News/Commentary

Explosive letter shows FBI instructed Hunter Biden investigator to avoid Congress’ questions about case

July 19, 2023 | | Print Article

According to a bombshell letter, the FBI purportedly told a supervisory agent who was investigating Hunter Biden’s activities that he should “decline to respond” to House Oversight Committee questions concerning the “ongoing” case involving the first son.

The New York Post broke the story after FBI general counsel Jason Jones sent the redacted letter Sunday afternoon just hours before the FBI agent was getting ready to testify. The timing of the letter is curious as the media outlet claims that sources knew of the scheduled Monday deposition for several days.

“[T]he Department expects that you will decline to respond to questions seeking non-public information likely covered by one or more components of executive privilege or other significant confidentiality interests, in particular information about deliberations or ongoing investigative activity in law enforcement matters,” Jones stated in the letter.

“You should instead refer such questions to the FBI’s Office of Congressional Affairs,” the FBI attorney advised. “Consistent with longstanding practice, this will afford the Department the full opportunity to consider particular questions and possible accommodations that may fulfill the Committee’s legitimate need for information while protecting Executive Branch confidentiality interests.”

During testimony, the FBI agent confirmed key details of the investigation that two IRS agents who are whistleblowers had previously claimed. That included Hunter Biden’s legal team being tipped off about an interview in December 2020 concerning his failure to pay millions in taxes on foreign income.

Jones called the Hunter Biden case “ongoing” in his letter, which is similar wording that he used in communications with Delaware US Attorney David Weiss. Republicans believe the careful working is intended to stonewall their demands for records and testimony.

The legal team for the first son believes that he no longer has any legal exposure after receiving a sweetheart plea deal in June charging him with two misdemeanor tax fraud charges and a gun possession felony that will be expunged following probation. He will serve no jail time despite a long list of what should be considered felonies.

“According to information provided to you by the Committee, the Committee is seeking information about an individual ongoing criminal investigation and prosecution,” Jones noted in the letter.

“Specifically, the Committee has stated an interest in what the Committee has described to you as certain events that took place in December 2020 as part of this investigation. As the Department recently emphasized when affirming that U.S. Attorney David Weiss will appear before the House Committee on the Judiciary ‘at an appropriate time, consistent with the law and Department policy,’ the Department’s longstanding policy is to seek ‘wherever possible to provide information about closed, rather than open, matters,’” he continued.

“Department officials, including those who have left the Department, are obligated to protect non-public information they learned in the course of their work. Such information could be subject to various privileges, including law enforcement, deliberative process, attorney work product, and attorney-client privileges, and privacy interests. Current and former Department officials also must protect classified information, sources and methods, and grand jury information protected by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e),” Jones added.

The New York Post spoke with an FBI spokesperson who claimed that there is nothing unusual about Jones’ letter, claiming it is “standard practice” to offer such guidance when an employee is set to give testimony.

“These are called authorization letters and are standard practice,” the FBI spokesperson asserted.

Another source told the media outlet that the letter is “more uncommon” and emphasized that the last-minute timing and expansive wording used were suspect.

House committees led by Republicans are looking into the allegations of the two IRS whistleblowers who claim that Weiss was prevented by US attorneys appointed by Biden from charging Hunter Biden in Southern California and Washington, DC. This would go against the sworn testimony of Attorney General Merrick Garland that Weiss had the sole power to bring charges.

Weiss has made written statements that appear to reject the IRS agents’ testimony, but the wording seems open-ended.

The tax agents, who both have more than 10 years of experience at the IRS, are expected to testify publicly on Wednesday afternoon before the Oversight Committee, according to the New York Post.

They charged in previous private testimony that Hunter Biden was allowed to avoid more serious tax charges and that various steps in the investigation were delayed or blocked by the Justice Department and the FBI.

Gary Shapley, a senior IRS agent who supervised the Hunter Biden case for more than three years, said a federal prosecutor tried to discourage investigators from looking at President Biden’s possible involvement in his son’s foreign consulting work.

An IRS case agent, who has not been named publicly yet, is expected to out himself on Wednesday per the New York Post, and confirm Shapley’s account at the congressional hearing. He has worked on the Hunter Biden case since it started in 2018.

The FBI and Biden administration were hammered over the explosive letter:

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