Recently, the IRS removed the “entire investigative team” from it’s Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation. The removal is being alleged as a retaliation against a whistleblower from the investigative team who contacted Congress to allege a cover-up. The removal decision seems to have been made within the Justice Department.
Here’s a statement from the whistleblower’s attorney’s, Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt.
“Today the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress. He was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.”
The whistleblower Lytle and Tristan represent has not said publicly that Hunter Biden is the subject of the case being covered up. But congressional sources have confirmed that the whistleblower is referring to the Hunter Biden investigation.
Whistleblower upset over retaliation
Lytle and Tristan condemned the claimed retaliation, writing that “On April 27, 2023, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel appeared before the House Committee on Ways and Means. He testified: ‘I can say without any hesitation there will be no retaliation for anyone making an allegation or a call to a whistleblower hotline,’ However, this move is clearly retaliatory and may constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry.”
The lawyers continued, stating “our client has a right to make disclosures to Congress…He is protected by 5 U.S.C. Section 2302 from retaliatory personnel actions – including receiving a ‘significant change in duties, responsibilities, or working conditions (which this clearly is) because of his disclosures to Congress.”
They’ve got a point.
Nature of the investigation and the whistleblower
Apparently, Hunter Biden failed to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income – which is why the IRS was investigating him.
Hunter Biden confirmed in 2020 that the IRS was investigating him; he borrowed $2 million last year to pay what he owed to the IRS – repayment “doesn’t legally absolve him of the original non-payment.”
The whistleblower only emerged last month “when Lytle informed Congress that his client wanted to share information about “preferential treatment” in the Hunter Biden case and alleged false testimony to Congress by Attorney General Merrick Garland,” The New York Post reported.
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee is investigating Hunter Biden’s (and President Biden’s) role in oversea business dealings. But whereas the IRS investigation has an air of legitimacy, the House investigation has a partisan taint. Oversight is claiming that the Biden’s overseas business dealings were illegitimate; that they were only selling access to an influential member of the United States government. The claims are certainly within the realm of possibility – but so far Representative James Comer (who leads the investigation) has failed to uncover concrete evidence of any wrongdoing.
The DOJ (with the IRS’s help), however, seems to be on the verge of bringing charges against Hunter Biden – as a visit between Hunter’s attorneys and DOJ officials last month indicated. But tax fraud, while irresponsible and unsavory, is small potatoes relative to the claims Republicans are making against Hunter and his father – claims that will now amplify given the supposed retaliation against the Hunter Biden IRS whistleblower.
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Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
