By Mike Huckabee
June 23, 2023
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Two days after it was announced, predictably, that Hunter Biden had reached a sweet no-prison deal with prosecutors that appeared to effectively shove the larger case under the rug, the stunning claims of not one but TWO fed-up IRS whistleblowers were made public. Anyone who isn’t gasping at these serious charges, demanding to see the evidence now and calling for the end of this administration (White House and Justice Department) if they are true is probably beyond hope. I’ll just shake my head and say, “Bless your heart.”
Before going on to the nature of these new claims, let’s take a quick look at the preposterous political privilege --- in Delaware, also called “the Delaware Way” --- inherent in Hunter’s deal by comparing it with what other, less-connected defendants have received. Miranda Devine at the NEW YORK POST reports that Chris Tiganti, the former Delaware beer baron who went to prison over corrupt campaign donations (“bundling”) to Joe Biden, says, “If you want to know why I went to jail and Hunter didn’t, it’s because my name is Tiganti, not Biden. It’s pretty simple. If your name is Biden, then investigations last as long as they need to and end [in your favor].”
In Hunter’s case, the investigation against him in U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s office dragged on for five years before he was finally charged with two tax misdemeanors and one gun charge. He won’t get jail; maybe he’ll get probation. As Devine puts it, Weiss “has had long experience of Biden family shenanigans in the incestuous state where Joe Biden has held public office since 1972.”
Devine has the details of Tiganti’s nightmarish ordeal, from which Biden was kept a safe distance.
Now, on to the breaking news from the House Ways & Means Committee, which is the one committee authorized to hear testimony about tax issues. Gary Shapley and another whistleblower both testified for more than seven hours, according to sources for THE DAILY CALLER. Their testimony, given to both Republican and Democrat committee attorneys, reportedly implicates both Attorney General Merrick Garland and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel in lying to Congress about political interference in the Hunter Biden probe. Garland and Werfel said there wasn’t any; they say there absolutely was.
Shapley is the longtime IRS agent who oversaw the Hunter Biden case. He’s the one who originally came forward to say the IRS violated normal protocols to benefit Hunter. The second whistleblower testified on June 1, essentially corroborating his claims, and told the committee that he was retaliated against as early as October 2022. (Both say they faced retaliation.)
In a press conference on Thursday, Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri said that “Weiss tried to bring charges [against Hunter] in the District of Columbia around March of 2022 and was denied.” Also, “Weiss sought to bring charges in the Central District of California in the fall of 2022 and had that request denied in January 2023.”
Weiss had also sought special counsel status in the spring of 2022 but “was denied.” Merrick Garland has resolutely stood against the appointment of a special counsel to look into Biden finances.
Smith said Thursday, “I can now confirm that we have credible whistleblower testimony alleging misconduct and government abuse that is resulting in preferential treatment for the President’s son, Hunter Biden. He noted that Hunter “has been under investigation for tax crimes that include evading taxes on income” from foreign sources.
(By the way, the least surprising revelation is that the investigation of Hunter Biden began as an offshoot of an investigation into a foreign amateur pornography platform.)
According to both whistleblowers, IRS agents were told by federal prosecutor Lesley Wolf that they’d never get approval for a warrant to search Joe Biden’s guesthouse because evidence would be found there. She said there was more than enough probable cause, but, as Shapley quoted her, “the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.” (Do you think that question ever occurred to the people who greenlighted a guns-drawn raid on former President Trump’s house to seize paperwork?)
As reported by the NEW YORK POST, she also “discouraged them from pursuing lines of questioning related to Joe Biden, saying at one point that there was ‘no specific criminality,’ according to Shapley.” Wolf also delayed letting them talk with one of Hunter’s business partners, he said, because “she did not want to ask about the Big Guy [or about] ‘dad,’ [Shapley] said.”
“Crucial information about the investigation was divulged to Hunter Biden’s attorneys,” they had testified. For example, they were given a heads-up when there was likely going to be a search of a northern Virginia storage unit where Hunter had files.
