By Katelynn Richardson, Daily Caller News Foundation | January 06, 2024
The Department of Justice (DOJ) needs to be “completely revamped” to eliminate political bias, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower whose explosive allegations sparked widespread scrutiny about DOJ’s handling of the Hunter Biden tax case told the Daily Caller News Foundation
Gary Shapley, the IRS supervisory special agent who alleged DOJ prosecutors were “slow-walking” the Hunter Biden investigation in May 2023 testimony before Congress, recommended making changes to the leadership structure of his own agency, as well as major reforms to the DOJ.
Shapley told the DCNF that there is no better example of DOJ “weaponization” than the Hunter Biden case.
In his testimony before Congress, Shapley said that his requests to take certain investigative steps and interview key witnesses were denied. Two Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys declined to partner with Weiss to bring charges against Hunter Biden, Shapley testified.
After Shapley first came forward, Hunter Biden’s attorneys began negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors, which ultimately collapsed after a judge questioned a provision that would have offered Hunter Biden broad immunity. Shapley and the other whistleblower, IRS special agent Joe Ziegler, were also removed from the investigation by special counsel David Weiss.
“The DOJ so heavily leans liberal, Democrat, that it needs to be just completely revamped from the top,” he told the DCNF, adding that rank and file attorneys are “not objective.”
Along with his recommendation to revamp the DOJ, Shapley said the IRS’ leadership structure needs major reform.
“If the American people think that the most knowledgeable, most experienced and most successful, high performing people at my agency are senior leaders, then they’re sorely mistaken,” he said.
Shapley said he would revamp the senior leadership track to promote “based on merit and performance,” rather than the current “bureaucratic” system that advances people into leadership by continually moving them to new positions and “fabricating” their resumes.
Shapley, along with IRS special agent Joe Ziegler, continue to face professional consequences for blowing the whistle. Currently, they’re fighting a defamation lawsuit against Hunter Biden’s attorney.
In September, Shapley and Zeigler sued Lowell, alleging he “falsely accused them of committing ‘clear-cut crimes’ and leaking nonpublic information” to discredit them and protect his client. Lowell leveled the criticism in a Sept. 14, 2023 letter to Congress, which he released to the media along with prior communications between Biden’s defense counsel and the DOJ, according to the lawsuit.
Lowell announced in the Sept. 14 letter that he would be “making these materials available to the public.”
“If the powerful can defame whistleblowers with impunity, who will feel safe coming forward?” attorneys for Shapley and Zeigler wrote in a recent filing opposing Lowell’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit. “Allowing such egregiously false attacks to go unchecked will send a chilling message to those who might one day be called to serve the public interest.”
The whistleblowers’ attorneys also noted there would not be a lawsuit if Lowell’s team had “confined its attacks to the defense of Biden in the congressional investigation” rather than sharing them with the media.
“My career has been destroyed,” Shapley told the DCNF, explaining Lowell’s alleged defamation has dramatically complicated his job supervising a group that works on international tax cases.
Shapley and Zeigler’s separate effort to intervene in a lawsuit Hunter Biden filed against the IRS, which alleges they violated his taxpayer privacy, was previously denied.
Ultimately, President Joe Biden pardoned his son in December after he was convicted on gun charges by a Delaware jury and pleaded guilty to tax charges in California.
The pardon only further highlighted the importance of their disclosure because it never would have happened if they had not called out the DOJ for providing preferential treatment to Hunter Biden, Shapley told the DCNF. He believes Biden’s pardon “leveled the playing field,” removing the appearance of “moral superiority” Democrats have in the media.
“The most important part about this is the American people understanding what actually happened,” Shapley told the DCNF.
Katelynn Richardson is an investigative reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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