Hunter Biden sues IRS over information released by agency whistleblowers
Eden Villalovas
Video Embed
Hunter Biden sued the IRS on Monday, alleging the agents who were investigating him told Congress and the media about his private tax returns.
The lawsuit claims two IRS employees, Gary Shapley, a supervisory special agent, and Joseph Ziegler, a 13-year special agent, unlawfully disclosed his tax return information when testifying about the investigation and through public statements. The suit does not name the IRS whistleblowers as defendants.
LEGALITY OF HUNTER BIDEN GUN CHARGES CHALLENGED BY SUPREME COURT BRUEN RULING
In a 27-page filing, Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell wrote that the lawsuit is “not about the proper workings of the whistleblower statute and process” or about “an official using those procedures properly to make disclosures to authorized government officials” but the decisions of the IRS employees.
“Rather, the lawsuit is about the decision by IRS employees, their representatives, and others to disregard their obligations and repeatedly and intentionally publicly disclose and disseminate Mr. Biden’s protected tax return information outside the exceptions for making disclosures in the law,” the lawsuit reads.
Lowell wrote that the whistleblower status does not protect the IRS agents “from their wrongful conduct in making unauthorized public disclosures that are not permitted by the whistleblower process. In fact, a ‘whistleblower’ is supposed to uncover government misconduct, not the details of that employee’s opinion about the alleged wrongdoing of a private person.”
The pair of IRS whistleblowers testified earlier this summer that Justice Department officials gave special treatment to President Joe Biden’s son for political reasons. They claimed Hunter Biden should’ve been charged with more serious crimes after he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses for failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018 and a felony firearm violation.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
However, that plea deal between federal prosecutors and Hunter Biden fell apart in July after a federal judge refused to sign off on the agreement. Hunter Biden was indicted by federal prosecutors on gun charges on Thursday.
The fallout from the plea deal is likely to continue as special counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee, mulls over whether to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes. Weiss wrote in a court filing last month that prosecutors “may bring tax charges” against the president’s son, possibly in California or Washington, D.C.