Any potential investigative leads pointing towards Joe Biden were “off the table” during the Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, new testimony from two IRS agents shows.
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified Dec. 5 before the House Ways and Means Committee and described how they “weren’t allowed” to look into leads potentially implicating Joe Biden, according to testimony excerpts released Thursday by the committee. (RELATED: Hunter Biden’s Drug Addiction Defense Shattered By New California Indictment)
“Well, that’s the complex part about this is at the end of the day, any questions that might have led to former Vice President, they were kind of off the table,” Ziegler testified in response to questioning from Republican Georgia Rep. Drew Ferguson.
Ziegler also told Ferguson, “Questions that I wanted to ask weren’t asked, and if those questions led to the former Vice President, they weren’t asked” in defiance of normal investigative processes.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: Internal Revenue Service Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley (2nd L) and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler (R), who both worked on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, arrive for a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Shapley told lawmakers the same story and specifically mentioned the infamous “10 held by H for the big guy” remark by James Gilliar, one of Hunter Biden’s business associates, in a May 2017 email chain contained on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop archive. (RELATED: Hunter Biden’s Drug Addiction Defense Shattered By New California Indictment)
“We were interested in following leads that went to Joe Biden — President Biden — not because he was Vice President, but because in any normal investigation, if you see financial transactions between son and father, and email correspondence going back and forth, text messages, and WhatsApp messages, in every investigation we have ever worked, we would follow those leads to the father,” Shapley explained to Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
“When you see ’10 held by H for the big guy,’ and we have other correspondence where they are saying, don’t call dad — you know, call dad something else, call him — because we are trying to confuse or conceal who it is, that is issue for concern. And was there 10 percent that went to the big guy? We will never know because we weren’t allowed to investigate that,” Shapley added after a follow-up question from Fitzpatrick.
Gilliar appeared to text another ex-business associate, Tony Bobulinski, in May 2017 urging him not to mention Joe Biden’s involvement, messages released by the House Oversight Committee demonstrate. Bobulinski told the FBI in October 2020 that he met with Joe Biden to discuss the “Sinohawk” joint venture proposal involving CEFC, a Chinese energy firm, an FBI FD-302 interview summary shows. (RELATED: Hunter Biden’s Financial Backer Feared Political ‘Risk’ Caused By Delinquent Tax Returns, Docs Show)
The negotiations resulted in the creation of Hudson West III, a business arrangement created by Hunter Biden and CEFC associates in August 2017. Funds from a Chinese firm flowed into Hudson West and resulted in a $40,000 check from Joe Biden’s sister-in-law Sara Biden in September 2017, according to bank records released on Nov. 1 by the Oversight Committee.
Sara Biden’s check to Joe Biden is classified as a loan repayment and the White House has said repeatedly the money was repayment for a loan Joe Biden sent to his brother James Biden.
Hudson West III brought in just under $1 million for Hunter Biden in 2017, his failed guilty plea deal with the DOJ lays out. Biden admitted to the arrangement in court when Judge Maryellen Noreika scrutinized his proposed plea deal, causing the deal to implode.
The IRS whistleblowers previously testified to the Ways and Means Committee with allegations of special treatment given to Hunter Biden during the ongoing DOJ investigation into his taxes and firearms possession. House Republicans released a report on Dec. 5 detailing how witness testimony confirmed central allegations brought forward by the whistleblowers.
When he testified in May, Shapley disclosed to the Ways and Means Committee a threatening text Hunter Biden appeared to send to a Chinese business associate where he invoked his father’s presence.
“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,” Hunter Biden texted on July 30, 2017, according to Shapley.
“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,” he added.
Images contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop archive show he spent time at his father’s Delaware residence on the day he sent the text, the Washington Free Beacon reported. (RELATED: DOJ Blocking Testimony From Key Officials Involved With Hunter Biden Investigation, House Report Says)
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 27: Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) speaks during a news conference at the House Longworth Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden sent a similar text in August 2017 to a Chinese business associate bragging about how the “Biden’s [sic] are the best” at doing what the associate’s boss wants, according to the Oversight Committee.
