A transcript of an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower’s testimony to Congress indicates that investigators into Hunter Biden’s finances were blocked from looking into connections between Hunter Biden and his father.
“Whistleblowers claim the Biden Department of Justice is intervening and overstepping when it comes to the investigation of the president’s son,” Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee said, adding that “IRS investigators say they found themselves hamstrung internally.”
“This was a campaign of delay, divulge and deny,” he said.
Rep. Jason Smith: Whistleblowers say Biden’s DOJ directly interfered in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation — and even stopped a probe into “a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden demands payment from Chinese officials, noting that his father is in the room.” pic.twitter.com/ddMa4OJzLT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 22, 2023
The committee announced that it has released all of the whistleblower testimony on the committee’s website.
A transcript of an interview with whistleblower Gary Shapley Jr. highlighted connections he felt were not fully investigated.
The transcript said that Shapley told the committee “in August 2020, we got the results back from an iCloud search warrant. Unlike the laptop, these came to the investigative team from a third-party record keeper and included a set of messages. The messages included material we clearly needed to follow up on. Nevertheless, prosecutors denied investigators’ requests to develop a strategy to look into the messages and denied investigators’ suggestion to obtain location information to see where the texts were sent from.”
He then told of one blockbuster message.
“For example, we obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, where Hunter Biden wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’”
“Communications like these made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time,” he said,
Shapley said that “ Assistant United States Attorney, Lesley Wolf, told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze. She continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant. She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved. “
During a Dec. 3, 2020, meeting, he noted that investigators wanted to ask Rob Walker, an associate of Hunter Biden, “about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy.’ We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden.
“But AUSA Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad,’” he testified.
But the subject of Joe Biden’s linkage to Hunter Biden’s business affairs did come up, Shapley testified.
In the transcript, he quoted Walker as noting one interaction Joe Biden had with his son and his son’s business partners.
The transcript quotes Walker as saying, “We were at the Four Seasons and we were having lunch and he stopped in, just said hello to everybody. I don’t even think he drank water. I think Hunter Biden said, ‘I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys and could you?’ And I think he was like, if I’m around and he’d show up.”
“The FBI agent asked: ‘So you definitely got the feeling that that was orchestrated by Hunter Biden to have like an appearance by his dad at that meeting just to kind of bolster your chances at making a deal work out?’” the transcript said.
“Walker answered: ‘Sure,’” the transcript said.
“The FBI agent continued: ‘Any times when he was in office, or did you hear Hunter Biden say that he was setting up a meeting with his dad with them while dad was still in office?’” the transcript said.
“Walker answered: ‘Yes,’” the transcript said.
“And, inexplicably, the FBI agent changed the subject.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