They also said there were pervasive “unjustified delays,” including “authenticating a WhatsApp message [from July 30, 2017], in which Hunter demands payment from Chinese officials noting that his father was in the room.” (Yes, you read that right. Pretty much the cherry on top of the corruption sundae for both Hunter and Joe; more on that below.)
Rep. Smith said that “despite what whistleblowers described as a clear-cut case of tax liability on these payments, IRS investigators found themselves hamstrung internally.” They even were subjected to “bullying and threats from the defense counsel.” (Recall that Hunter’s attorneys took an extremely aggressive stance, even towards others caught up in in the fray such as computer repair technician John Paul Mac Isaac.)
And speaking of the laptop, Smith related that “...Hunter’s infamous abandoned laptop was verified by the FBI in November 2019, but investigators thereafter were barred from seeing it, Shapley said.”
Hunter did indeed get a sweetheart deal, as “the IRS recommended charges...that included attempt to evade tax [on $8.3 million from foreign entities Ukraine, Romania and China] --- a felony --- fraud or false statements --- a felony --- and willful failure to file returns, supply information, or [re]pay tax crimes.”
The Delaware federal prosecutor has said the investigation is ongoing, but legal experts say this could just be a strategy so they’re able to say they can’t comment.
The ‘Justice’ Department released a statement: “Both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate.”
But Kimberly Strassel at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL said this: “The Beltway press corps spent the week quoting ‘experts’ assuring the public that Hunter Biden’s plea deal didn’t amount to special treatment. You can believe that, or you can read the sworn testimony of Internal Revenue Service investigators who say the opposite...this glimpse turns this week’s Hunter plea into a joke. The Justice Department needs to provide answers.”
Democrat Ethan Bearman, adjunct professor at Loyola Law, brushed off the whistleblowers’ claims in an appearance on FOX NEWS late Thursday night, saying, “The whistleblower sounds like somebody who has an agenda…”
Wouldn’t you love to hear one or both of the whistleblowers respond to that? It’s hard to imagine what agenda that might be, to cause these whistleblowers to upend their lives and careers.
Rep. Smith appeared on HANNITY Thursday night, saying whistleblowers had showed that for the years of 2014 and 2015, Biden (estimating conservatively) would have owed $300,000 on his “foreign resources.” But “because they delayed, the statute of limitations has expired for any criminal penalties for [those years].”
As to the most serious charge of all, that a WhatsApp message placed Joe Biden with Hunter during a conversation with a Chinese official, there’s photo confirmation that Hunter was at his father’s house the day that message was sent. It sounds like an extortion attempt: “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled...If I get a call 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 hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. All too often people mistake kindness for weakness --- and all too often I am standing over [the] top of them saying I warned you.”
According to Shapley, it was this message that caused FBI agents to want to search the Biden guest house, one of the things they never got to do. It would be bad “optics.”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/
Be sure and watch the segment with Gregg Jarrett and Alan Dershowitz as well. Jarrett dismantles the statement by the DOJ. And Dershowitz says that if Joe really was sitting there in that room with Hunter, “that would be an impeachable offense; that would be the crime of bribery.”
By the way, Dershowitz said something VERY interesting: that Hunter can’t plead the Fifth under questioning now, because his lawyers have said “he’s no longer subject to any criminal prosecution.” But the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware has said the investigation is ongoing. So, which is it? Can Hunter be made to answer questions or not?
https://www.foxnews.com/video/
Hunter and his wife were seen last night at a state dinner also attended by AG Garland. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton made a good point on FOX NEWS last night about why the Bidens act with such impunity. “Well, I guess you could say that Joe Biden’s gotten away with it now for 50 years,” he said, the most recent example being the slap on the wrist his son just got.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/
But the evidence is mounting that Joe Biden was very much involved in his son’s foreign business deals, and that he has repeatedly lied about it. Most of the media will play dumb, but polls show the American people are wising up. There’s really no going back from what we’ve learned. This is a must-read story from the WASHINGTON FREE BEACON…
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2023/6/biden-case-mounting-evidence-of-massive-public-corruption
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