Hunter Biden’s defense attorney is accusing congressional Republicans of manipulating and interfering in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ongoing investigation into their client’s alleged tax and gun offenses.
Biden’s attorney wrote a letter Thursday to Republican Reps. Smith of Missouri, Comer of Kentucky and Jordan of Ohio, chairmen of the House Ways and Means, Oversight and Judiciary Committees — the three committees investigating IRS whistleblower testimony accusing the DOJ of giving Hunter Biden special treatment in the case, Politico first reported. (RELATED: Biden-Appointed Prosecutors Did Not Cooperate In Hunter Biden Case, FBI Agent Testifies)
BREAKING: Hunter Biden indicted on felony gun charge in Delaware @DailyCaller https://t.co/bNIEKo3spL pic.twitter.com/U4tCv00rz8
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) September 14, 2023
“Your improper interference now affecting a federal prosecutor is a much greater threat to society than the 11 days that Mr. Biden possessed an unloaded gun,” Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote. The younger Biden was indicted Thursday on three federal gun charges related to an October 2018 purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver in Delaware. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for the gun offenses as special counsel David Weiss continues to investigate the first son’s potential tax offenses.
“In this unprecedented display of partisan congressional manipulation, your Committees have been willing to pretend to provide a forum for real whistleblowers, when your goals were to misuse that process to dump wholesale protected tax information about Mr. Biden on the public,” Lowell added.
Lowell accused IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler of violating federal law in their congressional testimony. He further claimed Hunter Biden did not receive special treatment from the Justice Department. He also released discussions between Biden’s legal team and the DOJ in compliance with the committees’ request for communications between the two parties.
Hunter Biden’s defense counsel, Christopher J. Clark — who was involved in negotiations with the DOJ — withdrew himself from the case in August after Hunter’s guilty plea deal collapsed in late July. Hunter Biden on July 26 pleaded not guilty to two tax misdemeanors after a dispute between Clark and DOJ special attorney Leo Wise sabotaged his plea agreement.
Special counsel David Weiss moved to withdraw the tax offenses in August to potentially charge Biden in Washington, D.C., or the Central District of California. Delaware U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika granted Weiss’ request and dismissed the tax charges without prejudice.
🚨🚨 Hunter Biden’s attorneys are amping up their outrageous attempts to get the IRS whistleblowers prosecuted. The law is clearly on our side, and saying otherwise again and again doesn’t make it true. But that hasn’t stopped them from lashing out. 🧵https://t.co/FoZY0aMx1Z
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) September 15, 2023
“These materials show attorneys for the President’s son repeatedly lobbied the Biden Justice Department to initiate retaliatory prosecutions of our client for lawfully making protected whistleblower disclosures,” Shapley’s attorneys said in a press release. (RELATED: IRS Whistleblower Gary Shapley’s Attorneys Debunk False Claims From Hunter Biden’s Lawyer)
“Hunter Biden’s attorneys have already made this argument to Judge Maryellen Noreika, who reviewed the whistleblower materials and rejected defense counsel’s baseless allegations, including their claims about grand jury secrecy violations.”
Shapley testified before the House committees in July and accused Lowell of making “false statements” about him in a letter Lowell wrote to the House Ways and Means Committee in late June. Lowell’s letter appeared to contain falsehoods surrounding the details of Shapley’s testimony and the Hunter Biden laptop archive.
🚨STATEMENT ON SMEARS AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWERS🚨
IRS Whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler did everything right to obtain protected whistleblower status. They provided documents and testimony that showed not just misconduct and politicization at the Department of Justice,…
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) September 15, 2023
The House Ways and Means, Oversight and Judiciary Committees will be spearheading the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in connection with his son’s business dealings and the IRS whistleblower testimony, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday.
Bank records released in August by the House Oversight Committee show the Biden family and its associates received more than $20 million worth of payments from Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Romanian and Kazakh business associates.