NEWS
Hunter Biden Files Lawsuit Against IRS Over Whistleblower Agents’ Public Statements
Courtesy of kake.news/Instagram
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, alleging the agency failed to protect his private tax records when agents illegally released his tax information.
The federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., seeks documents connected to the disclosure of his tax information, $1,000 for each unauthorized disclosure, and attorneys fees.
The disclosures were made by IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler in congressional testimony and public statements.
“Despite clear warnings from Congress that they were prohibited from disclosing the contents of their testimony to the public in another forum, Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler’s testimony only emboldened their media campaign against Mr. Biden,” the lawsuit states.
“Since their public testimony before the House of Representatives on July 19, 2023, the agents have become regular guests on national media outlets and have made new allegations and public statements regarding Mr. Biden’s confidential tax return information that were not previously included in their transcripts before the Committee on Ways and Means,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit points to a June interview with Shapley on CBS News in which Shapley alleged Hunter Biden claimed personal expenses as business expenses, including “club memberships, hotel rooms for purported drug dealers.”
Last week, Hunter Biden was indicted by special counsel David Weiss on felony gun charges after a plea deal with federal prosecutors that would have allowed him to avoid jail time in exchange for pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses fell apart in July.
The charges stem from Hunter Biden’s purchase of a gun in Delaware in October 2018, in which he allegedly lied on a federal form stating he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs while he was regularly using crack cocaine. Lying on the form, which is required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is a federal crime.
He is charged with two counts connected to lying on the form and one count of possessing a firearm while using a narcotic.
Hunter Biden had reached a deal to avoid prosecution on the gun charge by entering pre-trial diversion and meeting other requirements over a period of two years, including an agreement to acknowledge his failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018.
Weiss withdrew the two misdemeanor tax charges filed in Delaware, and plans to file them in California and Washington, D.C., where the violations allegedly occurred, per reports.
The charges come amid a five-year investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances and personal life, and how they relate to the Biden family’s wider business dealings.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Hunter Biden last week filed a federal lawsuit against former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, who is not related to the IRS agent, for his alleged role in publishing documents and photos found on his laptop.
According to the lawsuit, Ziegler and 10 other unnamed defendants allegedly released “tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, and dozens of videos and recordings” on the internet. Some of those photos and videos depicted sex, drug use, and a firearm.
TMX contributed to this article.
