September 25, 2023
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First, there was Gary Shapley, the lead IRS investigator in the Hunter Biden tax/finance case, who testified in April before the House Ways and Means Committee about political interference in the Hunter Biden case. He was followed by someone who at first chose to remain anonymous but was later identified as Joseph Ziegler, his top assistant (with absolutely no question about his non-partisanship). Next, there was IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf, who told the House Ways and Means Committee this month that the DOJ’s Tax Division opposed charging Hunter Biden. And now, Darrell Waldon, the former IRS agent in charge of the agency’s Washington Field Office (above Shapley in command), has gone before the committee in a closed-door interview to confirm that both the DC and Central California federal prosecutors blocked David Weiss from charging Hunter in their jurisdictions. He was a more recent addition to the team, on it for two years.
How many agents have to blow the whistle on the handling of this case before the noise finally wakes some people up? Maybe we’ll end up seeing the entire team of investigators who were removed from the case coming forward to confirm what we already should acknowledge: that our corrupt ‘Justice’ Department is hiding the financial misconduct of the corrupt Biden family. Would that be enough?
(Aside: Someone blow some steam whistles in the direction of South Carolina Democrat Rep. James Clyburn, who claimed on “Meet the Press” Sunday that Republicans want to impeach Joe Biden for “being a father to his son.”)
“Mr. Weiss went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office --- I can’t recall the dates --- and they did not agree to prosecute the case in DC,” Waldon told the committee. “I’m aware that it was presented to the District of Columbia and, at some point, the Central District of California, I believe.”
So, instead of filing charges in DC or California, Weiss and Hunter’s defense team came to that “sweetheart” plea deal that, thanks to sharp-eyed Judge Maryellen Noreika, ended up being discarded, though Hunter’s attorneys ridiculously continue to claim it’s still in force.
Recall that in his testimony last Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland played word games in speaking of this, saying that the district prosecutors couldn’t block Weiss from charging Hunter. No, no, they weren’t “turning him down.” Rather, they were “refusing to partner with him.” Garland tried to insist that these were “not the same under a well-known Justice Department practice,” when the result, in actual practice, is EXACTLY the same.
And certainly, Shapley saw no such distinction. In an email to Waldon, Shapley said, “Weiss stated he is not the deciding person of whether charges are filed. I believe this is a huge problem --- inconsistent with DOJ public position and Merrick Garland testimony.”
Waldon attended that same October meeting in which Shapley said a “red line” was crossed, although his recollection was somewhat different. He didn’t remember Weiss talking about requesting to be made special counsel. Also, he didn’t agree that the meeting was “contentious,” as Shapley had said. Waldon just saw it as the airing of differing points of view.
He testified that Shapley had come to him with his concerns --- steps in the investigation that the ‘Justice’ Department or certain prosecutors had prevented him from taking, such as asking witnesses about other members of the Biden family (there’s that cover-up) and executing at least one search warrant.
Shapley had wanted to blame these roadblocks on political bias. Waldon had told him that allegation was “unsubstantiated.” Considering he has since come forward, I wonder what he says about that now.
But Waldon did believe at that time in the strength of the case that would’ve gone to the Central District of California. “Generally, speaking, if at that time, the case went [there], I would’ve agreed with it.”
These other U.S. attorneys putting up roadblocks, Michael Graves in DC and E. Martin Estrada in California, were both appointed by President Biden himself.
Ironically, Waldon was actually the one who suggested that Shapley be dropped from the investigative team. Shapley and Weiss were at odds, and, Waldon testified, “the U.S. Attorney’s Office was no longer working or talking with Mr. Shapley.” In the interest of the investigation, to keep it moving forward, he thought it best. The third whistleblower, Batdorf, who was Waldon’s supervisor, agreed at the time.
