By Mike Huckabee
September 20, 2023
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“This case seems to be almost like a tantrum that Abbe Lowell’s having...”
That’s the observation of former federal prosecutor Jonathan Fahey, in an interview Monday night with FOX NEWS’ Trace Gallagher, speaking of Hunter Biden’s lead attorney suing the IRS and the former agents who came forward with their concerns about his case. The whistleblowers “did everything under the law in revealing this information,” Fahey said. The suit, he said, is apparently not about their testimony but what they’ve said since going to the House Ways and Means Committee.
(As you know, they went to Ways and Means in the first place because they were dealing with someone’s personal tax records, and this committee, behind closed doors, was the only place they could legally divulge that. The committee then had the authority to allow a public hearing before the Oversight Committee.)
“...I don’t really see the merits of this lawsuit,” he said, “and I’m not really seeing the point of the lawsuit, either, as far as the big picture for his client, how it benefits him.”
In his original plea deal, which was scrapped --- no matter what Abbe Lowell says --- Hunter was originally charged with misdemeanors for crimes that normally would be considered felonies. According to Fahey, the judge in California could come back and charge him with felony tax offenses, if he is so inclined (I wouldn’t hold my breath), along with felony gun crimes. “So, really, things are going in a bad direction for Hunter…this current legal strategy doesn’t seem to be helping him that much, from what I’m seeing.”
That’s in line with a report from the WASHINGTON POST that David Weiss may soon file a new indictment against Hunter on tax charges in a California federal court. ABC NEWS got specific about this --- WAPO, ABC...see, the memo really has gone out! --- saying Hunter will likely face charges of failure to pay taxes after allegations made by IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler about money from Burisma channeled through a Chinese firm run by the Biden family business.
Fahey predicted Hunter won’t go to trial on the gun charges, and that his attorneys would try to work out a deal and “keep the option open” of appealing on a constitutional issue with those. He also predicted no jail time, surprise!
Mark Lytle, the attorney for former IRS lead investigator Gary Shapley, had weighed in earlier in the day, saying, “Congress wrote the law so that whistleblowers could come forward in a protected manner and shine the light on government misconduct. And that’s what happened here. And as a result, the ‘sweetheart’ plea deal was revealed...and the judge rejected it. And they’re mad about that, and they’re coming after the whistleblowers.”
Oh, they’re mad, of course, but going on the offensive in a blind fury is also their legal strategy. Very deliberate.
The lawsuit itself is extremely tenuous. It alleges that Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler sought to “publicly smear” Hunter Biden by releasing information about his taxes to congressional investigators. This, his attorneys say, adds up to a violation of his “privacy rights.”
(Aside: I thought that with the release of President Trump’s tax returns under the Biden administration, the idea of financial privacy was a thing of the past! Why, it must be back again.)
In suing the IRS, Hunter is, in effect, suing his father’s administration, claiming that IRS agents “targeted and sought to embarrass” him. His attorneys also allege that the whistleblowers released information that Congress had not yet released. That includes allegations of his failure to pay $2.2 million in taxes --- hey, we already knew about that; it’s the bill his “sugar brother” Kevin Morris paid --- and possible tax fraud over claiming expenses for prostitutes and sex clubs on his returns.
They told about the prostitutes and sex clubs?? Why, Hunter’s squeaky-clean reputation is RUINED!!
Attorney Lytle released a statement: “Neither IRS SSA Gary Shapley nor his attorneys have ever released any confidential tax information except through whistleblower disclosures authorized by statute. Once Congress released that testimony, like every American citizen, he has a right to discuss that information.” He called the lawsuit “just another frivolous smear by Biden family attorneys trying to turn people’s attention away from Hunter Biden’s own legal problems and intimidate any current and future whistleblowers.” I don’t think the IRS is losing any sleep over it.
By the way, did you know that there was another FBI informant in the Biden case who was “shut down” before the 2020 election? Retired Special Agent Timothy Thibault, a 25-year employee who was second in command at the Washington field office, testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week, and said he’d been told by the lead agent in the Hunter tax case to shut down their confidential human source (CHS).
Thibault wasn’t identified in the transcript, but investigative reporter Peter Schweizer believes he has identified him based on previous comments he’s made and other clues. More on this will undoubtedly be coming out soon; in the meantime, here’s what we know…
House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Jordan no doubt has many questions for Special Counsel David Weiss on his handling of the Hunter case, and Weiss is now scheduled to testify before the committee on October 11. Jordan is also calling for documents relating to whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler. His full list of demands is here...
Allen West has a great editorial on the “Hunter Biden Hustle,” going through the reasons why it’s just not gonna play with the American people and pointing out the ironies of “Mr. Gun Control” having a son who’s guilty of three felony gun charges. You’ll enjoy this…
Well, let’s move on to see how this scandal is currently affecting the Big Guy. The mainstream media are pretending he’s doing great --- that, cognitively, he’s superior to Trump (I am not kidding). “Which begs the question,” David Strom said, “if they [Democrats] know the MSM will lie on something so obvious, why do they believe these shills on anything else?”
https://hotair.com/david-
Poll-wise, Biden is cratering. According to a new survey from Harvard-CAPS-Harris, Biden is trailing Trump. But even worse, he’s also trailing Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. You might say he’s got three strikes against him.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has a theory for how the election is going to go, and we think he must have been reading the Huckabee newsletter. He predicts the Democrats will push Biden aside, and who else will parachute in at the last minute to “save” the party and take the nomination but...Michelle Obama. She’ll be portrayed as “the adult in the room.” (One of my writers has only been saying this for the past three years, only she used the term “healer.”) Cruz talks about the various scenarios that might replace Biden with Michelle --- as we did years ago --- in this podcast…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Bonchie at REDSTATE doesn’t think it would be all that easy for the Democrats to accomplish this, though, because of other candidates, such as Kamala, who won’t cooperate and will cause a floor fight. Perhaps he’s underestimating the power of the Obamas. He’s always heard Michelle hated being in the White House. Perhaps he’s underestimating the amount of time she could spend “vacationing.” He thinks Biden will still be the candidate, that Democrats “will have to ride or die with Joe Biden.”
Perhaps he’s forgotten: They’re Democrats. They don’t intend to lose. But here’s what he says...
Duke, also at REDSTATE, doesn’t see Biden getting to the finish line. He talks about Cruz’s prediction as well, and relates a story about Biden’s biographer Franklin Foer saying it “wouldn’t be a total shock” to him if Biden gave up running again, “much earlier than August of next year.”
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