The man previously known as IRS Whistleblower X has been revealed to be Joe Ziegler, who appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday in a hearing about whether Hunter Biden received a sweetheart deal over tax charges.
Ziegler is a gay Democrat, as many conservative headlines have been keen to emphasize in the past two days.
Ziegler’s defining characteristics immediately bring a smile to Republicans face as they confirm that even those in the same party as the current president, who also happens to be very friendly toward socially progressive policies, will attest that something is not right in the DOJ’s and IRS’s handling of Hunter Biden’s shady tax filings. On the other hand, some right-wing figures have asserted that because of Ziegler’s political and sexual orientations, Ziegler was an agent of the far-left, “perfectly place to fit some agenda,” as he put it.
Ziegler has been quick to dismiss attention toward his lifestyle preferences or choice of politics.
“I can tell you that I am none of those things. I’m a career government employee, and I have always strived to not let politics enter my frame of mind when working cases.”
In another statement, Ziegler defended his credibility saying,
“I’ve recently discovered that people are saying that I must be more credible because I’m a Democrat who happens to be married to a man. I’m no more credible than this man sitting next to me due to my sexual orientation or my political beliefs.”
The man sitting next to him was Gary Shapley, who oversees a team that specializes in particularly complex tax cases. He and Ziegler worked on the Hunter Biden case together and both claim that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment in the investigation into his financial dealings.
The 13-year veteran of the IRS and criminal investigator continued to uphold his integrity with, “The truth is my credibility comes today through my job experience with the IRS and my intimate knowledge of the agency standards and procedures.”
Ziegler’s Credibility
However, it is interesting to note that a recent CNN article regarding Ziegler and the Hunter Biden case made absolutely no mention of his being gay or a Democrat.
Normally, conservatives don’t like to focus on any sort of social category, particularly when such status has little, if anything, to do with the matter at hand. That, they would say, is typically a tool abused by the left to tell a very particular and carefully curated story.
However, in a case such as this, and in a time when the Biden’s have been accused of weaponizing bureaucratic agencies for power, credibility is crucial and claims that a witness is partial or not, relative.
Ziegler testified to the Committee, “It appeared to me, based on what I experienced, that the U.S. attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other US attorneys,” Ziegler said.
The U.S. attorney in question is David Weiss, the lead Hunter Biden prosecutor. And making such claims requires that Ziegler be a reliable and trustworthy source rather than yet another political pawn in the ever-evolving accusations against Hunter Biden and his father, along with other members of the family.
There is much to be resolved in the case, particularly with conflicting testimonies regarding the extent to which Weiss was restricted, or not, from pursuing felony charges against Hunter.
Leave It to the Left
Not wanting to allow an opportunity to insert race into the argument pass them by, some Democratic members of Congress used the well-established well, what about ….??? tactic to try to direct attention away from the matter at hand, despite it having absolutely no relevance whatsoever.
Some of the Democratic members of the committee who are Black and Hispanic devoted their time to highlight long-running inequities in the American justice system that impact minorities, like disproportionately high rates of incarceration and IRS audits.
They ridiculed their Republican colleagues for claiming there is a “two-tiered justice system” that is targeting conservatives.
Ian Sams, a White House spokesman, suggested the inquiries into Hunter Biden’s taxes are a waste of time, and, of course, politically motivated.
“There are real issues Americans want us to be spending our time on, and President Biden believes we can work together to make real progress, if House Republicans would make an effort instead of constantly staging partisan stunts to try to damage him politically,” Sams said responding to the Republican-led investigations.
That’s funny. The same words, almost verbatim, (aside from the whole “work together” bit, which is a flat out lie) could have come out of a Republican representative about a Democrat-led investigation – or any four of them – against Donald Trump.
The ease with which politicians can point out the speck in each other’s eyes, and fail to notice the log in their own, is almost laughable.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review.
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