House Republicans Subpoena IRS Investigators, DOJ Officials Involved in Hunter Biden Investigation

House Republicans issued subpoenas to four IRS investigators and DOJ officials who were allegedly aware of an October 2022 meeting in which now-special counsel David Weiss allegedly said he was prevented from bringing charges against Hunter Biden for tax crimes. 

The House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on the Judiciary issued the subpoenas after the DOJ and IRS failed to comply with several requests for transcribed interviews with relevant investigators and officials. The officials who received subpoenas include IRS director of field operations Michael Batdorf; IRS special agent in charge Darrell J. Waldon; FBI special agent in charge Thomas Sobocinski; and FBI assistant special agent in charge Ryeshia Holley.

“Our Committees, along with the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, have sought these interviews since IRS whistleblowers came forward with concerning allegations of political interference in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign influence peddling and tax evasion,” said Ways and Means chairman Jason Smith and Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan.

“Unfortunately, the Biden Administration has consistently stonewalled Congress,” the pair added. “Our duty is to follow the facts wherever they may lead, and our subpoenas compelling testimony from Biden Administration officials are crucial to understanding how the President’s son received special treatment from federal prosecutors and who was the ultimate decision maker in the case.”

The subpoenas come one month after IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified that the U.S. attorney for D.C., who was appointed by President Biden, had the final say over whether charges would be brought against Hunter Biden and that the Biden appointee was the one who made the call not to charge the younger Biden with a felony.

Shapley, who worked as an IRS investigator for over ten years and oversaw the agency’s tax investigation into Hunter Biden, told the House Oversight Committee that despite Weiss claiming he had ultimate authority over the investigation that, in fact, D.C. U.S. attorney Matthew Graves was in charge.

“After U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew Graves, appointed by President Biden, refused to bring charges, I watched Mr. Weiss tell a room full of senior FBI and IRS investigators on October 7, 2022, that he was ‘not the deciding person on whether charges are filed,'” Shapley said during a congressional hearing in July. 

Weiss, meanwhile, has publicly flip-flopped over whether he had authority on when and whether to bring charges. He said in a June 7 letter to Jordan that he did in fact have charging authority, but later walked back that claim in a second letter on June 30.

Jordan suggested during the hearing in July that the change was sparked by Shapley and another IRS whistleblower’s testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee being made public. 

Shapley testified that during an October 2022 meeting, Weiss said he was not the deciding person on whether or not charges were filed and that the U.S. attorney in D.C. had declined to allow charges to be filed.

“He told us that he had requested special counsel authority from main DOJ and was denied that authority,” Shapley testified.

Later that day, Shapley sent an email to his bosses in which he put in writing what had been discussed during the meeting with Weiss. One of Shapley’s bosses, the special agent in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office replied, “Thanks, Gary. You covered it all.”

Shapley and a second IRS whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, have said they pushed for felony charges against Hunter Biden in the tax probe and that Weiss wanted to bring charges against the younger Biden in the District of Columbia and Southern California last year but was denied by DOJ officials both times.

Attorney general Merrick Garland announced earlier this month that he would appoint Weiss as a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Garland’s announcement allows Weiss to continue his investigation into the president’s son free from the conventional DOJ oversight.

The appointment came on the same day that the younger Biden’s plea deal fell through. Under the deal, Hunter would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and submitted to a diversion agreement related to a felony gun charge in exchange for broad immunity from future charges related to foreign influence-peddling. But judge Maryellen Noreika challenged the terms of the deal, calling such a broad immunity deal unprecedented.

Just before Garland announced the special counsel’s appointment, prosecutors said in a court filing that the revised deal had fallen through and that they expect the case to go to trial.

Last week, Noreika dismissed the two outstanding misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden following a request from federal prosecutors, making way for Weiss to bring additional charges in the case.