Hunter Biden investigation: GOP demands urgent IRS response on whistleblower ‘retaliation’
Jerry Dunleavy
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A House GOP committee leader is demanding answers from the head of the Internal Revenue Service about “extremely troubling” claims from an IRS whistleblower who says he was “retaliated against” after sharing allegations about the Hunter Biden investigation.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called for an “urgent briefing and explanation” from IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel about the whistleblower’s claims this week that he “has been retaliated against for seeking to share information with Congress as a protected whistleblower.” Smith said Tuesday that the whistleblower allegations “run directly counter to your [Werfel’s] sworn testimony” before his committee last month.
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The IRS allegedly removed the entire investigative team in the Hunter Biden tax evasion investigation, according to a Monday letter to Congress from the whistleblower’s lawyers.
“Today the Internal Revenue Service criminal supervisory special agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress,” attorneys Tristan Leavitt and Mark Lytle of Empower Oversight and Nixon Peabody LLP, respectively, wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The removal order came from the Department of Justice, according to the letter, with the lawyers calling the move “clearly retaliatory.”
Smith said Tuesday that “such retaliation not only discourages whistleblowers from coming forward to Congress but can also constitute an illegal violation of statutory protections for whistleblowers” and that “this information is incredibly concerning and deserves the immediate attention of the committee and the agency.” He asked for a briefing from Werfel by Thursday.
Lytle sent a letter to the heads of multiple House and Senate committees in mid-April, telling them his client’s “protected disclosures” reveal “examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.”
The IRS agent’s allegations also “involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case” against Hunter Biden and “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee.”
A source familiar with the whistleblower letter confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Attorney General Merrick Garland is the unnamed senior Biden official whose testimony before Congress is being challenged.
The whistleblower’s lawyer said the IRS agent has also already made “legally protected disclosures” internally at the IRS, as well as to the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration and the Department of Justice’s inspector general.
Smith had asked Werfel during a hearing in late April if he could “commit that there will be no retaliation against that whistleblower.”
While the IRS commissioner said that he “can’t comment on” a specific case, he also vowed, “without any hesitation, there will be no retaliation for anyone making an allegation or a call to a whistleblower hotline.”
Republicans have long contended that Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings in Ukraine and China suggest he may have committed crimes related to foreign lobbying or money laundering. Recent reports, however, indicate federal investigators may have narrowed the focus to questions of whether Hunter Biden committed tax fraud in 2016 and 2017 and lied on a federal form when purchasing a handgun in 2018.
It is up to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Donald Trump-appointed holdover and the Delaware prosecutor overseeing the case, to decide whether to indict the president’s son. In February 2021, Joe Biden asked all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump for their resignations, with Weiss a rare exception.
Garland has repeatedly vowed to ensure that Weiss would be insulated from any political interference.
“He has been advised that he should get anything he needs,” Garland said of Weiss during Senate testimony in March. “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.”
“Yes, it’s still the case,” Garland said when asked by a reporter about the matter during a DOJ press conference in early May. “I stand by my testimony. And I refer you to the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate.”
One of Hunter Biden’s lawyers, Chris Clark, told multiple outlets in mid-April that “it appears this IRS agent has committed a crime, and has denied my client protections that are his right.”
Lytle quickly criticized the attorney’s remarks.
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“He’s coming forward, but he knows that he is going to be attacked,” Lytle said. “Attacks like this are kind of what he was worried about, but he wants to come forward and tell the truth.”
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, told the Washington Examiner last month that “it’s deeply concerning that the Biden administration may be obstructing justice by blocking efforts to charge Hunter Biden for tax violations.” Comer added, “We’ve been wondering all along where the heck the DOJ and the IRS have been” and argued that “now it appears the Biden administration may have been working overtime to prevent the Bidens from facing any consequences.”