Jason Smith, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a Republican from Missouri, has set up a closed-door meeting for this week to vote on unsealing IRS whistleblower information of purported Justice Department political influence in the Hunter Biden tax investigation, which may have contributed to the “sweetheart” plea agreement for the president’s son.
Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to two federal tax offenses and one gun law violation on the same day that Smith scheduled a vote to make the testimony and supporting documentation from IRS whistleblowers, including FBI supervisor criminal agent Gary Shapley, public.
Multiple incidents of alleged political intervention in which the Justice Department “thwarted, hindered or influenced” with the IRS tax inquiry are among the details Smith also wants to make public.
According to sources acquainted with Shapley’s testimony, he provided the committee with 23 pages of documents, including at least three significant disclosures, that provided insight on the “evidence and basis for the initial inquiry into the taxes and foreign finances” of Hunter Biden.
“DOJ permitted the statute of limitations to expire on suspected tax offenses dating before 2017 that implicated hundreds of thousands of dollars more in concealed federal tax revenue, including some from international corporations like Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings dating back to 2014.”
“The FBI’s use of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop, which it acquired in 2019, revealed he knew as late as 2017 of the fact he hadn’t paid taxes on over $400,000 in Burisma revenue from three years prior. However, the IRS criminal probe team was not informed of this.”
“The IRS team was actually not informed that the FBI was working with a trusted secret human source who started reporting allegations that Joe Biden had participated in a $10 million bribery plan involving Ukraine and Burisma in 2017, according to a shocking admission made recently by House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer after viewing the FD-1023 informant report provided by the FBI.”
Smith stated in a statement: “Ways and Means Committee members have received many whistleblower accusations of misbehavior at the IRS and other agencies indicating meddling and government abuse in the processing of an issue involving a high-profile person. Congress has a responsibility to keep agencies responsible by ensuring openness and surfacing new information if the federal government isn’t treating all taxpayers fairly.”
“As a result, during this week’s session, we will go with the facts and provide the pertinent information afterward. The balance of justice must not be tilted in favor of the powerful and well-connected,” he said in his conclusion.
