(DCWatchdog.com) – The GOP urgently requested a briefing on the investigation into how the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) handled a controversial court filing by the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers in Hunter Biden’s pending tax case.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) joined other Republican leaders involved in the Biden impeachment inquiry in writing to the OSC.
“The House Republican leadership and the Committees request a briefing to better understand OSC’s conduct and to ensure that there has not been any improper influence on OSC’s investigation,” the letter read.
The OSC is an independent government agency focused on addressing corruption and protecting whistleblowers.
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler came forward last year, alleging the DOJ slowed down and obstructed important steps in the Hunter Biden tax probe. They have testified before Congress multiple times and provided extensive documents to support their claims.
Moreover, House Republicans noted in a report last year that testimony from top officials at the DOJ, FBI, and IRS backed up key allegations made by the IRS whistleblowers. Democrats have largely dismissed these allegations and the related documents.
Last month, Shapley’s attorneys accused special counsel David Weiss’s legal team of writing a “misleading” court filing that seemed to imply the IRS whistleblower disclosures were under investigation.
According to Republicans, the IRS whistleblowers are not under investigation. Instead, the OSC is investigating their claims of retaliation and asked Weiss’s team to file information about the investigation under seal.
Likewise, Weiss’s team of prosecutors secured a conviction against Hunter Biden on three federal gun charges in Delaware and is prosecuting him on nine federal tax charges in California.
Before the gun and tax charges were brought, the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office negotiated a lenient plea deal with Hunter on two tax misdemeanors. This deal included a pretrial diversion agreement on a single gun charge.
However, the plea deal and diversion agreement fell apart last summer when Judge Maryellen Noreika expressed doubts about a prosecutorial immunity clause in the diversion agreement.
This happened soon after the IRS whistleblowers publicly testified about their involvement in Hunter’s case.
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