In a bold move that has thrown a spotlight on the Biden administration once again, IRS criminal investigator Gary Shapley has ceased all communication with a critical congressional committee. Shapley had accused certain Justice Department officials of deliberately dragging their feet in a longstanding investigation into Hunter Biden’s murky tax affairs.
Having stepped into the limelight during a CBS News interview on Thursday, Shapley has made his identity known to the public. The veteran of the IRS criminal investigations department is slated to testify in a closed-door session before the House Ways and Means Committee, the very body responsible for overseeing the IRS, this Friday. The committee is led by Representative Jason Smith, a Republican from the state of Missouri.
Shapley has ceased all communication with the Senate Finance Committee as well, (another significant body that supervises the IRS) after a meeting between his lawyer and the committee representatives.
The abrupt move includes canceling a prearranged interview with the committee, chaired by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. The sudden decision further highlights the tense and complicated nature of the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax affairs, even as Shapley prepares to give his testimony before the House panel.
An insider from the Finance Committee informed The Independent that representatives from both Republican and Democratic factions of the committee had engaged in a meeting with Mark Lytle, a former federal prosecutor who is confirmed to be one of Gary Shapley’s legal counsels.
Representatives from both sides of the political aisle in the Finance Committee had a lengthy discussion with the legal representative of an IRS whistleblower, as per a source. “Democratic and Republican Finance Committee staff previously met for several hours with counsel representing an IRS whistleblower, and counsel were made aware of the committee’s investigative procedures,” the source detailed.
A consensus had been reached between the committee staff and the whistleblower’s counsel to arrange a direct meeting with the whistleblower the following week. However, the whistleblower has since withdrawn from that agreement and declined to reschedule.
The source further noted that Senator Wyden, the Chair of the Finance Committee, along with his team, is “ready to arrange a meeting on terms that comply with laws protecting taxpayer data and ensure a fair and rigorous investigation.”
Just recently the 14-year veteran of the Internal Revenue Service came forward to publicly talk about the slow-walking he alleged which occurred in a case involving potential criminal charges against Hunter Biden.
Gary Shapley, sitting with CBS News, detailed the multiple investigatory steps that “were just completely not done” at the direction of the Department of Justice, which recently disbanded the team of IRS agents looking into false statements Hunter Biden may have made on his tax returns.
“When I took control of this particular investigation, I immediately saw deviations from the normal process. It was way outside the norm of what I’ve experienced in the past,” Shapley said.
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The accusations by Shapley come more than three years after the IRS began its investigation into tax irregularities involving Hunter Biden. The investigation has since been placed under the purview of the U.S. Attorney for Delaware to separate President Joe Biden’s administration from closer oversight and the risk of tainting it with political bias. Despite the distance from the White House, the probe appears fraught with tampering, Shapley alleged.
“For a couple years, we’d been noticing these deviations in the investigative process. And I just couldn’t, you know, fathom that DOJ might be acting unethically on this,” he said.
Asked why he chose to come forward now, Shapley insisted he has no political motivation and just wants the tax agency to treat Hunter Biden as it would any other U.S. citizen under investigation.
“I’m not involved with any of that stuff,” he said. “It’s not what I want to do. I’m just simply not a political person. This is a job, and my oath of office is to treat everybody fairly that we investigate.”
The House Ways and Means Committee is set on Friday to hear secret testimony from Shapley. Already, his lawyer has laid the ground for his appearance by sending a letter to the Office of Special Counsel alleging “irregularities” in the investigation and cites a “charged meeting” between Shapley’s team and the Department of Justice last fall.
