The attorney for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler slammed special counsel David Weissâ final report on the investigations of Hunter Biden on Tuesday.
Weissâ final report excoriates President Joe Biden for maligning the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the process of pardoning Hunter Biden, though it does not sufficiently address the whistleblowersâ allegations that the DOJ deliberately slow-walked investigations into the presidentâs son and his finances in the eyes of the whistleblowers and their attorney. In fact, Shapley, Ziegler and their attorneys consider the final report a âjokeâ given their view that Weiss should have never been special counsel in the first place due to his prior involvement in probing Hunter Bidenâs taxes.
âThe Weiss report is a joke. Itâs unserious. We said from the beginning that he should not have been special counsel,â Jason Foster, founder of Empower Oversight and counsel for the IRS whistleblowers, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. âIt was absurd for him to be special counsel.â
âWhen the whistle blowers came forward, they said that we need an independent person to come in and re-evaluate everything, because clearly the people who have been in charge of this have been pulling punches, and they did so in the following specific ways, and thatâs all in their testimony,â Foster continued. âSo, you canât appoint the person who was pulling punches to investigate either the underlying matter or why he was pulling punches.â
Shapley and Ziegler also slammed the Weiss report in a Tuesday statement posted to X.
âThe Weiss report leaves too many important questions unanswered, and the American people deserve answers. DOJ, FBI and IRS leadership should have done the right thing from the beginning,â the whistleblowersâ statement reads. âWe should not have had to risk our careers to end the preferential treatment being given to the presidentâs son. Years later, we are still facing whistleblower retaliation. Why are we the only ones suffering any consequences? Itâs time for a serious investigation and itâs time for accountability.â
Weiss investigated Hunter Biden for possible tax law violations starting in 2018, but was not appointed as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland until August 2023. Shapley and Ziegler alleged in May 2023 disclosures that Weiss and DOJ personnel working on his team had inappropriately influenced the Hunter Biden probe to his benefit before Weissâ appointment as special counsel.
Some observers, such as former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy, have stated their view that Weiss intended to slow-walk the Hunter Biden investigation until the statute of limitations on certain serious charges expired, but the explosive disclosures from the IRS whistleblowers made it âpolitically impossibleâ for Weiss to not ultimately bring charges against Hunter Biden.
Specifically, then-Delaware Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf â working under Weiss before his appointment as special counsel â intervened to remove Joe Bidenâs name from a key August 2020 search warrant related to the Hunter Biden probe.
Weiss and Wolf also helped orchestrate a failed June 2023 plea deal in a Delaware federal court that could have potentially immunized Hunter Biden against future prosecution on tax charges, but that agreement fell apart after U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware Maryellen Noreika shut it down. Critics labeled the nixed pre-trial agreement as a âsweetheartâ deal, particularly given the nexus between Hunter Bidenâs finances and his overseas business dealings with a Ukrainian natural gas company, a Chinese energy firm and other foreign entities.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee accumulated bank records and other evidence demonstrating that Hunter Biden, members of the Biden family and Hunter Biden business associates directly or indirectly received tens of millions of dollars from foreign oligarchs and overseas business interests. The committee did not move forward with a formal impeachment of Joe Biden, though it says its findings indicate Joe Biden âabused his office and violated his oaths of office as Vice President by engaging in a conspiracy to peddle influence to enrich his family.â
Ultimately, Weiss secured felony gun and tax convictions against Hunter Biden in 2024, though Joe Bidenâs blanket pardon for his son ensures that Hunter Biden will not serve time for his crimes.
In the meantime, Ziegler and Shapley both remain in administrative limbo, according to Foster. The two men have alleged professional retaliation against them at the IRS after their identities as whistleblowers became known, though the agency has yet to rule on their claims despite having had years to do so, Foster said.
The DOJ did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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