Things are heating up inside the beltway and either Merrick Garland is lying or the IRS whistleblowers are. It has to be one or the other, Jonathan Turley insists. The whole dispute focuses like a laser on the statement “I’m not the deciding official.” David Weiss allegedly said that on October 22, 2022. The investigators working the case are the ones who make that allegation.
IRS agents ‘shocked’
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss “shocked IRS and FBI investigators in a meeting on October 22, 2022.” That’s what a pair of Infernal Revenue Service whistleblowers, one being supervisory agent Gary A. Shapley Jr., have testified. That’s when Weiss told them, “I’m not the deciding official.”
Merrick Garland swears up and down that’s incorrect but might be lying. The Attorney General has “repeatedly assured the public and Congress that Weiss had total authority over his investigation.”
Supervisory agent Shapley was “so dismayed by Weiss’s statement and other admissions that he memorialized them in a communication to other team members.” The same IRS team which was later yanked from the case in retaliation. As Professor Turley explains, “Shapley and another whistleblower detail what they describe as a pattern of interference with their investigation of Hunter Biden, including the denial of searches, lines of questioning, and even attempted indictments.”
The Hill is out with my column today on the new evidence from whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden investigation. What is clear is that someone is lying and we need to know who it is. https://t.co/8O1gxCFHVP
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 24, 2023
That’s really interesting considering that Hunter just got the plea deal of the century. The last time someone got a deal this sweet was Jeffrey Epstein’s in 2007. He got a few weeks in jail but only had to sleep there.
As the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law for George Washington University notes, “the only thing abundantly clear is that someone is lying. Either these whistleblowers are lying to Congress, or these Justice Department officials (including Garland) are lying.”
He’s not leaning either way but conservative Americans tend to believe the IRS insiders. Garland hasn’t proven to be real “forthcoming” or “transparent.” The response “from both Hunter Biden’s counsel and the attorney general himself,” Turley adds, “only deepened the concerns.”
The unfulfilled commitment
The House Ways and Means Committee recently revealed a Whatsapp message provided by the IRS whistleblowers. It didn’t ooze from his laptop, it came from their professional investigation. The entire world can clearly see what it says. “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. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, 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.”
That sounds a whole lot like a shakedown. The ones he was shaking down were the Chinese officials who wired the family a whole bunch of money. It was obvious that “dad” was pissed. Send in the lawyers…
Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, responded to insist that Joe Biden “has repeatedly told the public that he had no knowledge or involvement in his son’s dealings.” No matter what IRS agents investigating him say. He didn’t mention but Turley did, that Joe “maintained the denial despite audiotapes of him referring to business dealings, photos and meetings with his son’s business associates, as well as an eyewitness account of an in-person meeting.”
According to an IRS whistleblower:
David Weiss tried to bring charges in D.C. against Hunter Biden.
Biden-appointed D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves wouldn’t allow it. pic.twitter.com/skyWk1JoBP
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 23, 2023
Clark also didn’t bother to “deny that the above-quoted message had been sent.” Turley got a laugh from the reply. “He only said that it was ‘illegal‘ to release the text (he did not explain why) and then added that ‘[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.‘”
The IRS insiders revealed that “the Justice Department consistently cut them off in seeking searches or answers” related to Joe Biden. They allege that “U.S. Attorney Weiss stated that he subsequently asked for special counsel authority from Main DOJ at that time and was denied that authority.” Turley verifies that would nail it down.
“If true, that means that Garland was not just hearing from experts and members of Congress calling for an appointment, but that Weiss himself also saw the need for such an appointment. Moreover, the report indicates that others in the investigation believed that there was a need to create such separation from the Justice Department in light of what they viewed as the special treatment” given to Joe Biden’s son. The IRS whistleblowers seem to be ahead on points but we’ll see where the game ends up. The Biden family lawyers make charges disappear like David Copperfield’s pet elephant, when the landlord drops by.
