Two IRS whistleblowers have provided evidence that the Justice Department obstructed an especially severe criminal tax case, which is increasing pressure on the federal judge in the Hunter Biden case to reject a plea deal that would spare him from serving time in prison.
“I don’t understand how any judge could bless this plea agreement now that all of this evidence of obstruction and DOJ and FBI wrongdoing has surfaced,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told reporters. “So I hope this judge does reject this, and then insists and demands on an honest investigation and an honest prosecution as well.”
Johnson was responding to testimony and evidence from IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley and another whistleblower that federal prosecutors prevented search warrants, interviews, and more serious criminal charges. Johnson and Sen. Charles Grassley led a two-year investigation into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.
Shapley first brought up the charges to the House Ways and Means Committee and the inspector general of the Justice Department. And in an interview with John Solomon Reports that will air on Thursday, he described how career agents, career prosecutors, the DOJ tax division, and lead U.S. Attorney David Weiss supported charging Hunter Biden with felonies for alleged tax evasion and avoidance totaling $2.2 million going all the way back to 2014, including failing to pay taxes on $400,000 in income he received from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
When the U.S. Attorneys in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, both of whom were chosen by Biden, rejected Weiss’ request for an indictment, the statute of limitations on the earlier alleged misdeeds was then allowed to lapse, according to Shapley, sparing President Joe Biden’s son the more serious allegations.
Hunter has now reached an agreement with Weiss to admit guilt to two tax evasion counts from 2017–2018 that are misdemeanors and to enroll in a probationary program that will result in the dismissal of a federal felony gun charge. Hunter Biden, 53, is scheduled to make a court appearance on July 26 before former president Donald Trump’s appointment, U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika.
Famous Harvard law scholar and outspoken Joe Biden supporter Alan Dershowitz concurred that Noreika had sufficient reason to reject the plea agreement and pursue an investigation into the whistleblower claims. He expressed worry that the evidence of the whistleblowers directly contradicts that of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who claimed that there was no intervention in the investigation.
Dershowitz said on Tuesday’s episode of the John Solomon Reports podcast, “If I were the judge in the Hunter Biden case, I would refuse to accept the plea bargain unless and until Garland and Weiss testify.” “What they said is utterly incompatible.”
Eileen O’Connor, the former head of the DOJ’s tax division, issued an editorial post in The Wall Street Journal in which she said that the meddling Shapley’s team saw was unprecedented and that it was acceptable to “throw Hunter Biden’s plea deal in the trash.”
“Judges can reject plea agreements. That would be an appropriate disposition here. And Congress, in fulfillment of its oversight obligation, must learn and share with the American public what evidence the IRS gathered, what evidence its agents weren’t permitted to obtain, and what charges might have been brought if they had,” according to O’Connor.
Even though no one has done so yet, some members of Congress have informed reporters they are considering asking Judge Noreika to delay accepting the plea offer. Former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and retired Rep. Doug Collins said the plea agreement doesn’t make sense given the gravity of the claims made by IRS whistleblowers and an FBI informant.
“The judge could take care of that. Collins said on the television program Just the News, No Noise, “I would hope that they would and not just rubber stamp this. “What the Department of Justice looks to be doing is just pushing this off, and to try and expediently get rid of it.”
According to Shapley’s testimony, which was made public last Thursday, the political interference in the Biden investigation was so pervasive that “there is no way to know if evidence of other criminal activity existed concerning Hunter Biden or President Biden.”
Both whistleblowers claimed that evidence backed charging Hunter with not paying significant sums of taxes and in some years he didn’t even file tax returns. Career tax prosecutors agreed with this claim after receiving an extensive prosecution advice memo.
“The report includes itemized elements of each violation for each year. This recommended felony tax evasion charges, that’s 7201, is tax evasion, and 7206(1) is a false tax return, also a felony, for the tax years 2014, 2018, and 2019,” According to Shapley’s transcripted testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee.
“And for Title 26 7203, which is a failure to file or pay, that is a misdemeanor charge for ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, and ’19,” he added.
Shapley did not pause when asked to tally up the amount of overdue taxes. He said, “Altogether it was around $2.2 million,”
He then pointed to a 2017 memo between Hunter Biden and his partners in business to casually outline what he claimed was a plot.
“The crux of this, as I understand it, is that Hunter Biden had a history of noncompliance with his taxes, and he would often get large sums of money and wouldn’t withhold,” Shapley explained.
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