Hunter Biden expected to avoid prison time after agreeing to plea deal
Fox News correspondent David Spunt has more on the plea agreement for President Biden's son on tax and firearm charges on ‘Special Report.’
The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden.
According to Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., that testimony "outlines misconduct and government abuse at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the investigation of Hunter Biden."
"The allegations point to a steady campaign of: unequal treatment of enforcing tax law; Department of Justice interference in the form of delays, divulgences, and denials, into the investigation of tax crimes that may have been committed by the President’s son; and finally, retaliation against IRS employees who blew the whistle on the misconduct," the committee said Thursday.
"Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging, and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes," Smith said.
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Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, arrives with wife Melissa Cohen Biden prior to President Biden awarding the Presidential Medals of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 7, 2022. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
According to testimony released by the committee, one whistleblower, IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley Jr., said decisions in the case seemed to be "influenced by politics."
"Whatever the motivations, at every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation," Shapley said.
"These decisions included slow-walking investigative steps, now 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 to ensure the investigation did not go overt well before policy memorandum mandated the pause. These are just only a few examples," he added.
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Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Shapley, who oversaw the IRS probe into the president's son, said the IRS obtained a WhatsApp message dated July 30th, 2017, from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, who the New York Post previously reported is a Chinese Communist Party official and CEO of Harvest Fund Management.
"I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight" Biden wrote. "And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father."
Shapley testified that communications like that message "made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens' Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time."
However, Shapley testified that Assistant United States Attorney in Delaware, Lesley Wolf, told him "optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant."
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President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
"She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved," Shapley testified.
The news comes days after the Justice Department announced that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax, as part of a deal that is expected to keep him out of prison. The younger Biden also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
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In response to the committee's release, the Justice Department said in a statement on Biden's case:
"As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware."
This is a breaking news report, check back for updates.
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