An IRS whistleblower is defending his claims that the U.S. attorney investigating Hunter Biden was blocked from bringing charges outside of Delaware and did not have full control of the case — which counters statements from multiple Justice Department officials.
IRS investigator Gary Shapley told multiple outlets this week that the president’s son received preferential treatment in a case probing his failure to pay taxes that resulted in a plea agreement earlier this month. If the agreement is approved by a judge, Biden will not face jail time.
Shapley has claimed the investigation was slow-walked by the office of U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, a Trump appointee.
“We have to make sure, as a special agent for IRS Criminal Investigation, that we treat every single person exactly the same,” Shapley told CBS News on Tuesday.
“And that just simply didn’t happen here.”
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Shapley’s testimony, first given to the House Ways and Means Committee, has become a key basis for Republicans arguing the Justice Department improperly handled the case.
Biden has since paid back taxes on more than $200,000 of income tax for the 2017 and 2018 tax years. But Shapley contends some of the most serious tax misconduct took place beforehand, with Biden owing a total of $2.2 million in taxes from 2014 through 2019.
Shapely said he was told by Weiss’s office that the U.S. attorney was unable to bring charges in Washington, D.C., where Shapely said he believes they would have the strongest case.
“There were really earth-shaking statements made by David Weiss that really brought to light some of my previous concerns. And the first one was that he is not the deciding person on whether or not charges are filed. It was just shocking to me,” Shapley said.
“I documented exactly what happened. And it doesn’t seem to match what the attorney general or the U.S. attorney are saying today.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland has maintained before lawmakers and under questioning from reporters that Weiss had the authority under both the Trump and Biden administrations to handle the case as he saw fit.
“I certainly understand that some have chosen to attack the integrity of the Justice Department, and its components, and its employees, by claiming that we do not treat like cases alike. This constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy and essential to the safety of the American people. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Garland said Friday.
“You’ve all heard me say many times that we make our cases based on the facts and the law. These are not just words. These are what we live by.”
Weiss also maintained that he had total authority.
“I want to make clear that, as the Attorney General has stated, I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges,” Weiss told House Judiciary Committee members in a June letter.
In his House testimony, Shapley said that U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew Graves was opposed to bringing charges in Washington, but Graves’s office has contested that.
“As the Attorney General has said, U.S. Attorney Weiss was given full authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction he deemed appropriate. He did not need approval from this office or the U.S. Attorney to bring charges in the District of Columbia,” Graves’s office said in a statement.