Biden impeachment inquiry: Republicans release more IRS whistleblower evidence

The House Ways and Means Committee released on Wednesday more than 700 pages of evidence that the committee said supported the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

The material, provided to the committee by two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers, included a message through the program WhatsApp that Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said the president’s son Hunter Biden wrote to a business associate on June 6, 2017.

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The message showed Hunter Biden expressing to the associate that he did not want to “sign over [his] family’s brand.”

“Bull***t James – all around bull***t. Explain to me one thing Tony brings to MY table that I so desperately need that I’m willing to sign over my family’s brand and pretty much the rest of my business life?” Hunter Biden wrote. “Read the f*****g documents people. It’s plane f*****g English. Why in gods name would I give this marginal bully the keys my family’s only asset?”

Smith observed, “That asset could only be one person, Joe Biden.”

The material also included an email written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, a top prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden. In it, Wolf wrote to federal investigators to remove mentions of “Political Figure 1” from search warrant information.

Smith said “Political Figure 1” was Joe Biden, adding, “Here we see clear as day that the Department of Justice actively interfered in an investigation to protect the current president of the United States.”

The committee first voted on releasing the otherwise confidential information in a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning.

The information was given to the committee by Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, two veteran IRS criminal investigators involved in the Hunter Biden case, after they publicly testified to Congress in July, Smith said.

The chairman said the whistleblowers produced the additional information to the committee because it was the only legal way in which they could reveal private taxpayer information under section 6103 of IRS code.

Smith had initially previewed the release of the new information Wednesday morning before his committee’s vote, saying it “reinforces the integrity of the whistleblowers and the high regard in which they are held by their colleagues, and it brings to light new evidence that builds upon their prior testimony.”

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The chairman spoke both Wednesday morning and afternoon next to a board that displayed a flowchart connecting Joe Biden to the business dealings of his son and brother. Smith, who is leading the impeachment inquiry alongside two other House chairmen, Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), are investigating allegations Joe Biden inappropriately used his authority as vice president to personally profit from those business ventures.

A spokesperson for Ways and Means ranking member Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) did not respond to a request for comment but told Punchbowl News ahead of the information’s release that he believed it had been “cherry-picked.”

Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not respond to a request for comment.”

This story is developing.