Biden ‘extremely well known’ to feds investigating Hunter, showed up to FBI office during probe: IRS whistleblower

President Biden was “extremely well known” to federal authorities investigating his son, Hunter Biden, and even showed up at an FBI office during the probe, an IRS agent tasked with the case told Congress on Wednesday.

“There were definitely potential issues I saw with working this case in Delaware,” IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler said in prepared remarks before the House Oversight Committee. “Delaware was the state in which the subject’s father lived in, and the family was extremely well known throughout the state, including [by] people on the team.”

“This was later evident by the president, Joe Biden, having to come into the FBI office on an unrelated matter, and it being joked with the team,” Ziegler added, presumably referring to the bureau’s Baltimore field office. “Another example was that a magistrate judge in Delaware made inappropriate comments at the signing of the first electronic search warrant that had caused her to recuse themself from the investigation, which set us back an additional 4 months as we had to draft new warrants and redo investigative steps.”

Ziegler and his boss, IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley, affirmed their prior testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee that the president’s Justice Department slow-walked a five-year probe into the first son’s alleged financial crimes.

The IRS whistleblowers said Biden-appointed US attorneys interfered in the case by preventing Delaware US Attorney David Weiss from charging Hunter Biden last year with tax fraud in Southern California and Washington, DC.

Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland have both denied the claims, maintaining the Delaware prosecutor had authority to bring any charges he sought.

The two IRS agents also said federal authorities tipped off Hunter’s legal team about a potential search of his northern Virginia storage locker and a December 2020 effort to interview him, preventing either from being carried out.

Other efforts to inquire about the president’s involvement in his son’s million-dollar business deals abroad and seek felony charges for $2.2 million in missed tax payments were thwarted.

In a WhatsApp message from July 30, 2017, obtained by the IRS agents, Hunter had invoked his father to pressure a Chinese businessman into reportedly paying around $5 million to the first son and his associates.

Officials also concealed data from Hunter’s now-infamous laptop from investigators, according to the whistleblowers.

“I’m here to tell you that the Delaware US Attorney’s Office and Department of Justice handling [of] the Hunter Biden tax investigation was very different from any other case in my 14 years at the IRS,” Shapley said. “At every stage, decisions were made that benefited the subject of this investigation.”

Shapley and Ziegler, who have identified their registered political affiliations as Republican and Democrat, respectively, have both served for more than a decade at the IRS.

“No matter your party, I am not your opposition. I am here with information for you to examine, investigate and determine whether more action is warranted on your part,” Shapley told lawmakers. “There is no benefit from me blowing the whistle on this case, absolutely none. I have no book deal. And the only money that goes into my bank account every two weeks is from my employment for the federal government.”

Weiss’ office announced June 20 that Hunter had entered into a probation-only plea deal for two tax misdemeanors and a diversion agreement for a firearms charge.

The first son dodged six-figure tax payments in 2017 and 2018 and lied on a federal gun-purchase form in 2018 about drug use while he was addicted to crack cocaine.

Earlier tax charges in 2014 and 2015 were never sought — apparently because Weiss believed the purported crimes occurred during Hunter’s descent into drug use in the wake of his brother Beau’s death from brain cancer, the IRS agents also said, a fact which Weiss theorized would earn him sympathy among any potential jury pool.