What Did the Whistleblowers Say?

The promised testimony from two veteran IRS whistleblowers was heard today by members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. They gave details about how officials in the Justice Department slowed or impeded an investigation of Hunter Biden unpaid taxes. Republicans tried to obtain as many details as possible from the whistleblowers, while Democrats tried multiple times to bring Donald Trump into the discussion and to disparage the whistleblowers.

IRS supervisor Gary Shapley went public several weeks ago, but IRS agent Joseph Ziegler, from Shapley’s office, identified himself publicly for the first time today. Among other things, Ziegler, a Democrat, called for a special counsel to look at the plea deal made between the DOJ and Hunter Biden. The agreement says that Hunter Biden will avoid prison by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failure to file income taxes. The deal was reached even though there is evidence that Hunter Biden used his father’s name to make millions of dollars dealing with China, Ukraine, Russia, and other nations. Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal found the following highlights in the hearing today. 

1. ‘Investigative Steps That Involved President Biden.’

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., brought up an FBI form in which a confidential informant says an executive of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid a $5 million bribe to Joe Biden while he was vice president and made a separate $5 million payment to Hunter Biden….

Shapley replied that knows only what has been reported about that.

“I can say there were investigative steps that involved President Biden that were not allowed to be taken,” Shapley told the committee. “Information like this would have been really helpful to have for investigators when we received any pushback….”

Palmer sked whether IRS investigators weren’t allowed to see other evidence. In answering, Shapley referred to Assistant U.S. Attorney for Delaware Lesley Wolf, who works for the official who is supposed to be in charge of the investigation: U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss.

“One piece was the Hunter Biden laptop,” Shapley told Palmer, then referred to previous sworn testimony in which he mentioned his own memo that “documented contemporaneously” what Wolf told IRS and Justice Department investigators Sept. 3, 2020.

Wolf said that “they had information from the laptop that they were not providing to the investigators,” Shapley told Palmer….

2. $17 Million From Foreign Interests.

House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., asked Ziegler about the amount of money that Hunter Biden and his business associates collected from foreign companies over the years.

“How much money did Hunter Biden and his associates receive from the Romanian company you identified?” Comer asked.

Ziegler responded: “The approximate total transfer from the Romanian company would have been $3.1 million to everyone.”

[Comer asked Ziegler about other companies: State Energy HK Ltd. Through the Robinson Walker LLC - $3 million; Burisma - $7.3 million]

 

 

3. ‘Who Are You Going to Believe?’

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a member of the Oversight Committee who also chairs the House Judiciary Committee, noted multiple contradictions from the Justice Department.

Jordan kept asking, “Who are you going to believe?” in comparing the Justice Department with the IRS whistleblowers who said the Justice Department slow-walked and impeded the investigation of Hunter Biden….

“Who are you going to believe?” he asked. “The Justice Department that can’t get their story straight, change three times in 33 days, or these two guys, the go-to guys in international tax evasion cases, the A-team when it comes to these kind[s] of investigations, all over the world they’ve done this, and have been consistent throughout?”

4. ‘Afraid to Ask Questions’

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Ziegler said, the Justice Department used that as grounds not to follow certain leads because of a policy against election interference. But, he said, after Biden was elected, the investigation of his son was “hamstrung.”

“When it came to questions as a part of the investigation, we interviewed a lot of people,” Ziegler said. “As a part of that investigation, you want to feel free to ask questions. It should be an open environment. [But] there was an environment when we were interviewing witnesses when you were afraid to ask questions that could lead to the presidential campaign. And this is after the campaign is over, it was restricted.” ….

[Shapely was asked about who POTUS in the fall of 2020 was.] “Joe Biden at the time was a nominee for president of the United States. Therefore, the election clause with DOJ policy was in effect. It wasn’t until Sept. 4, 2020, that the Department of Justice Public Integrity [Section] said we could no longer take any action on that case. As early as April to June of 2020, the Department of Justice, Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, was already involving the election as a reason not to perform those search warrants.”