning of December 8th and tell them that two agents were going to approach Hunter Biden as part of an official investigation. The night before, all of that changed.”
Rep. Armstrong: “And all of that changed because FBI headquarters and Secret Service headquarters coordinated, and that information had gotten out to everybody the night before. We can talk about whether it’s a highly political investigation and all of those different things, but there’s another group of people that was made aware of that the night before, wasn’t there?”
Mr. Shapley: “Yeah, that’s correct.”
Rep. Armstrong: “And that would be the transition team.”
Mr. Shapley: “That’s correct.”
Rep. Armstrong: “In your entire history and working and history with the IRS, you ever worked with a transition team to help set up an interview with a subject of a criminal investigation?”
Mr. Shapley: “I have not.”
Rep. Armstrong: “Last question. Did you ever get to interview Hunter Biden?”
Mr. Shapley: “We did not interview him.”
Special Agent Ziegler confirms to Rep. Russel Fry (R-S.C.) that Hunter Biden made money from China, contradicting President Biden’s statements on the matter.
Rep. Fry: “In 2020, candidate Biden at the time, said during a debate, and I’m going to quote, ‘my son has not made any money in terms of this thing about…what are you talking about, China? I have not …the only guy that made money from China is Donald Trump, he’s the only one who has made money from China, nobody else has made money from China.’ Mr. Ziegler, was the President telling the truth when he said that his son Hunter Biden had not made any money from China?”
Mr. Ziegler: “So I don’t know if the President at the time was thinking, but I can tell you based on what I testified in my transcript that he did earn money from China.”
Mr. Fry: “Right and in March of 2023, just a couple months ago, the Committee showed through bank records that Hunter Biden, James Biden, Hallie Biden all received originating from China funneled through Robinson Walker LLC, a company owned by Rob Walker who is a well-known Biden associate and when presented with this evidence by a reporter, the President said ‘that’s not true’. Mr. Ziegler is it true that the President’s family received money originating from China which was funneled through the Robinson Walker account?”
Mr. Ziegler: “That is correct.”
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) asked witnesses about Hunter Biden’s unpaid taxes on income from Burisma in 2014, which he attempted to categorize as a loan. Both whistleblowers testified that Hunter Biden owes $145,000 in unpaid taxes on $400,000 of income from 2014. Due to DOJ’s slow walking, the statute of limitations expired, allowing Hunter Biden to get away with this tax evasion.
Rep. Turner: “So [Hunter Biden] has in his pocket $125,000 of money that should have gone to federal government as taxes. In the state of Ohio, you’ve got an average family earning about $62,000 per household. That’s like two full households of tax income that he got to keep in his pocket. The thing I wonder is that he could pay that today. Right? Voluntarily?”
Mr. Shapley: “If he chose to voluntarily, yes he could.”
IRS whistleblowers detailed to Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) the retaliation they have faced as a result of providing legally protected whistleblower disclosures.
Mr. Shapley: “Since I made these disclosures that are legally protected, the IRS has chosen to retaliate against me in multiple ways, even now there is a major case initiative against Special Agent Ziegler which has been put on the back burner as well and just being slow walked. Again, my immediate supervisor and two levels above him haven’t spoken to me since June 1, 2023. Even though I’m sending them emails and trying to conduct my business on a daily basis, they literally have not spoken to me.”
Mr. Ziegler: “To be completely honest this is going to make me a bit emotional. It’s essentially like being left out on an island, and I don’t know if that’s done purposefully, but I essentially made disclosures up to the commissioner of the IRS where I said what happened. The response I got a few days later was I may have broken the law, and don’t ever do this again, your emails need to go through your leadership. So to have that come to me was chilling.”
Original Release on Oversight.House.gov
