WASHINGTON: The Republican chairmen of three key House committees are joining forces to probe the justice department’s handling of charges against Hunter Biden after making sweeping claims about misconduct at the agency. Leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means committees opened a joint investigation into the federal case into President Joe Biden’s youngest son days after it was announced last month that he will plead guilty to the misdemeanour tax offences as part of an agreement with the justice department.
Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Jason Smith of Missouri have since issued a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior officials at the justice department, FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as they investigate what they claim is improper interference.
The three Republican chairmen have provided a deadline of Thursday for the department to begin scheduling nearly a dozen individuals for transcribed interviews. They have said that if the deadline is not met, they will resort to issuing congressional subpoenas to force cooperation. They have also requested a special counsel review of supposed retaliation against the whistleblowers who came forward with the claims.
The congressional inquiry was launched after the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Smith, voted last month to publicly disclose hundreds of pages of testimony from the IRS employees who worked on the Hunter Biden case.
The transcripts of Greg Shapley and an unidentified agent detail what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election won by Joe Biden. The justice department has denied the whistleblower claims.
In April, the first IRS whistleblower, Shapley, came forward when his attorney reached out to GOP Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden.
Smith, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, who has jurisdiction over the IRS, brought in Shapley in late May for an hours long interview, where he described several roadblocks that he and several other IRS agents on the case encountered when trying to interview individuals relevant to the investigation or issue search warrants.
The whistleblowers insist their testimony reflects a pattern of inference and preferential treatment in the Hunter Biden case.
A second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under attorney general William Barr.
Both men have testified that they faced retaliation at the IRS after coming forward with concerns about the handling of the Hunter Biden case. Shapley, who was a career supervisory agent, told the committee that Weiss helped block his job promotion after the tax agency employee reached out to congressional investigators about the Biden case.
The second whistleblower said he was taken off the Hunter Biden probe around the same time as Shapley, who was his supervisor.
Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Jason Smith of Missouri have since issued a series of requests for voluntary testimony from senior officials at the justice department, FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as they investigate what they claim is improper interference.
The three Republican chairmen have provided a deadline of Thursday for the department to begin scheduling nearly a dozen individuals for transcribed interviews. They have said that if the deadline is not met, they will resort to issuing congressional subpoenas to force cooperation. They have also requested a special counsel review of supposed retaliation against the whistleblowers who came forward with the claims.
The congressional inquiry was launched after the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Smith, voted last month to publicly disclose hundreds of pages of testimony from the IRS employees who worked on the Hunter Biden case.
The transcripts of Greg Shapley and an unidentified agent detail what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 election won by Joe Biden. The justice department has denied the whistleblower claims.
In April, the first IRS whistleblower, Shapley, came forward when his attorney reached out to GOP Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to say that his client had information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of what was then an ongoing criminal investigation related to Hunter Biden.
Smith, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, who has jurisdiction over the IRS, brought in Shapley in late May for an hours long interview, where he described several roadblocks that he and several other IRS agents on the case encountered when trying to interview individuals relevant to the investigation or issue search warrants.
The whistleblowers insist their testimony reflects a pattern of inference and preferential treatment in the Hunter Biden case.
A second IRS whistleblower, who asked the committee to keep his identity secret, described his persistent frustrations with the way the Hunter Biden case was handled, dating back to the Trump administration under attorney general William Barr.
Both men have testified that they faced retaliation at the IRS after coming forward with concerns about the handling of the Hunter Biden case. Shapley, who was a career supervisory agent, told the committee that Weiss helped block his job promotion after the tax agency employee reached out to congressional investigators about the Biden case.
The second whistleblower said he was taken off the Hunter Biden probe around the same time as Shapley, who was his supervisor.