Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, claiming that two agents publicly alleging tax-probe interference wrongly shared his personal information, a case that comes amid escalating legal and political struggles as the 2024 election looms.
The agents “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden” with the sharing of confidential tax information in press interviews and testimony before Congress, the suit said. His lawyers argue that whistleblower protections don’t apply, but a lawyer for one agent said any confidential information released came under whistleblower authorization.
The lawsuit marks the latest legal pushback from Biden as a long-running federal investigation into him unfolds against a sharply political backdrop. That includes an impeachment inquiry aimed at his father, President Joe Biden, seeking to tie him to his son’s business dealings.
“Mr. Biden is the son of the President of the United States. He has all the same responsibilities as any other American citizen, and the IRS can and should make certain that he abides by those responsibilities,” the suit states. “Similarly, Mr. Biden has no fewer or lesser rights than any other American citizen, and no government agency or government agent has free reign to violate his rights simply because of who he is.”
The suit says the IRS hasn’t done enough to halt the airing of his personal information. It seeks to “force compliance with federal tax and privacy laws” and damages of $1,000 for “each and every unauthorized disclosure of his tax return information.”
IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley, and a second agent, Joe Ziegler, have claimed there was pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden in testimony before Congress. They alleged that the prosecutor overseeing the investigation, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, didn’t have full authority to bring charges in other jurisdictions. Weiss and the Justice Department have denied that.
Shapley’s lawyer called the lawsuit a “frivolous smear” that sought to “intimidate any current and future whistleblowers.” He didn’t release confidential tax information except through legal whistleblower disclosures, his attorney said. “Once Congress released that testimony, like every American citizen, he has a right to discuss that public information.”
The IRS declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
The White House, meanwhile, has said that Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business affairs, and months of investigations have so far not unearthed significant evidence of wrongdoing by the elder Biden, who spoke often to his son and as vice president did stop by a business dinner with his son’s associates.
The investigation into Hunter Biden dates back years, and he had been expected to strike a plea deal with prosecutors over the summer that included guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of failing to pay his taxes on time. But that deal imploded during a July court hearing, and he was indicted days ago on federal firearms charges. He’s accused of lying about his drug use to buy and briefly keep a gun in October 2018.
Republicans investigating nearly every aspect of his business dealings had decried the plea agreement that spared him jail time as a “sweetheart deal.”
Biden’s defense attorneys have indicated they plan to fight the charges and the case could be on track toward a possible high-stakes trial.
The new civil lawsuit filed in Washington alleges the improper disclosures included the specific tax years under investigation, deductions and allegations about liability.
Weiss eventually sought and was granted special counsel status last month, giving him broad authority to investigate and report out his findings. His prosecutors have indicated they could file new tax charges in Washington or California.
(AP)
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Note the AP desperate spinning:
The White House, meanwhile, has said that Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business affairs
Yes, it has said that, and this has been proven to have been an outright, brazen lie.
and months of investigations have so far not unearthed significant evidence of wrongdoing by the elder Biden,
Significance is in the eye of the beholder, but what the investigations have proven beyond doubt is that his claims not to have been involved in his son’s business was a lie. What’s been proven is that he did meet with his son’s clients, he did call them, he did basically all that he needed to do in this corrupt enterprise.
who spoke often to his son and as vice president did stop by a business dinner with his son’s associates.
Which he denied until he was caught out. And that “stopping by” was a significant act of corruption. Because what all the Democrat spin is careful to avoid is the bottom line:
Hunter was not selling his own services to anyone. He has no skills, no qualifications, nothing to offer anyone. The money he was supposedly “earning” was not being paid to him, it was being paid to his father. He was merely the bagman. And we have his own statement to his daughter that his share of the take was 50%, and the other 50% went to his father. He complained that this was stingy on his father’s part, but to me it seems quite generous. I don’t know what the going rate is for a bagman’s commission, but I doubt it’s as high as 50%.
And what services was he peddling on his father’s behalf? We know exactly what he sold Burisma: protection. We know that because when they had occasion to call in their chip, he performed big time. He even bragged about it, on video. He used his office to blackmail the Ukrainian government into firing the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma. And then repeatedly lied about it. That is what Burisma paid Hunter for. And Hunter didn’t have the ability to deliver it, which means they were really paying Joe.