House Committee Holds Hearing With IRS Whistleblowers Over Hunter Biden

Republican leaders in the United States House of Representatives released the testimony Thursday from a pair of IRS whistleblowers who allege their efforts to investigate Hunter Biden’s tax issues were rebuffed by superiors and that the case involving the President’s son has been handled differently than other similar cases.

The testimony was taken over several days earlier this month by Republican and Democratic attorneys for the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over the IRS. This morning, committee members met for several hours behind closed doors to discuss and ultimately vote to make a transcript of the testimony public.

"I can now confirm that we have credible whistleblower testimony alleging misconduct and government abuse, resulting in preferential treatment of the President’s son, Hunter Biden," Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) told reporters following the meeting.

The existence of the whistleblowers was not a secret, nor that Ways and Means was likely to make their testimony public, which committee members believe had a lot to do with the timing of the Justice Department's announcement of a plea agreement with Hunter Biden earlier this week. Republicans have largely panned the deal -- guilty pleas to two tax law misdemeanors with no recommended jail time and a felony gun charge that gets dropped upon completion of a diversion program -- calling it a 'slap on the wrist.'

"The scales of justice cannot be tipped in the favor of the wealthy and the politically connected," said Smith. "No one is above the law."

But committee members say, according to the whistleblowers, that's how Hunter Biden is being treated in a case that involves payments from Ukraine, Romania and China totaling more than $17 million to Biden and his associates between 2014 and 2019. According to the testimony, Hunter Biden received $8.3 million of that.

"What we’re talking about is corruption," said Ways and Means committee member Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK1) in an interview Thursday. "Unreported income of the President's son being covered up by the President's Department of Justice and IRS, and then trying to quickly get a plea deal done before this goes through Congress and more is exposed."

Among the things the testimony allegedly exposes is that the U.S. Attorney leading the investigation, David Weiss, did not have the free reign Attorney General Merrick Garland suggested he had.

The whistleblowers allege Weiss tried to bring charges against Biden in Washington D.C in March 2022, but was denied; they say he tried to bring charges in Central California in the fall of 2022, but also was denied. They say Weiss sought special counsel status last spring, but Garland said no.

More generally, committee leaders say, the testimony has three major areas of focus: 1. the federal government is not treating taxpayers equally when enforcing tax laws, 2. the Biden DOJ is intervening and overstepping in the Hunter Biden investigation, and 3. the whistleblowers claim they faced almost immediate retaliation.

"These are very seasoned IRS agents," said Hern, "bringing it to their bosses, only to be turned away, bringing it to the Department of Justice officials, only to be turned away, time and time again."

Congressman Hern says this was just the first step.

"We’re releasing this information to the Judiciary Committee and to the Oversight Committee," he said. "This will generate a lot more of the 'meat', if you will, of the investigation for Congressmen (Jim) Jordan and (James) Comer as they move forward."

Democrats on the committee reportedly said they didn't object to the testimony being made public but did object to the process. All voted against the material's release.

In Ranking Member Richard Neal's (D-MA) opening statement, he accused the majority of acting out of “naked partisanship” to expose a private citizen’s tax records and said the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney for Delaware are handling the case.

Roll Call reported that Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) said the investigation hasn’t turned up notable information. “There’s really much smoke here and not much fire,” he said.

You can find links to the testimony transcripts here: https://waysandmeans.house.gov/smith-testimony-of-irs-employees-reveals-biden-irs-doj-interfered-in-tax-investigation-of-hunter-biden-revealing-preferential-treatment-for-wealthy-and-politically-connected/