(DCWatchdog.com) – An ugly new revelation has emerged about the Biden administration’s political shielding of Hunter Biden, as an IRS whistleblower disclosed the US Justice Department did not indict the first son before the 2022 midterm elections to avoid “shooting themselves in the foot.”
According to notes that IRS criminal investigator Gary Shapley took in September 2022, federal prosecutors deliberately decided to put off charging Hunter Biden with tax crimes until after the midterms, The New York Post reports.
Shapley’s notes were published on Wednesday by the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee among 700 pages of documents on the five-year federal probe into the first son.
The materials were released a day before three House committees held their first hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley typed his notes about postponing the Hunter Biden charges after a September 22, 2022, meeting between prosecutors and investigators.
During the meeting, the DOJ’s Tax Division and the office of Delaware US Attorney David Weiss “made the decision not to charge until after the election,” the notes inform.
“They said why should they shoot themselves in the foot by charging before,” Shapley wrote in his notes.
The Post stresses it was “unclear” what the prosecutors had in mind with the phrase “shoot themselves in the foot.”
In an affidavit from September 20, 2023, Shapley states Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf insisted on delaying Hunter Biden’s indictment.
“AUSA Wolf revealed prosecutors had decided not to charge the case until after the midterm election so as not to shoot themselves in the foot – even though they were not being directed by Justice Department headquarters to pause overt activity,” the whistleblower states in the affidavit.
The document reveals Shapley objected numerous times to the prosecutors’ decision.
Subsequently, in May 2023, he and a member of his team, IRS Special Agent Joe Ziegler, were taken off the first son’s case “at the request of Delaware USAO and DOJ.”
In notes from a May 15 meeting, Shapely wrote the request “seemed nefarious” and accused the DOJ and the Delaware US attorney of giving “unethical, inappropriate and providing preferential treatment to the subject.”
Hunter Biden faced tax charges only in June 2023, but his plea deal, perceived as too lenient, collapsed in court. In August, he was indicted on three gun charges.
