Three House committees on Wednesday co-hosted a hearing in which a pair of whistleblowers testified that the FBI slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden: How Much Trouble Is He In?
The House Oversight Committee, and other Republican-controlled committees in the House, have spent much of the year overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to major revelations about President Biden, nearly all of them having something to do with the trevails of his son, Hunter.
The Oversight Committee and two other committees on Wednesday co-hosted a hearing in which a pair of IRS agent whistleblowers testified that the Justice Department “slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden and ignored recommendations to file felony tax charges,” Axios reported.
Whether the hearing was a massive blockbuster, or a dud, appears to have mostly been a matter of partisan opinion, at least so far. The hearing, per Axios, had something in common with most previous Congressional investigatory “bombshells”: It “fell short of producing any evidence of wrongdoing by Biden himself.”
The whistleblowers who testified were Gary Shapley, who revealed his identity weeks ago, and the man previously known as “Whistleblower X,” who came forward and testified under his real name, Joseph Ziegler. Republicans made such a big deal about Ziegler being openly gay and a Democrat that the phrase “gay Democrat” was trending on Twitter for a time on Wednesday.
Shapley, as he had said previously, said that he and others were told in a 2022 meeting that U.S. Attorney David Weiss did not have the power to bring charges in jurisdictions other than Delaware. Both Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland have strongly disputed that account.
The whistleblowers that tax prosecutors in the DOJ drafted a 99-page memo in 2022, pushing for both felony and misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden, although he ultimately pled guilty only to misdemeanor charges. However, disagreements among prosecutors about what type of case can be made are far from rare, and not necessarily a sign of any type of wrongdoing.
“Key to Democrats’ defense is the argument that disagreements between prosecutors and investigators are routine — and that several of the episodes occurred during the Trump administration, undermining allegations of political bias,” Axios said, in its report about the hearing.
A Washington Post analysis concluded similarly.
“Republicans who called the hearing didn’t really move the ball forward. Democrats, meanwhile, surfaced a theory that this was effectively all one big misunderstanding — a theory the key witness flatly rejected,” Aaron Blake wrote for the Post.
Former prosecutor Barbara McQuade put forward that hypothesis for MSNBC earlier this month. And Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said something similar the day of the hearing, per the Post.
“A lot of the controversy here relates to the agent’s failure to distinguish between special counsels and special lawyers,” Raskin said. “Mr. Weiss took a good hard look at those charges himself and ultimately decided not to charge them — and therefore not to seek this special attorney status. He may have been right about that. He may have been wrong, as you guys make your case for. But it was his decision.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) drew fire the day of the hearing by introducing explicit photos of Hunter Biden.
Greene “briefly sent Wednesday’s House Oversight hearing into chaos when she displayed nude photos of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter engaging in sexual activities, prompting committee Democrats to deem her latest attention-grabbing stunt inappropriate,” The Daily Beast said. She also asked witnesses if they think that Hunter Biden’s “involvement with prostitutes violated any federal laws.”
Insinuations about Biden’s proclivities aside, the hearing did not serve to put Hunter Biden into any more trouble. The focus appears to be more about showing a conspiracy among Democrats and the Department of Justice to protect Hunter Biden and his father. However, it doesn’t appear the Congressional Republicans succeeded in proving anything like that.
Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
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