A lawyer for Hunter Biden delivered a scathing and blunt letter to a powerful Republican lawmaker on Friday condemning his handling of an IRS whistleblower who has accused Justice Department officials of undermining the DOJ’s investigation into the president’s son Joe Biden.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, accused Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, of seizing comments made by an IRS supervisory agent as “an obvious ploy to fuel the campaign of misinformation to hurt our client, Hunter. Biden, as a vehicle to attack his father.”
Smith last week released transcripts of committee interviews with two IRS whistleblowers who in April accused the Justice Department of giving Hunter Biden “preferential treatment” during the DOJ’s investigation into his tax affairs for years.
The move came just days after the younger Biden agreed to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and sign a pretrial diversion agreement that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution on a weapons charge, which could end the DOJ investigation.
Lowell, in his letter to Smith, accused IRS agent Gary Shapley of being “disgruntled” and seeking whistleblower status “in an attempt to evade his own misconduct.” implying that Shapley was the source of leaks to the press about the Justice Department’s investigation into Hunter Biden.
“Mr. Shapley may be reaping the ‘bounty’ of the cover you have given him, given the penalties for agents who will illegally leak this type of information,” Lowell wrote.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has said Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss has “ultimate authority” over the investigation, and both Garland and the White House have denied any interference in Weiss’ investigation.
Hunter Biden arrives at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC on June 25, 2023.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Lowell also questioned the authenticity of a July 2017 WhatsApp message in which the younger Biden allegedly threatened a Chinese business associate by invoking his father’s political connections.
In the message, Hunter Biden allegedly wrote that he was “sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” a statement Lowell denied in his letter.
“The facts … are that President Biden and our client were not together that day … and that no transaction actually occurred,” Lowell wrote. “More importantly, your own actions call into question the authenticity of this communication and your subsequent use.”
Lowell reserved equally harsh language for Smith, accusing the Republican president of “rape.”[ing] the spirit, if not the letter, of government investigations of federal tax laws and regulations.”
“Chairman Smith, it is easy when a committee does not operate fairly and thoroughly and with adherence to rules and procedures to convey a false political narrative,” Lowell wrote. “You have, and it looks like… you will continue to do so.”
“We can only hope that the deceptive methods you use, some of which are exposed in this letter, will inform the public of the right way to do things,” Lowell wrote.
In response to the letter, Shapley’s attorneys said in a statement: “This attempt to intimidate our client and watchdog authorities scrutinizing the politicization of this case comes as no surprise. Gary Shapley, SSA of the IRS, has scrupulously followed the rules and blown the whistle on Congress on the unequal application of the tax laws.”
Smith also defended Shapley in a statement, saying she “bravely brought allegations of misconduct and preferential treatment to Hunter Biden, and now she’s facing attacks even from an army of lawyers she hired.”
“Worse still, this letter misleads the public about the lawful actions taken by the Ways and Means Committee, which took the appropriate legal steps to share this information with the rest of Congress,” Smith said.
