[ad_1]
WASHINGTON: House Republicans made baseless allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden about his family’s finances during their subpoena IRS whistleblower to testify publicly for the first time about allegations that the Justice Department improperly interfered in a tax investigation of Biden’s son Hunter.
Lawmakers heard from two of the designated IRS agents Hunter Biden The case, which considered his failure to pay taxes, took six hours of what was often an exhausting back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax offenses in what Republicans called a “cherished” deal.
However, House Republicans are deepening their own investigations, laying out widespread allegations of corruption and wrongdoing by Biden, which they acknowledge have not been substantiated.
“We’ll continue to track the money trail,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said at the opening. The Justice Department denied the whistleblower’s allegations. In a statement, the White House described the investigation and subsequent hearing as part of “politically motivated attacks on the Trump-appointed US Attorney General, the rule of law, and the independence of our judicial system.”
The committee’s top Democrat, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, said the hearing was a “theater of the absurd.”
Supervisory Special Agent of the IRS Greg ShapleyThe second agent, Joe Ziegler, alleged that there were what Shapley described in the testimony as a pattern of “slow investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months leading up to the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.
One of Shapley’s more detailed allegations was that US Attorney General David Weiss of Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, requested special counsel status in order to file tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside of Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California. , but was rejected.
Weiss and the Justice Department denied this, saying he had “total authority” and had never sought charges in other states.
Chapley testified during an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he wrote an email later that day commemorating an October 2022 meeting with Weiss and five others. Shapley insisted on Wednesday that he remembered what was said.
Ziegler, the second IRS whistleblower, described his frustration with the way the case was handled, which dates back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. The tax agency employee said he began investigating Hunter Biden in 2015 and began delving deeply into the 53-year-old’s life and finances.
Ziegler, whose name was withheld in closed interview transcripts released by Republicans last month, said he decided to come forward publicly “not as a hero or a victim,” but as a married gay Democrat “forced to reveal the truth.”
Democrats on the committee rejected the whistleblower’s claims that Hunter received special treatment because his father was a presidential candidate in the upcoming 2020 election. Rep. Raja Krishnamurthy, D-Illinois, explained that Donald Trump is the president during the 2020 time frame when the whistleblower alleged there was interference.
He noted that the Trump Department of Justice issued a memo in February 2020 asking prosecutors to “exercise particular caution with respect to sensitive investigations and prosecutions involving political candidates, campaigns, and other politically sensitive individuals and organizations.”
Democrats also noted that Weiss was appointed by Trump and that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden began under Trump. Biden kept Weiss on the case after winning the election. But the hearing took many twists and turns as dozens of members from both sides of the stand sought to maximize their time with the two witnesses.
In one startling moment, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R, showed graphic sex photos of Hunter Biden with women, suggesting he had paid to travel to Washington, D.C., presumably for sex, in possible violation of the law. Democrats led by Raskin objected to Green’s presentation of the graphic content at a public hearing, saying it was inappropriate.
Rep. Shontelle Brown, D-Ohio, questioned whether this was an investigation of the president or “his son, who has not and never worked in the White House.”
While Republicans criticize what they say is a justice system that favors people connected to politics, Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., pointed to the murder of Emmett Till and the treatment of other black Americans throughout U.S. history and said, “This is the two tiered justice system.”
Republicans, for their part, have sought testimony from other agents involved in the case and conducted a written interview this week with an FBI agent, now retired, who they said was involved. However, other witnesses refused to appear before the commission.
Before the hearing, Comer, R-Ky., acknowledged that it was difficult for Republicans to succinctly outline Hunter Biden’s tangled finances or provide convincing evidence of any specific wrongdoing by the president or his family.
“It’s hard to explain,” Kummer told reporters. “I hope these IRS agents can do a better job of explaining than I can.”
In previous closed-door interviews, Shapley described efforts by IRS agents to execute a search warrant at a Virginia storage facility where the younger Biden documents are stored. He said the assistant U.S. attorney involved in the case reached out to Hunter Biden’s attorney, in a move seen as familiar in cases involving high-profile individuals, but ruined “our chance to get access to evidence before it is destroyed, tampered with, or hidden.”
A similar event occurred when FBI officials reported Hunter Biden’s Secret Service details before attempting to interview him and several of his business associates in order to avoid a potential crossfire between two law enforcement agencies.
Justice Department officials responded to the allegations by pointing to the unusual set of circumstances surrounding a criminal case involving the then son of a prominent presidential candidate. The ministry’s policy has long warned prosecutors to exercise caution in indicting cases of a potentially political nature around the time of the election, to avoid any potential impact on the outcome.
During the hours-long testimony, Democrats sought to dismiss all of the whistleblower’s allegations as a disagreement between prosecutors and investigators about how to move forward with charges against Hunter Biden.
“My point here is that we spend hours arguing over whether someone should be charged and we have a whole democratic process that decides that,” MP Ro Khanna said. “You can’t decide that.”
Republicans responded, saying that beyond the indictments, it was clear that prosecutors did not want to touch anything that would involve Hunter Biden’s father. In one case, Shapley testified that in a meeting with Weiss and Assistant US Attorney General Leslie Wolf after the 2020 election, he and other agents wanted to discuss an email between associates of Hunter Biden where one person referred to the “big guy.” Shapley said Wolfe refused, saying she didn’t want to ask questions about “Dad”.
Republicans stepped forward, issuing a series of requests for voluntary testimony from top justice officials, including Weiss.
Weiss said in a letter to Jordan earlier this month that he would be happy to testify before the committee when he would be legally able to share information with Congress without violating the department’s longstanding policy on discussing the ongoing investigation.
