The IRS removed the “entire investigative team” from its tax fraud investigation into Hunter Biden on Monday, according to a whistleblower’s account.
A whistleblower who recently told Congress there was a cover-up going on in the probe alleged the removal was ordered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in an act of retaliation against him, as first reported by the New York Post.
“Today the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress,” wrote the whistleblower’s attorneys, Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, in a letter to Congress.
The attorneys claimed their client “was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.”
The letter noted that IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told the House Committee on Ways and Means on April 27, “I can say without any hesitation there will be no retaliation for anyone making an allegation or a call to a whistleblower hotline.”
“However, this move is clearly retaliatory and may also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry,” the lawyers wrote.
“Our client has a right to make disclosures to Congress,” they asserted. “He is protected by 5 U.S.C. § 2302 from retaliatory personnel actions — including receiving a ‘significant change in duties, responsibilities, or working conditions’ (which this clearly is) because of his disclosures to Congress.”
The attorneys claimed, “Any attempt by any government official to prevent a federal employee from furnishing information to Congress is also a direct violation of longstanding appropriations restriction. Furthermore, 18 U.S.C. § 1505 makes it a crime to obstruct an investigation of Congress.”
“Removing the experienced investigators who have worked this case for years and are now the subject-matter experts is exactly the sort of issue our client intended to blow the whistle on to begin with,” they said.
A DOJ spokesperson said, “The department cannot comment on the matter,” per CNN.
“As to any investigation of Hunter Biden, as the attorney general has said, that investigation is being handled by US Attorney David Weiss, who has full authority to make investigative decisions and to bring charges in any jurisdiction as he deems appropriate,” the spokesperson said.
President Joe Biden’s eldest son has been under investigation since at least 2018 over allegations that he did not pay taxes on millions of dollars in profit he made in foreign nations, as previously covered by The Dallas Express.
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