Yet both Batdorf and Ziegler testified glowingly of Shapley, saying he was a “top-performing” investigator and a “fantastic agent.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/
According to the WASHINGTON EXAMINER, “Both said Weiss’s tensions with Shapley reached a boiling point after [Weiss’s office] demanded all of the emails and records written by the IRS investigative team that could be relevant in court.” As Shapley told Congress, he thought this was a fishing expedition to uncover complaints about the case that he had been documenting.
Last week, a reader asked about the tax implications for Hunter of “sugar brother”/friend Kevin Morris’s generosity in paying off his huge tax bill. Wouldn’t Hunter owe taxes on the gift from this politically-connected lawyer? Well, John Solomon reports that the IRS and FBI were looking into that very issue, not just about taxes on the gift but about possible “campaign finance criminal violations,” considering this clean-up was happening while Joe Biden was running for President. Agents wanted to investigate this but were, they said, blocked by federal prosecutors from further action.
The evidence includes a memo written by Shapley about interference by Lesley Wolf, top prosecutor in David Weiss’s office. This must have been one of the complaints Shapley was documenting, as reported in the EXAMINER article above.
“This investigation has been hampered and slowed by claims of potential election meddling,” Shapley wrote in the memo and read to the House Ways and Means Committee in his testimony. “Through interviews and review of evidence obtained, it appears there may be campaign finance criminal violations.” Whistleblower Ziegler testified a similar concern to the Ways and Means Committee, adding that anything related to the campaign was “off limits.”
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio told Solomon last week that the campaign finance inquiry is “a newer matter under investigation.” So we’ll be hearing more about this. “We’re just getting into this issue and the concerns,” he said. “But it wouldn’t surprise me if they were told to stand down because, remember, this investigation over a five-year time frame was slow-walked.”
In an update, Solomon reported that Jason Smith of Missouri, who chairs House Ways and Means, plans to make public new testimony that corroborates the first two IRS whistleblowers’ testimony. He presumably was referring to the testimony of Batdorf and Waldon.
A committee panel has to vote on the release of these materials; that vote could come as early as Wednesday, which would allow the evidence to be made public before House Republicans hold their first hearing in the Biden impeachment inquiry. Chairman Smith sees that first hearing primarily as a “primer” on what is now known of the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and the alleged cover-up.
“I don’t think any reasonable person, when they look at these facts, they don’t see that there’s a huge issue,” he said. “...And just based on the testimony of Devon Archer, it shows that Joe Biden was the critical player, that critical person considered to be the brand.”
He also said he won’t let Hunter’s attorneys, who have sued the IRS for releasing his private records, intimidate the IRS whistleblowers, saying their evidence was made public by a vote of his committee, in compliance with the law.
We wouldn’t want this additional reporting from John Solomon to get lost amidst all the rest. Remember those 51 signatories of that bogus letter claiming Hunter’s laptop was “Russian disinformation”? Solomon has found that some of them got “plum jobs” after doing that, including with the federal government. (We reported on two of these last week: John Brennan and James Clapper, who got appointed to that special new “Experts Board.” A third who is also on the board is former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe.)
More details here…
The DAILY CALLER has more on Michael Batdorf’s testimony before Ways and Means. He told them that Hunter Biden’s defense team met with DOJ Tax Division attorneys an “unusually high” number of times. Shapley and Ziegler have testified that they were kept out of those meetings.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/
Maria Bartiromo on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES has an update on the case with investigators Miranda Devine and Peter Schweizer…
https://www.foxnews.com/video/
RELATED READING: Here’s a curious tie-in between Hunter’s firm and just-indicted Congressman Bob Menendez. We’re not sure of the significance at this point, but it does make interesting reading, just to see the sort of “work” (?) Hunter did. (It appears to be mostly Eric Schwerin who worked.)
https://dailycaller.com/2023/
Also related: Some Republican lawmakers are predicting that the “Biden family business” might have taken in over $50 million, or $30 million more is show by bank records uncovered thus far.
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2023/9/one-by-one-shapley-s-team-come-forward-to-allege-doj-roadblocks
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