A senior FBI agent on the Hunter Biden investigation who disputes details from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s testimony agrees Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss moved too slowly in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) tax case against Biden.
FBI Agent Thomas Sobocinski of the Baltimore field office testified to the House Judiciary Committee in early September and told the committee “I would have liked for it to move faster,” according to a copy of the interview transcript obtained by the Daily Caller. Sobocinski repeatedly said he wanted to “move the case to a resolution” without specifying what the “resolution” would be.
Sobocinski disputed Shapley’s accusation that Weiss was not the final charging authority on the Hunter Biden case prior to Weiss’ special counsel appointment.
FBI agent testifies to Congress that case moved too slowly | @dcexaminer @asholiver https://t.co/Kv4e2r4CyG
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) September 13, 2023
“It was my understanding he had the authority to bring whatever he needed to do,” Sobocinski testified. “There was administrative charge — or administrative process, not within DOJ, but also within tax. I don’t know the intricacies of that, but it definitely seemed very cumbersome.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top Hunter Biden Prosecutor Sent Colleagues A Column Criticizing Merrick Garland’s Handling Of The Case)
“I never thought that anybody was there above David Weiss to say no,” Sobocinski continued, according to the transcript.
Sobocinski contested Shapley’s account of an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting in which Weiss allegedly said he did not have final charging authority over the case. Sobocinski did not recall Weiss saying in the meeting that he, Weiss, was the deciding authority on the decision to file charges against Biden.
The FBI agent also said he was not familiar with the specific tax violations Hunter Biden potentially committed, including his alleged tax crimes in Washington, D.C., in 2014 and 2015. Shapley testified that Biden-appointed D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves refused to charge Hunter Biden in his jurisdiction and allowed the statute of limitations to pass, something the FBI agent was not familiar with, according to the transcript.
“Once again, I’m not aware of that discussion. I was consistently aware that David Weiss had the authority in the U.S. to bring the charges where venue presented itself,” Sobocinski testified.
Sobocinski said he continues to work on the Hunter Biden case with a team of FBI agents and regularly communicates with David Weiss. He acknowledged that he discussed Shapley’s testimony with Weiss and how it would impact the ongoing Hunter Biden case. (RELATED: DOJ Official Reportedly Approached IRS Whistleblower About Hunter Biden Accusations Before He Testified)
The “minutia” of tax law and the impending expiration of the 2014/2015 charges are the reason the October 7, 2022 meeting was scheduled to begin with, so sounds like SAC Sobociski wasn’t paying attention—while SSA Shapley was taking notes. https://t.co/fwoRIyTv6V pic.twitter.com/icUBlPXqUH
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) September 12, 2023
Shapley chronicled the Oct, 7. 2022 meeting in an email released by his attorneys in July after Weiss denied Shapley’s accusation that he did not have final charging authority.
“Weiss stated that he is not the deciding person on whether charges are filed,” Shapley said in the email. “I believe this to be a huge problem—inconsistent with DOJ public position and Merrick Garland testimony.”
Weiss also denied Shapley’s accusation that he requested special counsel authority and got rejected following Graves’ apparent decision not to charge Hunter Biden. Sobocinski said he could not comment on the veracity of Shapley’s email.
“Weiss requested Special counsel authority,” Shapley said in his email. “Main DOJ denied his request and told him to follow the process.”
Shapley came forward in April and testified to the House Ways and Means Committee in late May about special treatment Hunter Biden allegedly received from investigators. The transcript of Shapley’s testimony was released in June, and he proceeded to publicly testify alongside IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler in July.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 19: (L-R) Supervisory IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler are sworn-in during a House Oversight Committee hearing related to the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden, on Capitol Hill July 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty in July to two tax misdemeanors in July when his plea deal collapsed in court because of scrutiny from Delaware U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who questioned an immunity provision in the diversion agreement for his felony gun charge.
Noreika’s line of questioning resulted in a disagreement between Biden’s defense counsel and DOJ special attorney Leo Wise over whether Biden could be charged under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for his foreign business dealings based on the terms of the proposed immunity.
Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August and the Delaware U.S. Attorney proceeded to withdraw Biden’s tax charges in order to charge him in D.C. or the Central District of California, where another Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney refused to charge Hunter Biden, according to Shapley’s testimony. The New York Times independently confirmed Weiss was blocked from charging Biden in California. Sobocinski said he was unaware of the decision by E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.
Weiss is seeking an indictment for Biden’s felony gun charge by the end of the month, the DOJ said in a Sept. 6. court filing. The younger Biden’s legal team believes the diversion agreement was implemented despite the DOJ’s insistence it is not legally valid.
The House Ways and Means, Judiciary and Oversight Committees continue to investigate the revelations from Shapley and Ziegler’s Congressional testimony. The committees will be leading the House’s impeachment inquiry related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the IRS whistleblower accusations, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday.
The House Oversight Committee has released bank records showing the Biden family and its associates received more than $20 million from Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Romanian and Kazakh business associates.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the leaked transcript, which makes it difficult to comment,” a spokesperson for Empower Oversight, the whistleblower protection group representing Shapley, told The Washington Post.
“While it’s not unusual for people to have slightly different recollections of the same event, in this case, SSA Shapley took notes in real-time and that day emailed his summary of the meeting to several people, including his supervisor who contemporaneously corroborated his account — which is all very different from trying to recall information a year later with no notes.”
Henry Rodgers contributed to this report.