IN HUNTER BIDEN CASE, A WHATSAPP SMOKING GUN? The White House and Democrats in Washington hoped that Tuesday's announcement of a plea bargain in the Hunter Biden investigation would mark the end of questions surrounding what Republicans call the"Biden family business." They were wrong. Really, really wrong.
Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue! No kidding. The July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message was the clearest evidence ever that Joe Biden, then the former vice president, knew about his son's business dealings. Now, maybe Hunter Biden was lying in the message. Maybe his father wasn't in the room. Maybe there's some other explanation. What was clear was that the WhatsApp message was evidence that needed to be investigated. But Shapley and the other IRS investigators soon ran into a brick wall at the Justice Department.
The new Biden team made sure that Justice Department prosecutors and IRS investigators knew they should not dig too deeply into the Hunter Biden case. In August 2022, Shapley said,"I learned how defense counsel felt about the case when prosecutors told us on a prosecution team call that Chris Clark, Hunter Biden's counsel from Latham and Watkins, told them that if they charge Hunter Biden, they would be committing 'career suicide.