House Republicans Demand Briefing on Investigation into Hunter Biden Whistleblowers’ Retaliation Claims

House Republicans are seeking more information from the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) concerning its investigation into whistleblower retaliation claims by two IRS agents who came forward with allegations of misconduct during the Hunter Biden tax case.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) joined Republican leaders of the Biden impeachment inquiry in writing a letter to the OSC on Thursday asking for a briefing on its investigation and how the OSC handled a contentious court filing by the Justice Department related to the IRS whistleblowers.

“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 reads.

OSC is an independent government agency tasked with addressing corruption and protecting government whistleblowers. An OSC spokesperson told National Review that the agency received the letter and will respond quickly.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler came forward last year with allegations the Justice Department slow-walked and obstructed necessary investigative steps during the years-long Hunter Biden tax probe. The whistleblowers have testified before Congress multiple times and turned over troves of documents to substantiate their allegations.

House Republicans observed in a report last year that testimony from top DOJ, FBI, and IRS officials corroborated major allegations first provided by the IRS whistleblowers. Democrats have largely dismissed the IRS whistleblower allegations and corresponding documents.

Shapley’s attorneys accused special counsel David Weiss’s legal team last month of writing a “misleading” court filing in which prosecutors appeared to imply the IRS whistleblower disclosures were being investigated. Weiss is also the U.S. Attorney for Delaware; his office’s handling of the Hunter Biden case was a central component of the whistleblowers’s allegations.

The IRS whistleblowers are not under investigation, Republicans said in the letter. Rather, the OSC is looking into the whistleblowers’s allegations of retaliation, and the OSC requested Weiss’s team file information about the investigation under seal.

“The Committees understand that the confidentiality of Whistleblowers is of the utmost significance, but when there is a public filing by the very government official accused of retaliating against the Whistleblowers that damages their reputation and the chain of events leading to that damage appears to have been initiated by OSC, the Committees seek to understand why OSC did nothing to mitigate the harm and correct the public record,” House Republicans wrote.

House Republicans are requesting a briefing on the specific court filing and whether the OSC investigation has been subject to improper influence.

Weiss’s team of prosecutors secured a conviction against Hunter Biden on three federal gun charges in Delaware and is currently prosecuting him on nine federal tax charges in California. Hunter Biden is scheduled to stand trial on the tax charges in September.

Before the gun and tax charges were brought, the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office negotiated a lenient plea deal with Hunter Biden on two tax misdemeanors. The plea deal was accompanied by a pretrial diversion agreement on a single gun charge.

But, the plea deal and diversion agreement fell apart last summer when Judge Maryellen Noreika expressed skepticism over a prosecutorial immunity clause inside the diversion agreement. She did so soon after the IRS whistleblowers came forward and testified publicly about their time on the Hunter Biden case.

Noreika presided over Hunter Biden’s gun trial and will be deciding his sentence later this year.