According to IRS whistleblower testimony to the House ways and Means Committee, the Justice Department issued a “cease and desist” order to obstruct the ability of IRS investigators to look into the Biden family’s finances, notably Hunter Biden. The committee voted along party lines on Thursday to make depositions public.
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss disclosed a plea agreement under which Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to file taxes in 2017 and 2018. Those two years were the ones during which Hunter Biden reportedly received millions from the Chinese military intelligence-linked CEFC China Energy.
The nearly 400 pages of testimony included statements made by IRS Supervisory Agent Gary Shapely, who came out publicly on CBS last month to complain about how the Justice Department allegedly obstructed justice. The 25-18 vote comes in the wake of the Justice Department’s decision to end the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
Shapely alleged in the released testimony that Biden received “preferential treatment” and claimed that the Justice Department “slow-walked” the investigation. He also claimed that the Justice Department failed to remove people with conflicts of interest from involvement in the investigation.
He alleged that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf told him and his investigators on Sept. 3, 2020 that there was enough probable cause to exercise a search warrant, but that the optics would be bad from a political perspective. He also alleged that Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Donoghue issued a “cease and desist” to all overt investigative operations around the same time because of the election.
“These whistleblowers are alleging a basis for more serious charges, which may be based on undisclosed evidence. For my part, I have never thought that the tax or gun charges were the most serious matters raised by Hunter’s business dealings,” George Washington law Professor Jonathan Turley wrote after reading the transcript of the testimony. “Rather I continue to believe that there was a basis for charges as an unregistered foreign agent under FARA in light of past cases brought by the Justice Department. I also believe that a special counsel should have been appointed on the allegations involving influence peddling by the Biden family.”
Shapely said that Hunter Biden failed to file taxes in other years as well.
He alleged that IRS investigators obtained a WhatsApp text message allegedly sent by Hunter Biden to Chinese Communist Party official Henry Zhao. He reportedly partnered with Hunter Biden to form a company called Bohai Harvest LLC. Zhao partnered with Jia Liqing, daughter of the former head of China’s spy agency the Ministry of State Security and its internal security agency the Ministry of Public Security, Jia Chunwang.
Shapely said: “[W]e obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, where Hunter Biden wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’”
Democrats Say Release of Testimony Premature
Democrats criticized Republicans for releasing the testimony before a more thorough investigation could be undertaken. Ranking Democrat Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., called the disclosure an “abuse of power.”
“Two interviews do not make an investigation when more than 50 employees were named, especially when you consider that one recanted key elements of his testimony earlier this week,” Neal said.
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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