Both IRS whistleblowers highlighted steps allegedly taken by Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware Lesley Wolf to prevent Joe Biden from being included in a search warrant for lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies, who once worked for Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. (RELATED: Burisma Received Joe Biden’s Talking Points From Lobbyists Ahead Of His Trip To Ukraine, Memo Shows)
The Ways and Means Committee released a trove of documents in September, including an email from Wolf instructing investigators to remove “political figure 1” from the search warrant. Joe Biden was the “political figure one” listed on a draft copy of the Blue Star search warrant.
Joe Biden spoke with them around 20 times, according to testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer before the House Oversight Committee. Archer told lawmakers the Biden family “brand” protected Burisma and recalled a spring 2015 dinner the sitting vice president attended alongside Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi.
Email metadata released on Dec. 5 by the House Ways and Means Committee shows then-Vice President Joe Biden communicated one-on-one with Hunter Biden’s then-business associate Eric Schwerin. The pair exchanged over 50 emails for private conversations Joe Biden conducted by using an apparent alias, according to the committee.
Rob Walker, another one of Hunter Biden’s former business associates, told the FBI in December 2020 Joe Biden met with his son’s Chinese business associates shortly after he left office.
Joe Biden denied meeting with his son’s foreign business associates on Dec. 6, despite the abundance of evidence showing otherwise. The White House has said Joe Biden was “not in business” with his son and the president previously denied Archer’s testimony. The Biden administration did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Burisma paid Hunter Biden up to $83,333.33 per month as a member of its board from 2014-19, bank records show. The company greatly reduced Hunter Biden’s salary when Joe Biden’s vice presidency concluded, according to a new indictment leveled against Hunter Biden by a California grand jury.
Hunter Biden is facing nine tax charges in California, including three felonies and six misdemeanors, related to his apparent failure to pay over $1 million worth of taxes promptly even though he had the income necessary to do so.
READ THE FULL INDICTMENT:
“Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Biden’s defense counsel Abbe D. Lowell said in a statement addressing the California charges.
Hunter Biden made $2.3 million of gross income in 2017 and $2.1 million in 2018, the indictment states. He hauled in more than $7 million between 2016 and 2020, while failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes from tax years 2016-19. The Biden family and its business associates hauled in more than $24 million from foreign sources over a roughly five-year period ending in 2019.
The White House indicated Friday that President Biden will not pursue a pardon for his embattled son. The Biden administration has cast doubt on the IRS whistleblower accusations in a memo first reported by the Washington Examiner. Shapley and Ziegler said in a statement they were vindicated by the newest Hunter Biden indictment in California.
Special counsel David Weiss, U.S. attorney for Delaware, defended Lesley Wolf’s integrity when he testified before the Judiciary Committee, according to a transcript reviewed by the Caller. Attorney General Merrick Garland testified publicly before the committee in September and refused to answer questions about Wolf, citing alleged threats to her safety.
Judiciary Committee lawmakers subpoenaed Wolf in late November, compelling her to testify about her role in the Hunter Biden case. Wolf’s name has not appeared on any court documents related to Hunter Biden’s failed guilty plea agreement in Delaware.
House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden is centered around Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the IRS whistleblower testimony. Lawmakers are expected to vote on whether to officially authorize the impeachment inquiry Wednesday.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition Wednesday in accordance with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee. Lowell proposed a public testimony instead of the closed-door deposition, an offer House Republicans rejected.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, two leaders of the impeachment inquiry, have threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress if he does not appear for his deposition.
Christopher J. Clark, Hunter Biden’s former defense attorney, confirmed in a Monday legal filing Wolf played a central role in negotiating the guilty plea deal before it collapsed in court in July. Clark withdrew from the case in August because of his role in the failed plea negotiations.
Hunter Biden was indicted in September on three federal gun charges tied to a firearm purchase in Delaware. He pleaded not guilty to those charges at an arraignment in early October.
His attorneys filed motions Monday to have the gun charges dismissed.