The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday heard from two IRS whistleblowers who allege the government’s investigation into President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was mishandled.
Republicans sought to use the testimony of the two whistleblowers — one of whom had remained anonymous until today’s hearing — to make their case of unequal justice for Democrats and Republicans and further their broader investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings.
The hearing has concluded. Catch up on updates below.
The Oversight Committee concluded its hearing and adjourned.
Florida Democrat points to how Trump described whistleblowers
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) took aim at former President Trump’s prior comments on whistleblowers, arguing the GOP has often dismissed testimony from those alleging wrongdoing in the government.
“Trump has called people like you ‘so-called whistleblowers,’ ‘fake whistleblowers,’ ‘partisan people,’ political hack jobs,’ ‘scams’, ‘frauds,’ ‘traitors,’ … ‘losers,’ ‘clowns,’ ‘thugs,’ ‘puppets,’ ‘unelected bureaucrats,’ ‘the swamp’ and my favorite, ‘the Deep State,’” Moskowitz said.
He said Republicans undermine their credibility by treating whistleblowers poorly and questioned why the GOP members weren’t labeling the two of them as Deep State members.
“Are either of you members of the Deep State?…Did you stop paying your Deep State dues? Did you attend your latest Deep State meeting?” he asked jokingly.
Moskowitz went on to mock Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) decision to show photos of Hunter Biden engaging in sexual acts.
“Now in an effort to own Hunter Biden you’re assembling nude photos of him, having some intern have to sit in a room and go through all these photos and put them on poster board and figure out ‘Oh these ones are beyond the pale,’” he said.
— Rebecca Beitsch
Lawmakers react to Greene
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) overt focus on the explicit and salacious history of Hunter Biden, who has been public about his struggles with addiction, stands in contrast to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) indicating in the past that the committee’s investigations of the Biden family’s business dealings would not focus on his personal actions.
“Republicans allow their members to think on their own,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), another member of the committee, but he indicated the censored explicit images were not his style.
Committee member Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said Greene “did put up a parental discretion warning.”
“Is there any way to even talk about this without talking about him paying for prostitution and claiming them as some kind of tax deduction?” Biggs said.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) later in the hearing used Greene’s move to take a jab at the House GOP majority.
“Today’s hearing is like most of the majority’s investigations and hearings: A lot of allegations, zero proof, no receipts — but apparently, some dick pics,” Garcia said.
— Emily Brooks
Raskin: ‘Should we be displaying this?’
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sought to interrupt Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as she displayed posters featuring graphic sexual photos of Hunter Biden.
“Should we be displaying this, Mr. Chairman?” Raskin asked House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) near the end of Greene’s testimony.
Greene completed her line of questioning.
Staffers react as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene holds up sexually explicit images she says are of Hunter Biden that she presented during her questioning of IRS whistleblowers during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing.
Greene warns ‘parental discretion is advised’ before displaying graphic sexual photos of Hunter Biden
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) leaned in on some of the more salacious issues concerning Hunter Biden in her questioning to the IRS whistleblowers — and brought graphic posters to make her point.
“Before we begin, I would like to let the committee and everyone watching at home that parental discretion is advised,” Greene said.
Greene’s questioning included her holding up small posters featuring graphic sexual photos from the laptop hard drive that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden.
The faces of others involved in the sexual acts were censored with black boxes, but Hunter Biden’s face is visible in the photos.
She alleged that Hunter Biden had improperly used his company to write off payments to prostitutes, which IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler would not confirm. He did say that there were deductions for what he believed to be escorts and that a payment reported to be for a golf club membership was actually for a “sex club.”
Presence of four committee chairs highlights hearing’s importance to GOP
Four GOP chairmen of House committees are in attendance at today’s hearing with the IRS whistleblowers, demonstrating how important it is to the party’s efforts to go on the offense against President Biden.
In addition to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), in attendance is House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.); House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio); and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio).
The whistleblower testimony aids the GOP not only in highlighting potential issues with the Biden family making money from foreign sources, but in elevating allegations of a government “weaponized” against political opponents. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has also floated an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Merrick Garland over contradictions between his testimony to Congress and the testimony of the IRS whistleblowers over charging decisions related to the case against Hunter Biden.
— Emily Brooks
Shapley says he has no evidence Garland intentionally misled Congress
IRS investigator Gary Shapley said he has no evidence that Attorney General Merrick Garland intentionally misled Congress about the authority of prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden, undercutting what the GOP sees as a key factor for a potential impeachment inquiry.
Shapley alleged in his testimony that the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss relayed to investigators that he would not be able to bring charges outside of his district.
Garland told lawmakers — in testimony that matches multiple letters from Weiss — that the prosecutor was told he would be able to receive special attorney status if he wished to pursue charges outside of Delaware.
“Let me be clear, although these facts contradict the Attorney General’s testimony and raise serious questions for you to investigate, I have never claimed evidence that Attorney General Garland knowingly lied to Congress,” Shapley said Wednesday.
“This for others to investigate and determine whether those letters contain knowingly false statements. … I don’t claim to be privy to United States Attorney Weiss’s or Attorney General Garland’s communications.”
