One of the emails showed a Department of Justice official telling investigators not to ask about then-candidate Joe Biden, members said.
A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Sept. 27 released additional information from whistleblowers who worked on the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son.
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee voted behind closed doors to make public more emails and other documents received from IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Zeigler.
The tranche of materials includes an August 2020 email from Lesley Wolf, a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney helping to oversee the investigation of Hunter Biden, telling investigators to redraft a search warrant to remove mention of “political figure 1.”
That was a reference to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, according to Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the panel.
“It’s about a two-tiered system of justice. If Joe Biden’s name had been Smith or Jones or Johnson, he would not have been excluded from this search warrant. But he was. And we wouldn’t know that if the whistleblowers had not come forward,” Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. attorney and member of the committee, told reporters.
Mr. Shapley and Mr. Zeigler were among the IRS, FBI, and DOJ officials probing the president’s son.
The officials were removed from the probe into Mr. Biden after they went to Congress, raising concerns of retaliation.
The DOJ has said the decision to remove the officials was made before they took their concerns to Congress.
Other newly released documents show officials advising more charges than were eventually brought against Mr. Biden.
In one, Mr. Zeigler recommended Mr. Biden be charged with felonies for intentionally not paying taxes on income received from 2014 through 2018 and submitting returns with false information because he allegedly mislabeled purported business deductions and failed to report money he received from one of his children’s college savings plan. Another shows that a phone call took place during which, according to Mr. Zeigler, DOJ prosecutors recommended three misdemeanors and a felony charge for the years 2017 through 2019.
By Zachary Stieber
