The identity of the anonymous IRS whistleblower who has alleged political misconduct throughout the investigation into Hunter Biden has been revealed as special agent Joseph Ziegler — a Democrat with over a dozen years serving on the agency’s criminal investigative division.
Ziegler appeared publicly for the first time before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, alongside his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, who has also blown the whistle on the political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the lengthy federal probe into President Biden’s son.
He said he is an IRS Criminal Investigation Division 13-year special agent and described himself as a “gay Democrat married to a man.”
Ziegler is expected to testify Hunter Biden “should have been charged with a tax felony, and not only the tax misdemeanor charge,” and that text messages and communications reviewed by investigators “may be a contradiction to what President Biden was saying about not being involved in Hunter’s oversea business dealings.”
The agent is expected to explain the “corrosion of ethical standards and the abuse of power that threaten our nation” he has witnessed. He is also expected to testify on several instances where prosecutors “did not follow the ordinary process, slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case,” including the blocking of interviews and questioning of Hunter Biden’s adult children.
Ziegler is also predicted to ask Congress and the Biden administration to “consider a special counsel” for the investigation into Hunter Biden and “all the related cases and spin-off investigations that have come forward from this investigation.”
He is expected to testify Congress should consider “establishing an official channel for Federal investigators to pull the emergency cord and raise the issue of the appointment of a special counsel for consideration by your senior officials.”
IRS Supervisor Shapley: Prosecutors “had decided to conceal some evidence from the investigators” located on laptop
Shapley has participated in several media interviews since the House Ways & Means Committee released the transcribed interview last month. He is expected to testify that prosecutors “had decided to conceal some evidence from the investigators” they had located on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
He is also expected to state that Delaware’s U.S. Attorney’s Office “slow-walked steps like conducting interviews, serving document requests, and pursuing search warrants in California, Virginia, and Delaware” until after the presidential election in 2020.
“The warrants were ready as early as April 2020, but the Delaware USAO pushed them off until after the November 2020 election and then never pursued them,” Shapley is expected to say.
“After an electronic search warrant on Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud account led us to WhatsApp messages with several CEFC China Energy executives where he claimed to be sitting and discussing business with his father, Joe Biden, we sought permission to follow up on the information in the messages. Prosecutors would not allow it,” Shapley will say.
Shapley will again testify that while a planned search warrant for the guest house at President Biden’s Delaware residence was being planned, and despite agreeing there was “probable cause,” Lesley Wolf, Assistant U.S. Attorney, “cited the ‘optics’ of executing a search warrant at President Biden’s residence as the deciding factor for not allowing it to be completed.”
“This was the decision even though she admitted there would be evidence at that location that would further the investigation,” Shapley will continue. “AUSA Wolf also told investigators they should not ask about President Biden during witness interviews even when the business communications of his son clearly referenced him.”
