In a recent court filing, the government quietly affirmed that the IRS whistleblowers involved in the Hunter Biden tax case did not engage in any illegal activities. This contradicts allegations by the Biden legal team that the whistleblowers violated the law by making protected disclosures to Congress.
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler initially raised concerns with the House Ways and Means Committee regarding allegations of preferential treatment provided to Biden by the Justice Department during the investigation into his purported tax violations. This purported preferential treatment included allegations of blocking search warrants and restricting investigators' efforts to obtain information related to then-candidate Joe Biden, the father of Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, swiftly criticized the agents in a letter to the House committee, attempting to discredit the whistleblowers by labeling them as “disgruntled agents.” Subsequently, Hunter Biden sued the IRS over the whistleblowers' disclosures, alleging that they unlawfully disclosed his private tax returns. However, the government's filing on Friday disputes this characterization and cites regulations governing whistleblower activity to refute Biden’s lawyers’ claims.
“[The] United States disputes that the IRS employees’ alleged disclosures violated I.R.C. § 7431(a)(1),” the United States Internal Revenue Service stated in a footnote in its filing.
In another footnote, citing the Internal Revenue Code, the IRS remarked, “Tellingly, however, he makes no claim that Special Agent Shapley and Ziegler’s testimony to Congress violated § 6013 in apparent recognition of § 6103(f)(5), which permits ‘[a]ny person who otherwise has or had access to any return or return information under this section [to] disclose such return or return information to a committee referred to in paragraph (1) or any individual authorized to receive or inspect information under paragraph (4)(A) if such person believes such a return or return information may relate to possible misconduct, maladministration, or taxpayer abuse.'”
