Justice Department investigators are “trying to limit” questioning related to President Biden as part of the Hunter Biden investigation, despite objections from FBI and IRS officials, a whistleblower alleged.
The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered in the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. Whistleblowers said decisions in the case appeared to be “politically influenced.”
One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that “at every stage” of the investigation, decisions were made that “had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.” He cited several examples involving apparent references to Hunter Biden’s father.
Shapley pointed to text messages and emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, which were first reported by Fox News Digital before the 2020 presidential election and before it was known that Hunter was under federal investigation.
HUNTER BIDEN TAX PROBE BEGAN AS ‘OFFSHOOT’ IRS INVESTIGATION INTO AMATEUR PORNOGRAPHY SHOP: WHISTLEBLOWER
President Biden lashed out at reporters who questioned him about alleged corruption involving him and his son Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In December 2020, Shapley said investigators were preparing to interview Biden’s business associate Rob Walker.
“Among other things, we want to ask Walker about an email that said: ‘H holds ten for the big man,'” Shapley said. “We have obvious questions like who is H, who is the big man, and why is this percentage held separately with the association hidden.”
But Shapley said Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf “interjected and said she didn’t want to ask about the big guy and said she didn’t want to ask about ‘daddy.'”
Joe Biden has reportedly been referred to as “the big guy.”
“When several people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, he responded, there is no particular criminality in the line of questioning,” Shapley said. “It also upsets the FBI.”
Shapley said that “basically everyone in the room except the prosecutors had a big problem with” not asking about President Biden.
The “Ten held by H for the big guy” message is an email from May 13, 2017, that includes a discussion of “salary packages” for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy company. The email appears to identify Biden as “Chair / Vice Chair depending on the CEFC agreement,” in an apparent reference to the now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.
DOJ, FBI, IRS INTERFERED IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE, ACCORDING TO WHISTLEBLOWER TESTIMONY RELEASED BY GOP
President Biden, left, and Hunter Biden (Getty Images)
The email included a note that “Hunter has some office expectations that he would like to explain.” A proposed equity split refers to “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” with no further details.
Shapley said that on Oct. 22, 2020, the team and Wolf said that US Attorney David Weiss “reviewed the affidavit for the search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause was achieved.”
“Even though the legal requirements were met, and the investigative team knew there would be evidence at these locations, AUSA Wolf said they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden,” Shapley said.
Shapley said the IRS and FBI agents interviewing Walker “tried to bypass AUSA Wolf’s direction” to avoid questions about “daddy” and “the big guy.”
“And they were like, ‘How can we not ask?’ It’s like, that’s wrong. We have to ask. We have to ask,” Shapley said. “And they generally decide that they’re going to ask the question without saying the words ‘big man,’ and then they’re going to do what they’re told to do.”
Shapley testified repeatedly that there were “several times where Lesley Wolf said she didn’t want to ask about the father.”
“And dad is kind of how we refer to him,” Shapley said. “We bow to Hunter Biden’s father, you know, as a father.”
HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE’S TEXT MESSAGES INDICATING A MEETING WITH JOE BIDEN
Shapley said Joe Biden was referred to that way “so we can speak more openly without shouting, ‘President Biden.'”
He also discussed an instance in December 2020 when Hunter Biden left the Washington, DC, office of his Owasco firm and placed all of his documents in a storage unit in northern Virginia.
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“The IRS prepared an affidavit in support of a search warrant for the unit, but AUSA Wolf again objected,” Shapley said.
According to Shapley, Weiss led the investigation into Hunter Biden and agreed that if the storage unit could not be accessed within 30 days, “we could execute a search warrant on it.”
“Before we even got off the call, we heard that AUSA Wolf had just contacted Hunter Biden’s defense attorney and told him about the storage unit, again ruining our chances of getting evidence before it was destroyed, tampered with. , or hide,” Shapley said.
He also said in a message Hunter Biden referred to his father in a message to Chinese energy company CEFC executive Henry Zhao that made it clear that a search of the guesthouse at the Bidens’ Delaware home was necessary. But he said Wolf said “optics were a driving factor in the decision whether to execute a search warrant.”
These revelations come just days after the Justice Department announced Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to pay federal income taxes as part of a deal expected to free him from prison. The president’s son also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who unlawfully uses or is addicted to a controlled substance.
HUNTER BIDEN SCHEDULED TO APPEAR IN FIRST COURT ON FEDERAL TAX CHARGES IN JULY
In response to the whistleblower allegations, the Justice Department said in a statement: “As both the Attorney General and US Attorney David Weiss have stated, US Attorney Weiss has full authority in this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He does not need further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the US Attorney’s Office for Delaware.”
The White House has repeatedly said that President Biden has never been involved in his son’s businesses. They also maintain that the president did not discuss them with him.
