An attorney for a Biden administration whistleblower told Congress on Monday that his client and “his [client’s] entire investigative team” tasked with working on the Hunter Biden probe at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were removed from the case at the behest of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“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,” a letter sent to congressional leaders and obtained by The Federalist reads. “He was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.”
Last month, attorney Mark Lytle, who authored Monday’s letter, sent a separate letter to several congressional committee chairs with claims from the aforementioned whistleblower of “political interference in the criminal investigation of a high-profile, politically connected individual.” As The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland reported, “While the letter omitted the specific details the whistleblower sought to present to the oversight committees, unnamed sources reportedly confirmed the criminal case concerned Hunter Biden.”
Hunter, the son of President Joe Biden, has publicly admitted to being under criminal investigation for tax fraud since December 2020, according to Just the News.
During his April 27 testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel claimed, “without hesitation,” that there would be “no retaliation for anyone making an allegation or a call to a whistleblower hotline.” The DOJ’s alleged decision to remove the whistleblower and his team from the case appears to contradict that testimony.
In his initial allegations, the IRS whistleblower claimed his testimony would “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee,” unveil the “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case,” and show evidence of “preferential treatment and politics” that improperly affected “decisions and protocols.” Individuals reportedly familiar with the investigation told Just the News the whistleblower had additionally disclosed evidence that “at least two Biden DOJ political appointees in U.S. attorneys’ offices have declined to seek a tax indictment against Hunter Biden despite career investigators’ recommendations to do so.”
The whistleblower’s original letter to congressional committee chairs also calls into question claims from Attorney General Merrick Garland. When pressed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during a March Senate committee hearing on the ability of the federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, to pursue criminal charges in a different judicial district, Garland responded, “I promise to ensure that he’s able to carry out his investigation and that he’d be able to run it,” and that if Weiss “needs to bring [the case] in another jurisdiction, he will have full authority to do that.”
In response to his client’s dismissal from the Hunter Biden probe, Lytle is asking Congress to give the matter its “prompt attention.”
“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,” the letter reads.
