by WorldTribune Staff, February 11, 2025 Real World News
The IRS illegally retaliated against two of its agents who became whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden criminal investigations, according to the federal whistleblower protection agency.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said the IRS may have violated federal law by attempting to gag the agents from disclosing wrongdoing, Just the News reported, citing correspondence to Congress made public last week.
The Empower Oversight whistleblower center, which represented one of the agents, Gary Shapley, had filed a complaint with OSC in May 2023 alleging that Shapley and his colleague, IRS agent Joseph Ziegler, had been removed from the Hunter Biden case for blowing the whistle and later had been prohibited from further communicating concerns about wrongdoing and political meddling in the case.
Those concerns were validated by OSC, Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.
“OSC confirmed in a December 30, 2024 email to counsel for the whistleblowers that it found the IRS issued illegal gag orders and improperly removed them from the Hunter Biden investigation as reprisal for their protected disclosures,” Leavitt wrote.
The letter to Grassley included a footnote providing a direct quote from OSC about its findings.
“We believe certain IRS communications violated 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(13). In addition, at this point, we believe IRS cannot support Mr. Shapley’s removal from the criminal investigation of a high-profile subject,” the excerpt stated, citing the main whistleblower protection law.
After Shapley and Ziegler provided public proof of political interference in the case, prosecutors brought two indictments against Hunter Biden and secured convictions on multiple tax and gun charges.
Related: Damning and stunning IRS whistleblower transcripts released; Hunter attends state dinner, June 23, 2023
Facing sentencing and the possibility of prison time, Hunter Biden was pardoned by Joe Biden in December.
Ultimately, OSC did not find in favor of the whistleblowers on claims that Shapley was passed over for a promotion and endured other retaliation. Leavitt said his group will appeal those findings to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, a personnel agency for federal employees.
“While OSC claimed it was unable to substantiate other retaliation against SSA Shapley, such as the IRS’s over-scrutinization of his work and slow-walking his requests, SSA Shapley CAUGHT his supervisor altering the dates of SSA Shapley’s communications to slow-walk them and make it appear to others in the agency like SSA Shapley was only making last-minute requests,” Leavitt wrote on X.
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