Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who head up three important panels in the House of Representatives, on June 28 released a joint statement promising a full investigation into whistleblower allegations made against the Justice Department’s Hunter Biden probe.
Each of the three has led different investigations into President Joe Biden’s family and government through their respective panels.
Comer leads the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which has been looking into the Biden family’s business dealings and alleged foreign influence peddling scheme.
Jordan, through the House Judiciary Committee Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, has been investigating allegations that Biden has “weaponized” federal law enforcement against his political rivals.
“Politicization and misconduct at the Department of Justice and IRS during the investigation into Hunter Biden reveal a two-tiered system of justice and unequal application of the law. According to whistleblower testimony, the Justice Department refused to follow evidence that implicated Joe Biden, tipped off Hunter Biden’s attorneys, allowed the clock to run out with respect to certain charges, and put tax-cheat Hunter Biden on the path towards a sweetheart plea deal,” the congressmen wrote.
Shapley told the Ways and Means Committee—the first to hear his testimony due to a section of IRS Code only allowing that panel to hear and release whistleblower allegations to the full House—that the DOJ “hamstrung” the investigation into the Bidens for political reasons.
“At every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation [Hunter Biden],” Shapley said. “These decisions included slow-walking investigative steps, not allowing enforcement actions to be executed, limiting investigators’ line of questioning for witnesses, misleading investigators on charging authority, delaying any and all actions months before elections.”
Elsewhere in his testimony, Shapley said, “After former Vice President Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in early April 2020, career DOJ officials dragged their feet on the IRS taking these investigative steps.”
Shapley also said IRS investigators were told by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf that, because evidence needed for the investigation would be found in a guest house owned by Joe Biden, “there is no way” that a search warrant for evidence would ever get approved.
Additionally, Hunter Biden’s attorneys were allegedly given “crucial information” about the investigation, Shapley said.
In such an instance, the attorneys were made aware that the IRS knew about documents stored in a Northern Virginia storage unit, giving them time to remove any documents that could be used in the case against their client, he said.
Hunter Biden ultimately received a plea deal that drew sharp criticism from Republicans, many of whom described it as a “sweetheart” deal.
According to the whistleblower, the IRS ultimately recommended three charges against Hunter Biden in regard to $2.2 million of unreported income from foreign sources: a felony attempt to defeat or evade tax charges, making felony fraudulent or false statements, and willful failure to file returns, supply information, or pay tax—serious charges that could land an American, if convicted, in prison for years.
Comer, Jordan, and Smith said these allegations along with the plea deal constitute “a mockery of the core American value of equal justice under the law.”
“This weaponization of the federal law-enforcement power to benefit the Bidens adds to Americans’ growing mistrust in our institutions,“ they wrote. ”If we are to remain a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, Congress has a duty to conduct rigorous oversight of this abuse of power and hold bad actors accountable.”
Top officials relevant to the allegations have denied them.
