IRS whistleblowers respond to Hunter Biden: 'Ample evidence' of his father's involvement

Two IRS whistleblowers said Thursday there is "ample evidence" that President Biden was involved in son Hunter Biden's business dealings as a former federal prosecutor, accused of protecting the first family, was deposed behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf — who is no longer working at the Department of Justice, FOX has recently learned — was accused of limiting questions related to President Biden during the federal investigation into Hunter Biden. 

According to the House Ways and Means Committee, Wolf emailed IRS investigators saying, "Please focus on FARA evidence only. There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 in here," referring to Joe Biden. 

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"That email I think is super important because it's a one-off example in writing of the constant concern of following investigative leads that might lead to Joe Biden," Joseph Ziegler, an IRS whistleblower, told Bill Hemmer, adding that it had a "down-the-road effect of not following normal leads" in the probe.

Hunter Biden was scheduled to be deposed on Wednesday, but instead skipped the closed-door hearing and gave a statement to the press. House Republicans have vowed to hold him in contempt over his absence. 

"Let me state as clearly as I can. My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist," Hunter Biden told reporters. 

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Gary Shapley is another IRS whistleblower who came forward to sound the alarm, alleging that Wolf worked to "limit" questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as "dad" or "the big guy."

"It's just part of the shifting story from DOJ and the Biden family attorneys, where at the beginning it was 'I've never talked to my son about business.' That's been proven patently false by evidence and testimony we provided," Shapley said during "America's Newsroom" on Thursday. 

"Then it moved to 'He's not in business with him,' and now we're into 'He's not financially connected to the businesses,' so you don't have to be financially connected to a business in order to be a part of that business."

"What President Biden was basically doing through Hunter Biden was allowing Hunter Biden to get these deals where there's no discernible actual product being produced, so it's really just peddling of influence," Shapley continued. 

The Bidens have come under fire recently for changing their narrative on how the president has or hasn't been connected to his son's business deals. 

Originally, President Biden claimed he never discussed Hunter Biden's business deals with him, but the story eventually evolved to the president never being "financially" involved, according to his son's statement on Wednesday. 

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Regardless, both Shapley and Ziegler reiterated that claim is simply not true. 

"There's ample evidence that shows that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's businesses in some way, shape or form," Shapley said. 

"As I said in my testimony, a former senator, vice president, president, when he's involved in the business, he's not forming mission statements and working on Excel spreadsheets… Him merely sitting in a… business meeting at a lunch, having water is all that Hunter Biden needed to use that influence."

Hunter Biden agreed to testify publicly before House lawmakers last month, according to a letter obtained by Fox News, but Republicans insisted he appear for a closed-door deposition before a public hearing. 

"Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans," House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement to Fox News. 

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He added; "Our lawfully issued subpoena to Hunter Biden requires him to appear for a deposition on December 13. We expect full cooperation with our subpoena for a deposition but also agree that Hunter Biden should have opportunity to testify in a public setting at a future date."

"Just like Gary and I did, we came, and we came forward in front of the committees," Ziegler said. "We did closed-door depositions to start, and we provided ample evidence to support our whistleblower claims that at the end of the day, that's that's why Gary and I came forward, was to shine a light on some of the darkest corners of DOJ, that they're not treating taxpayers the same." 

"That should cause a concern to every single American out there," he continued. 

FOX News' Brooke Singman, Chad Pergram and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.