IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) of obstructing the tax probe into Hunter Biden and called for the appointment of a special counsel to look into what he alleged were “deficient investigative steps and improper decisions.”
Mr. Biden was on track to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges for failing to pay taxes and agree to a so-called diversion agreement that would allow him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge if he met certain conditions.
“Hunter Biden’s plea deal on gun and tax charges fell apart Wednesday, most likely because the Justice Department rushed to charge the case and failed to follow standard investigative processes,” Mr. Ziegler wrote in the op-ed.
“I urge Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel so an independent reviewer can examine what I believe were deficient investigative steps and improper decisions,” he continued, while alleging that DOJ officials “prevented investigators from following the evidence.”
Mr. Ziegler alleged that DOJ officials “prevented investigators from following the evidence” and that appointing a special counsel would “create a path for the investigation to continue with integrity.”
He said that in his more than a decade of work as an IRS special agent, standard operating procedures were followed in every single case he worked on except the Hunter Biden probe.
“We went by the book, and every taxpayer we investigated received fair and equitable treatment,” Mr. Ziegler wrote.
But looking back on his five-year tax investigation into Hunter Biden, Mr. Ziegler said he recalled “many disagreements between prosecutors and investigators,” including around search warrants for Mr. Biden’s residence and storage unit, verification of WhatsApp messages suggesting President Joe Biden as present during business discussions, as well as “delayed or blocked interviews with members of the Biden family.”
“I would characterize the Justice Department’s behavior as obstruction,” he wrote.
While the DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Ziegler’s claims of obstruction and calls for a special counsel, Mr. Garland earlier denied any DOJ interference in the case into Hunter Biden’s tax records.
The president has repeatedly denied taking part in any business discussions involving his son.
‘Hamstrung, Limited, And Marginalized’
This is not the first time Mr. Ziegler has accused the Biden administration of interfering in the Hunter Biden investigation.At that hearing, Ziegler was joined by IRS supervisor and investigator Gary Shapley, with both whistleblowers alleging that the DOJ tipped the scales in the Hunter Biden investigation in part by limiting the authority of U.S. Attorney David Weiss to prosecute the president’s son.
The IRS ultimately recommended three charges against Mr. Biden: a felony attempt to defeat or evade tax charge, making felony fraudulent or false statements, and willful failure to file returns, supply information, or pay tax.
However, despite ultimately recommending two felony counts against Mr. Biden, none of the more serious counts were ultimately executed. Instead, Mr. Biden made an agreement to plead guilty to two lesser tax charges and enter a diversion deal relating to the illegal possession of a firearm, an agreement Republicans derided as a “sweetheart deal.”
Mr. Ziegler said in Wednesday’s op-ed that things reached a “breaking point” for him when he and Mr. Shapley were “sidelined” after a disagreement with Mr. Weiss.
He said that four prosecutors and Mr. Weiss initially agreed to recommend misdemeanor and felony charges against Mr. Biden before “Mr. Weiss ultimately claimed he wasn’t the deciding person on whether to file charges.”
Mr. Ziegler said he decided to blow the whistle when Biden-appointed prosecutors declined to bring forward more serious charges and “refused to allow Mr. Shapley or me to brief them on our findings.”
In testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Mr. Shapley provided a similar characterization of the Hunter Biden investigation, saying that obstruction of the probe became especially pronounced after Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
In one case, IRS investigators determined that they needed to search a guest home used by the younger Biden and owned by Joe Biden prior to the 2020 election. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf reportedly told them that “there is no way” that such a warrant would be approved, despite stating that there was probable cause.
In another case, the whistleblowers claimed that Mr. Biden’s attorneys were tipped off about investigators’ interest in a storage unit owned by Mr. Biden, allowing attorneys ample time to clear the unit of condemnatory materials.
Mr. Ziegler’s call for a special counsel comes as House Republicans continue to probe the Biden family’s overseas business dealing, arguing that there are possible national security implications to payments from foreign nationals.
