Two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents recently testified before the House Ways and Means Committee and described how the investigation of Hunter Biden was mishandled. One of them, Gary Shapley, said that “if this was any other person, they likely would have already served their sentence. There were personal expenses that were taken as business expenses, prostitutes, sex club memberships, [and] hotel rooms for purported drug dealers.”
As if that were not enough, he insinuated that the Justice Department hindered the investigation to avoid tarnishing Joe Biden. “There were certain investigative steps we weren’t allowed to take that could have led us to President Biden,” he added.
Testimony like this infuriated the president’s son’s entourage, particularly his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, who wrote a scathing letter to Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO), chairman of the aforementioned committee. Lowell suggested that the IRS agents were interviewed “in an attempt to evade their own misconduct,” while asserting that “the timing of the agents’ leaks and your subsequent decision to release their statements do not seem innocent—they came shortly after there was a public filing indicating the disposition of the five-year investigation of Mr. Biden.”
NEW w/ @StefWKight: Hunter's lawyer Abbe Lowell has sent a blistering letter to House Ways and Means chairman Jason smith over the IRS Transcripts, accusing him of "feed the misinformation campaign to harm our client...as a vehicle to attack his father."https://t.co/iat8DBcIFC pic.twitter.com/rkqQJtwkm9
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 30, 2023
Smith was quick to respond and downplayed Powell’s written message. “It’s little surprise that Hunter Biden’s attorneys are attempting to chill our investigation and discredit the whistleblowers who say they have already faced retaliation from the IRS and the Department of Justice despite statutory protections established by law,” the Republican lawmaker countered.
In his statement, Shapley, who still works at the IRS, specified that Hunter Biden owed $2.2 million in taxes between 2014 and 2019. He further claimed that his team found a few illegal business expenses during the investigation and that the evidence gathered could have landed “anyone else” in prison.
“I documented exactly what happened. And it doesn’t seem to match what the attorney general or the US attorney are saying today. (...) We have to make sure as a special agent for IRS Criminal Investigation that we treat every single person exactly the same. And that just simply didn’t happen here”, he added.
