Justice Department attorneys agreed with Internal Revenue Service agents that Hunter Biden should have been charged with tax felonies, but were stymied by White House appointees, two IRS whistleblowers will testify before Congress.
IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and another whistleblower will testify in front of the House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee Wednesday afternoon. The two men previously testified behind closed doors to the House Ways and Means Committee. The whistleblowers will testify that several prosecutors agreed that Hunter Biden should have been charged with multiple tax felonies, but that they were prevented from doing so by higher-ups at the Justice Department, according to opening testimonies first reported by Politico.
“Two Assistant U.S. Attorneys, two DOJ tax attorneys, DOJ Tax Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart Goldberg, and USA Weiss all assisted on this investigation since its inception, knew all of the evidence, and agreed with the prosecution of felony charges in both D.C. and the Central District of California,” Shapley will say.
New: Gary Shapley says he is “now working cooperatively to schedule something with the Senate, if necessary, after today’s hearing,” per opening statement to House Oversight
His opening statement: https://t.co/Xc5W0hOBDR
And “whistleblower X’s” opener: https://t.co/DSu2rPunTA
— Jordain Carney (@jordainc) July 19, 2023
“In early August of 2022, we had a phone call with the assigned prosecutors and the investigative team, to include my Supervisor Gary Shapley,” the other whistleblower will add. “On this call, the assigned prosecutors had said that the U.S. Attorneys assigned (AUSA Lesley Wolf and Carly Hudson) and the DOJ-Tax Attorneys assigned (Mark Daly and Jack Morgan) were going to recommend for approval the misdemeanor and felony charges for 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax years and that the appropriate venue would be in the Central District of California which was written up in a 99-page prosecution memo.”
Hunter Biden is expected to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and will enter a pretrial diversion program for a felony firearms charge. The 2014 and 2015 tax felony charges reached the statute of limitations after District Attorneys Matthew Graves and E. Martin Estrada declined to bring charges in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, respectively. (RELATED: Meet The US Attorney Who Allegedly Covered For Hunter Biden)
Shapley will testify that he decided to come forward as a whistleblower in October 2022 after Weiss told a room of law enforcement agents that he was “not the deciding person on whether charges are filed.” That statement contradicted Attorney General Merrick Garland, who told the Senate Appropriations Committee in April 2022 that the Hunter Biden investigation was “in the hands of” Weiss, and that a special counsel would not be necessary.
“That was my red line,” he will say.
