A whistleblower from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) testified that the Department of Justice (DOJ) prevented investigators from gathering evidence connected to President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s business dealings.
The whistleblowers, Joseph Zeigler and Gary Shapley, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee that the DOJ, under the authority of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, suppressed major aspects of agents’ investigations into Hunter Biden. A WhatsApp message apparently sent by Hunter on July 30, 2017, threatened a Chinese business official by saying Joe Biden was sitting beside Hunter.
Zeigler, who testified about the message, told Republican Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar on Wednesday that investigators could not find the location of the message after communicating with assigned prosecutors. He said prosecutors allegedly put their guards up and immediately questioned its validity without any real investigation into the message.
“I recall them saying to me that ‘how do we know that he’s there? How do we know that that’s true, the statement being made there?’ And then I said ‘well, we would get the location data.’ So, as a part of my normal investigation, that’s what I would do and what I can tell you is, I know I didn’t do it, I don’t know if the FBI ever ended up doing it, it was kind of like a ‘let’s wait or I need to think about it.'”
Shapley added prosecutors withheld information on Hunter Biden’s laptop from investigators, which he said is an unprecedented practice. The investigators were only permitted to seeing bits and pieces of the computer while prohibited from many significant portions, according to the testimony. (RELATED: ‘Impeachable Offense’: Jim Jordan, Byron Donalds Hint At Possible Biden Impeachment For Overseas Dealings)
Biden repeatedly said during his 2020 presidential campaign that he never communicated with Hunter about his son’s business dealings.
FBI records found that a Ukrainian oligarch allegedly attempted to bribe the president and his son, referring to Joe Biden in documents as “the big guy,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee in April 2022 that a special counsel would not be necessary. Shapley and Zeigler testified the IRS recommended Hunter be prosecuted for tax felonies, but special counsel David Weiss said prosecutors in other districts would not prosecute the crimes.
