House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan confirmed this week that he intends to keep investigating Hunter Biden even after outgoing President Joe Biden has left office.
As previously reported, Biden recently granted a sweeping, 11-year pardon to his eldest son, Hunter. But this isn’t stopping House Republicans from moving forward with lingering questions that remain about Hunter’s activities and his almost-botched prosecution by the feds.
Recall that under special counsel David Weiss, Hunter Biden almost got off with a sweetheart plea deal until a Trump-appointed judge and several IRS whistleblowers cried foul. Weiss has yet to explain himself.
Red flags rise over Hunter Biden’s prosecutor following controversial plea deal https://t.co/qap5wxf2Bv via @BIZPACReview
— Dr. Kenneth Warner (@wrestlerkw7) July 11, 2023
“We think we need to look at David Weiss, the special counsel,” Jordan told Politico in an interview. “There will be some additional work we need to do, I think, there because when we deposed him, he wasn’t willing to — he didn’t answer any questions, really, because it was [an] ongoing investigation.”
However, it doesn’t appear Jordan intends to also probe Biden’s pardoning of his son.
“I didn’t agree with it — I think a lot of Americans didn’t — [but] the president can pardon anyone he wants to pardon,” he noted.
All this comes about a week out from when Weiss is expected to release his final report on his own investigation into Hunter Biden.
After the sweetheart plea deal went up in smoke, Hunter was found guilty of several firearm offenses and pleaded guilty to federal tax crimes. He was set to be sentenced last month to up to 17 months in prison when his father suddenly pardoned him.
The bad news is that Weiss’ report has to first go through Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden lackey, though Garland has publicly vowed to release as much of the report as possible.
As for the IRS whistleblowers who helped torpedo Hunter’s sweetheart plea deal, they now face alleged persecution from the agency, according to a letter sent by congressional Republicans to the Office of Special Counsel in November.
BREAKING: Comer, Jordan, Smith Demand Immediate Action in Wake of the IRS’s Latest Action Against Whistleblowers Gary Shapley & Joseph Ziegler
It took bravery and courage for IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joseph Ziegler to blow the whistle on… pic.twitter.com/Hdg4qE9Vpg
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 1, 2024
The letter was sent three days after IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler sat down with a journalist to “discuss their disclosures to Congress and how their lives have been affected by making those disclosures,” according to the aforementioned letter.
“[The IRS] has a smothering blanket on me,” Shapley said during the interview, according to Fox News. “[They’re] hoping that I quit, that they find some way to terminate me. Or they probably hope that I commit suicide or something.”
Here’s where things got nasty. Less than an hour after the journalist publicly released the interview, Shapley received a memo from the IRS letting him know that he “could no longer keep his position,” according to the GOP lawmakers’ letter.
“This reassignment appears to give SSA Shapley effectively two options: accept a demotion or resign,” the lawmakers continued. “The IRS is giving SSA Shapley 15 days to decide. This is egregious, and OSC must take immediate steps to pause this action while it examines the IRS’s decision.”
In response to this, the congressional Republicans who wrote the letter — including Jordan — demanded a “prompt” update on the OSC’s then-ongoing investigation into the whistleblowers’ original allegations about the IRS’ handling of the Hunter Biden case.
The lawmakers also demanded that the OSC “use its lawful authority to seek an immediate stay at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board pausing the IRS’s latest threatening action.”
“SSA Shapley’s and SA Ziegler’s whistleblowing took courage and bravery,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “Because of their important disclosures, Americans learned how the IRS treats individuals differently based upon their last names.”
“[Shapley and Ziegler] made lawfully protected disclosures to Congress that resulted in unrelenting personal and professional attacks on them. But they have not wavered. As this case has rightfully garnered significant public attention, OSC must show the whistleblower community that OSC will take appropriate and immediate action to stand up for whistleblowers,” they added.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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