An IRS whistleblower claimed to a House panel that the Justice Department slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden and treated him favorably because he is the president’s son—the latest piece of evidence in Republican-led investigations seeking to prove President Joe Biden’s family members have used his influence to further their own business ventures and skirt the law, though the probes have yet to produce any verified claims of wrongdoing....
In some of the most damning and clear-cut allegations the committee has to suggest malfeasance swirling the Bidens, IRS agent Gary Shapley alleged the investigators recommended additional felonies for Hunter Biden to the Justice Department and said U.S. attorneys offices in California and Washington, D.C., declined to prosecute Hunter Biden, according to a transcript of Shapley’s testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee released Thursday.
Shapley also detailed an incriminating WhatsApp message the agency allegedly obtained between Hunter Biden and his Chinese business partner, Henry Zhao, in 2017, after Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president and before his election as president, in which Hunter Biden allegedly pressured Zhao to complete a business deal by invoking his father, who he claimed was sitting next to him and “waiting for the call,” according to a summary of the message Shapley provided to the committee.
For example, the committee has taken issue with Hunter Biden’s role in the 2016 sale of an American-operated coal mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo to a Chinese company, noting that the “Obama Administration was aware of cobalt’s importance to the global economy, but did nothing to intervene in Hunter Biden’s Chinese-backed transaction.”
Comer crafted the narrative surrounding Hunter, James and Hallie Biden by subpoenaing suspicious activity reports banks are required to file with the federal government when they suspect potentially illegal activity, though the reports themselves are fairly commonplace and automatically filed with larger financial transactions.President Biden has repeatedly said he has never been involved in his family’s business dealings. He recently called the bribery claims a “bunch of malarkey.