Testimony from Justice Department officials could come after Hunter Biden appears for a hearing next week.
Lawmakers heard from two of the designated IRS agents Hunter Biden The case, which considered his failure to pay taxes, took six hours of what was often an exhausting back-and-forth testimony. The hearing came after the president’s son pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor tax offenses in what Republicans called a “cherished” deal.
However, House Republicans are deepening their own investigations, laying out widespread allegations of corruption and wrongdoing by Biden, which they acknowledge have not been substantiated.
“We’ll continue to track the money trail,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said at the opening. The Justice Department denied the whistleblower’s allegations. In a statement, the White House described the investigation and subsequent hearing as part of “politically motivated attacks on the Trump-appointed US Attorney General, the rule of law, and the independence of our judicial system.”
The committee’s top Democrat, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, said the hearing was a “theater of the absurd.”
Supervisory Special Agent of the IRS Greg ShapleyThe second agent, Joe Ziegler, alleged that there were what Shapley described in the testimony as a pattern of “slow investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months leading up to the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.
One of Shapley’s more detailed allegations was that US Attorney General David Weiss of Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, requested special counsel status in order to file tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside of Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California. , but was rejected.
Weiss and the Justice Department denied this, saying he had “total authority” and had never sought charges in other states.
Chapley testified during an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he wrote an email later that day commemorating an October 2022 meeting with Weiss and five others. Shapley insisted on Wednesday that he remembered what was said.
Ziegler, the second IRS whistleblower, described his frustration with the way the case was handled, which dates back to the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr. The tax agency employee said he began investigating Hunter Biden in 2015 and began delving deeply into the 53-year-old’s life and finances.
Ziegler, whose name was withheld in closed interview transcripts released by Republicans last month, said he decided to come forward publicly “not as a hero or a victim,” but as a married gay Democrat “forced to reveal the truth.”
Democrats on the committee rejected the whistleblower’s claims that Hunter received special treatment because his father was a presidential candidate in the upcoming 2020 election. Rep. Raja Krishnamurthy, D-Illinois, explained that Donald Trump is the president during the 2020 time frame when the whistleblower alleged there was interference.
He noted that the Trump Department of Justice issued a memo in February 2020 asking prosecutors to “exercise particular caution with respect to sensitive investigations and prosecutions involving political candidates, campaigns, and other politically sensitive individuals and organizations.”
Democrats also noted that Weiss was appointed by Trump and that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden began under Trump. Biden kept Weiss on the case after winning the election. But the hearing took many twists and turns as dozens of members from both sides of the stand sought to maximize their time with the two witnesses.
In one startling moment, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R, showed graphic sex photos of Hunter Biden with women, suggesting he had paid to travel to Washington, D.C., presumably for sex, in possible violation of the law. Democrats led by Raskin objected to Green’s presentation of the graphic content at a public hearing, saying it was inappropriate.
Rep. Shontelle Brown, D-Ohio, questioned whether this was an investigation of the president or “his son, who has not and never worked in the White House.”
While Republicans criticize what they say is a justice system that favors people connected to politics, Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., pointed to the murder of Emmett Till and the treatment of other black Americans throughout U.S. history and said, “This is the two tiered justice system.”
Republicans, for their part, have sought testimony from other agents involved in the case and conducted a written interview this week with an FBI agent, now retired, who they said was involved. However, other witnesses refused to appear before the commission.
Before the hearing, Comer, R-Ky., acknowledged that it was difficult for Republicans to succinctly outline Hunter Biden’s tangled finances or provide convincing evidence of any specific wrongdoing by the president or his family.
“It’s hard to explain,” Kummer told reporters. “I hope these IRS agents can do a better job of explaining than I can.”
In previous closed-door interviews, Shapley described efforts by IRS agents to execute a search warrant at a Virginia storage facility where the younger Biden documents are stored. He said the assistant U.S. attorney involved in the case reached out to Hunter Biden’s attorney, in a move seen as familiar in cases involving high-profile individuals, but ruined “our chance to get access to evidence before it is destroyed, tampered with, or hidden.”
A similar event occurred when FBI officials reported Hunter Biden’s Secret Service details before attempting to interview him and several of his business associates in order to avoid a potential crossfire between two law enforcement agencies.
Justice Department officials responded to the allegations by pointing to the unusual set of circumstances surrounding a criminal case involving the then son of a prominent presidential candidate. The ministry’s policy has long warned prosecutors to exercise caution in indicting cases of a potentially political nature around the time of the election, to avoid any potential impact on the outcome.
During the hours-long testimony, Democrats sought to dismiss all of the whistleblower’s allegations as a disagreement between prosecutors and investigators about how to move forward with charges against Hunter Biden.
“My point here is that we spend hours arguing over whether someone should be charged and we have a whole democratic process that decides that,” MP Ro Khanna said. “You can’t decide that.”
Republicans responded, saying that beyond the indictments, it was clear that prosecutors did not want to touch anything that would involve Hunter Biden’s father. In one case, Shapley testified that in a meeting with Weiss and Assistant US Attorney General Leslie Wolf after the 2020 election, he and other agents wanted to discuss an email between associates of Hunter Biden where one person referred to the “big guy.” Shapley said Wolfe refused, saying she didn’t want to ask questions about “Dad”.
Republicans stepped forward, issuing a series of requests for voluntary testimony from top justice officials, including Weiss.
Weiss said in a letter to Jordan earlier this month that he would be happy to testify before the committee when he would be legally able to share information with Congress without violating the department’s longstanding policy on discussing the ongoing investigation.
Testimony from Justice Department officials could come after Hunter Biden appears for a hearing next week.
[ad_2]
