The IRS fired all of the agents who were looking into Hunter Biden, and one of them, a whistleblower, said that the Biden administration was punishing him for what he had said. In April, the person who leaked the information said that the Biden administration unfairly blocked the probe into the president’s son.
On Monday, these lawyers told Congress that their client, a criminal supervisory special agent, was told that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which “our client” wanted to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress, according to The New York Post.
The IRS agent’s lawyers, Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, said their client was told the move had been requested by the Justice Department. The lawyers also said that the move is clearly a form of retaliation and may also be a way to stop a congressional investigation.
Investigators from the FBI and IRS have been looking into Hunter Biden’s business deals, taxes, and other things for years. Late last month, Biden’s lawyers talked with people from the Department of Justice. Sources told The Washington Post that Delaware’s U.S. Attorney David Weiss might soon charge Biden with tax and gun crimes.
Hunter Biden has said that he expects to be cleared of wrongdoing, and his father, President Joe Biden, told MSNBC this month that his son has “done nothing wrong.”
The IRS supervisory agent, whose name has not been made public, reached out to top lawmakers last month to tell them about a high-profile investigation, now known as the Hunter Biden case. Their goal was to do this in a way that was protected by law. CNN reported that the IRS agent’s lawyers met with congressional investigators this month. This could lead to a formal disclosure of secret tax information in the near future.
Lytle has said that his client has already told multiple inspectors general of examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly affecting decisions, failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case and claims that contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee. Lytle told CBS News that his client has emails and other conversations that back up what he said.
Lytle mentioned the top official in his letter to Congress is Attorney General Merrick Garland. He barely talked about the investigation when he testified before Congress in March. According to Garland’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Garland said that he had kept his promise not to interfere with the investigation.
Garland said that what he said under oath still holds true when asked about the IRS leak at a recent news conference. Garland said, “Yes, that’s still the case.” “He added that he still stands by what he said.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Chris Clark, told the news that the IRS worker “appears” to have broken the law. It’s a felony for an IRS agent to give out wrong information about a tax investigation that’s still going on, Clark said in a statement that NBC News reported.
Lytle told Fox News that the comment was “unfortunate,” but he stressed that his client is not giving up. He was worried about attacks like this, but he had to tell the truth, he said.
In a letter to lawmakers sent on Monday, the IRS agent’s lawyers pointed out parts of the U.S. Code that say officials can’t be stopped from telling Congress about whistleblowers or punished for doing so. They also said that last month, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told the House Committee on Ways and Means that there would be “no retaliation” against whistleblowers.
The IRS agent’s lawyers wrote and asked that Werfel pay quick attention to this matter. Removing the experienced investigators who have worked on this case for years and are now the subject-matter experts is exactly what their client wanted to report in the first place.