The lead IRS agent investigating whether Hunter Biden committed tax crimes told Congress his team had found evidence that Mr. Biden had called in his then-absent father while urging a potential Chinese business partner in 2017 to follow through. go with a proposed energy deal, House Republicans said.
In testimony made public Thursday, Gary Shapley, an IRS agent since 2009 who oversaw the IRS’ investigation into Hunter Biden, said his team used a search warrant to find a July 30 WhatsApp message. 2017 from Mr Biden to Henry Zhao, a Chinese businessman.
In a summary of the message, provided by Mr Shapley to the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr Biden told Mr Zhao that he was sitting with his father and that “we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. .”
“Tell the director I want to fix this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Biden wrote, referring to other participants in the proposed deal. “And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make sure that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to always holding a grudge that you will regret if you do not follow my directions.”
On the face of it, the message would undermine President Biden’s longstanding claims that he had nothing to do with his son’s international business deals.
Coming days after Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges for failing to file his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018, the release of the information underlined House Republicans’ determination to continue trying to commit his father to his business dealings and suggest they were corrupt.
But it wasn’t immediately clear whether Hunter Biden had been with his father when he sent the message or what his father — then a private individual who had ended his tenure as vice president six months earlier — knew about his son’s negotiations with his potential Chinese partners. .
It is also not clear whether Mr. Biden used his father’s name without his knowledge to raise money in a business deal. Mr Shapley also, in effect, told Congress that his investigation had produced some evidence that some of the claims about the older Mr Biden’s involvement were just “wishful thinking”.
He recounted an interview with Rob Walker, Hunter Biden’s business partner, who told investigators it was “projection” that former Vice President Biden would become involved in their business ventures.
“I certainly never thought the VP was part of anything we were doing at any point,” said Mr Walker, according to Mr Shapley.
At the time, Hunter Biden was addicted to crack cocaine, exhibiting distasteful and self-destructive behavior, and was under financial strain. For years he had pursued ventures that raised ethical concerns about their intersection with his father’s career, especially during the elder Mr. Biden’s eight years as vice president. And the death of his brother, Beau, in 2015 had contributed to his downward spiral.
Mr Shapley said investigators received the WhatsApp message in response to a search warrant. But the message was not among those handed over by Mr Biden’s lawyers to federal prosecutors in response to grand jury subpoenas during the lengthy investigation conducted by the Justice Department with help from the IRS, according to a person who is familiar with the case, nor was the message one that prosecutors urged Mr Biden’s lawyers to explain.
Nor was it one of several reports that have surfaced of a laptop Mr Biden left at a Delaware repair shop and later made available to journalists.
The WhatsApp message was part of a series of documents released by the Ways and Means Committee, along with transcripts of interviews with Mr Shapley and a second IRS investigator whose name was redacted.
The two investigators, one of whom described himself as a Democrat, told Congress about a long period of strife between them and others involved in the investigation. They said a certain Justice Department prosecutor blocked some of their efforts and passed on too much information to Hunter Biden’s legal team.
Mr Shapley suggested that IRS investigators believed there were grounds to charge Mr Biden with more serious crimes than he finally agreed to plead guilty as part of his deal with the Justice Department. Mr. Shapley told the committee that he “argued, with evidence, that DOJ was giving preferential treatment, the investigation was moving slowly, did nothing to avoid obvious conflict of interest in this investigation.”
House Republicans sought to portray the testimony as further evidence that Hunter Biden had obtained what they call a love deal from the Justice Department, even though his agreement to plead guilty to two felony charges seemed consistent with how other first-time, nonviolent offenders were typically treated. Mr Biden paid his back taxes and fines in 2021.
In a letter to Congress this month, David C. Weiss, the Delaware U.S. attorney who sued Hunter Biden over his tax issues and a separate gun purchase, said he had “ultimate authority” over the case. Mr. Weiss was appointed by President Donald J. Trump and was appointed to complete the investigation under President Biden.
A spokesman for the Justice Department reiterated on Thursday that Mr Weiss had “the responsibility to decide where, when and if charges should be brought”, and that he did not need further approval to do so. The White House said President Biden was not involved in the investigation and that it was conducted “free from any political interference.”
“Hunter Biden capitalized on his father’s name. He has not reported millions of dollars in income from foreign sources,” said Representative Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri and the chair of the Ways and Means Committee. “Any ordinary American caught doing so would have suffered dire consequences. Hunter Biden does not. Why not?”
Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the chief Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, accused Republicans of extracting fragmentary findings from their work without conducting a full investigation.
