An attorney representing two IRS whistleblowers who raised concerns about a Justice Department cover-up in the tax probe involving Hunter Biden has accused AG Merrick Garland of permitting conflicts of interests that have resulted in purported retaliation against his clients. The attorney contends that prosecutors have been assisting Hunter in criminal cases.
In a letter obtained by The New York Post, Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, urged Attorney General Garland to take action to halt any instances of retaliation against the IRS agents and to address conflicts of interest associated with cases involving Joe Biden’s son.
Leavitt further stated that he has not received confirmation regarding whether his clients, IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and special agent Joseph Ziegler, are under federal investigation, despite their actions being lawful.
Shapley and Ziegler lodged a whistleblower retaliation complaint with the US Office of Special Counsel against Weiss shortly after being removed from the tax case last year. Leavitt highlighted this as one of several potential conflicts of interest, citing Weiss's alleged “preferential treatment involving Mr. Biden.”
In his letter, Leavitt highlighted that IRS agents had blown the whistle on DOJ officials deeply involved in both cases, as well as in a distinct lawsuit initiated by Hunter's attorneys against the IRS, alleging improper leaks of his tax information.
Leavitt also pointed out that the Justice Department has “bizarrely” omitted federal laws in its case filings that safeguard whistleblowers from prosecution for disclosing tax information. This omission appears to be an effort to imply wrongdoing on the part of IRS agents.
In recent filings, Weiss's team cited “multiple IRS communications” that the Office of Special Counsel, responsible for probing retaliation against federal employees, instructed the prosecutor to withdraw due to their failure to adhere to whistleblower protection laws.
But his prosecutors did request redactions in a filing about a “potential ongoing investigation” allegedly related to the IRS whistleblowers, House impeachment leaders revealed in a letter earlier this week.
The IRS civil suit also presents conflicts of interest, as “it is being led by two attorneys from the Department’s Tax Division—one of the very offices about which Shapley and Ziegler made protected disclosures to Congress about the slow-walking of the case against the President’s son,” stated Leavitt.
