(National Review) IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified Wednesday that the U.S. attorney for D.C., who was appointed by President Biden, had 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 Delaware U.S. Attorney David 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.
Graves’s wife, Fatima Gross Graves, has visited the White House at least 28 times since Biden took office. In the first three months of 2023 alone Graves, a vocal liberal activist, visited the White House ten times.
Brave Whistleblower Gary Shapley says Biden’s DOJ allowed the President’s political appointees to weigh in on whether to charge the President’s son.
“After U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew Graves, appointed by President Biden, refused to bring charges, I watched Mr. Weiss tell a… pic.twitter.com/KdAt5sVcVO
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 19, 2023
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 House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim 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 on Wednesday 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.”
The identity of the second IRS whistleblower was revealed on Wednesday. IRS agent Joseph Ziegler, who had previously offered testimony to Congress as an unnamed whistleblower, testified at the hearing and explained he is a “gay Democrat” who wanted to “do what is right.”
“I had recently heard an elected official say that I must be more credible, because I am a gay Democrat married to a man,” Ziegler said in his opening remarks.
“I’m no more credible than this man sitting next to me due to my sexual orientation or my political beliefs. I was raised and have always strived to do what is right,” he added.