Democrats have suggested that the whistleblowers may have been confused over two statuses prosecutors can attain — appointment as a special counsel, versus the special attorney status Weiss was assured he could receive if desired.
Fellow whistleblower Joseph Ziegler in his testimony asserted he still believes a more independent status is needed by those handling the investigation.
“I still think that a special counsel is necessary for this investigation,” he said.
— Rebecca Beitsch
Republicans cheer whistleblowers in opening statements, Dems push back
Republicans used their opening statements to cheer a duo of IRS whistleblowers who worked on the Hunter Biden tax case for stepping forward, saying their testimony shows the Justice Department slow-walked the case and showed preferential treatment to the president’s son.
“The Department of Justice engaged in a campaign to delay, divulge, and deny that investigation,” House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.), waived onto the House Oversight Committee, said in his opening statement.
“They delayed investigators for years, leading to the expiration of the statute of limitations for many of the crimes involved. They divulged key investigative details to Biden’s attorneys, and even the President’s transition team. And they denied investigators the ability to authenticate evidence, serve warrants, question witnesses, and bring charges.”
The testimony from the whistleblowers, IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, was released by Ways and Means just days after prosecutors announced a plea deal with Biden in which he would plead guilty to two tax crimes following his failure to pay taxes as well as an agreement to enter a pretrial diversion program after buying a weapon without disclosing drug use.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, bashed Republicans for praising IRS agents who work for an agency who they’ve opposed increased funding for while suggesting Biden’s tax case received outside attention due to his status as a high profile individual.
“Today we get to witness MAGA Republicans take the side of IRS agents from the deep state against the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney and a rich guy exercising his second amendment rights without facing criminal gun charges and tax charges that they would call in any other circumstance purely technical,” he said.
Raskin asked Republicans to join Democrats in boosting funding for the IRS so it can pursue cases against scofflaws.
“There is no evidence that Hunter Biden has received any kind of official favoritism in this prosecution for being Joe Biden’s son. On the contrary, there are more than 10 million Americans who have filed taxes but failed to pay them. The exact crime Mr. Biden is pleading guilty to. The vast majority of these cases are resolved administratively or through civil settlement,” Raskin said.
“The fact that Hunter Biden faced a four year criminal probe … demonstrates in my mind at the very least, that he received no special treatment, but arguably selectively tougher treatment than the millions of people who never face criminal investigations for doing the same thing.”
— Rebecca Beitsch
Identity of Whistleblower “X” revealed
The identity of a second IRS whistleblower who spoke to the House Ways and Means Committee about concerns with the investigation into Hunter Biden is now public: Joseph Ziegler, a 13-year special agent with IRS Criminal Investigation division who was the lead IRS case agent on the Hunter Biden tax probe.
He reported to Gary Shapley, the other IRS whistleblower, who is a 14-year special agent for Criminal Investigations.
Ziegler said he is a gay Democrat who is married to a man.
“I hope that I am an example to other LGBT people out there, who are questioning doing the right thing at a potential cost to themselves and others,” Ziegler said in his opening remarks.
“I kind of equate this to the experience and feelings I encountered when coming out, it was honestly one of the hardest things I ever had to go though.”
– Emily Brooks
The Oversight Committee’s hearing has kicked off.
Committee staff told The Hill the hearing could run to more than six hours.
How to watch the hearing
The Oversight panel’s hearing is set to kick off in about 20 minutes.
You can watch a live stream of it here.
ICYMI: GOP debates impeaching Merrick Garland after McCarthy surprise
House Republicans are debating whether to focus impeachment efforts on Attorney General Merrick Garland after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested an inquiry against him, taking some members by surprise after much of the GOP impeachment furor had been directed at other Biden officials.
In a year where the GOP has been most steadily focused on possible impeachments of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or President Biden, McCarthy often has been the voice urging the conference to move patiently and deliberately.
But he has shown more vigor when eyeing Garland, an official leading an agency often derided by the GOP but a figure less frequently cited by the party’s members who are most keen on impeachment.
McCarthy first elevated the topic with a tweet late last month touting testimony of an IRS whistleblower who has alleged mismanagement of the investigation into Hunter Biden, saying it could serve as “a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry.”
— Rebecca Beitsch and Emily Brooks
FULL STORY: GOP to put IRS Hunter Biden whistleblowers at center stage
House Republicans will put their claims of unequal justice for Republicans and Democrats at center stage Wednesday, bringing IRS whistleblowers before the public to blast the government’s investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of President Biden.
The hearing will serve in part as a way for Republicans to give former President Trump political cover as he faces a likely third indictment over Jan. 6, while also fueling a potential impeachment inquiry against Attorney General Merrick Garland.
IRS investigator Gary Shapley and an unnamed IRS special agent told the House Ways and Means Committee in May that they were displeased with the investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax matters, accusing prosecutors of slow-walking the investigation and allowing the statute of limitations to run out. Hunter Biden in June reached a deal to plead guilty to tax crimes for 2017 and 2018.
In one point of drama, the identity of the unnamed IRS agent will be revealed at Wednesday’s hearing.
— Rebecca Beitsch and Emily Brooks