A third IRS agent reportedly told House investigators last week that President Joe Biden’s Justice Department blocked now-special counsel David Weiss from charging Hunter Biden, seemingly contradicting Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assertion that Weiss had complete authority to charge the president’s son.
“He was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own,” Garland said in June of now-special counsel David Weiss.
Weiss investigated Hunter Biden for five years for tax, gun, and Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations. The probe came to a head when IRS whistleblowers alleged in April that two Biden administration political appointees within the DOJ worked to block charges against Hunter Biden for tax violations against recommendations.
United States Attorney David C. Weiss. (Screenshot/CBS News)
IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf told the House Ways and Means Committee on September 12 that the DOJ’s tax division opposed charging Hunter Biden during a June 2022 meeting with IRS officials and Weiss.
“DOJ Tax would have to authorize charges prior to David Weiss recommending an indictment or prosecution,” Batdorf said in a transcribed interview, the Washington Examiner reported.
“So, I mean, my understanding is that, I mean, he can’t make that decision without DOJ Tax authorization,” Batdorf, who was IRS agent whistleblower Gary Shapley’s senior in the IRS chain of command, said.
Notes from Shapley show he quoted Weiss as saying he was “not the deciding person” on charging Hunter Biden with tax, gun, and FARA violations.
IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Agent with the criminal investigations division (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Shapley’s subordinate, Joseph Ziegler, the second IRS whistleblower, supports Shapley’s allegation. The claim is also backed by Shapley’s boss, Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who confirmed Weiss did not have the authority to charge Hunter Biden.
Batdorf also told investigators he believed his team was frustrated that Weiss found opposition to prosecuting Hunter Biden. “I was frustrated,” he said. “[Weiss] was probably a little frustrated … because he now had to make some decisions on what he was going to do.”
President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden arrive at Fort McNair, Sunday, June 25, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“David Weiss made his decision to go forward in May. I’m not sure what drove that decision,” Batdorf added.
In addition, Batdorf confirmed that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf was taken off the case in May or June, the Examiner reported. According to the New York Times, Hunter Biden’s lawyers worked with Wolf to draft the sweetheart plea deal that collapsed under judicial scrutiny.
Shapley and Ziegler claim Wolf refused to allow investigators to ask about Joe Biden being “the big guy.” Wolf also allegedly cautioned the investigation team not to search Joe Biden’s guest house in Delaware for evidence against Hunter Biden because of “optics.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
