IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler, who exposed Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal on tax charges before being removed from the case, have been promoted to leadership positions at the Treasury Department.
Starting this week, Shapley and Ziegler will serve as senior advisers to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, working on tax agency reforms for a year before transitioning into senior IRS leadership roles to implement those changes.
The move marks a significant turnaround for the veteran investigators, who have faced two years of retaliation since alleging political interference in their investigation into Biden’s son.
“Gary and I will continue to do everything in our power to promote the truth, promote whistleblowers, and to weed out the bad actors who have affected democracy,” said Ziegler, who led the yearslong probe into Hunter Biden’s tax issues in Delaware.
Bessent praised their expertise, stating, “These veteran civil servants join us to help further the agency’s focus on collections, modernization, and customer service, so we can deliver a more effective and efficient IRS experience for hardworking American taxpayers.” He also thanked Sen. Chuck Grassley for his efforts in Congress to strengthen whistleblower protections.
Grassley, a longtime advocate for government accountability, commended the two men’s “bravery, courage, expertise, and integrity,” calling their promotion “a clear signal that pointing out wrongdoing is an honorable thing to do.”
Shapley and Ziegler were removed from the Hunter Biden case in December 2022 after raising concerns that the Department of Justice and then-Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss were interfering with their work. They claimed investigators were blocked from executing search warrants, including at a cottage on Joe Biden’s Delaware property where Hunter had been living, and that Hunter’s attorneys were tipped off about upcoming searches. They also accused officials of allowing the statute of limitations to expire on the most serious charges.
The two have filed an official complaint with the Merit Systems Protection Board, naming six IRS executives they say retaliated against them and should face disciplinary action.
Last month, the Office of Special Counsel, a federal whistleblower protection agency, ruled that the IRS had improperly retaliated against Shapley and Ziegler.
