Hunter Biden investigation infected by ‘politics,’ whistleblower claims

An IRS agent is seeking whistleblower protections in alleging that the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden has been infected by “politics” and “preferential treatment.”

The bombshell whistleblower claims come from a career IRS criminal supervisory special agent who says he has been overseeing “the ongoing and sensitive investigation” of a “high-profile” and “controversial subject” since early 2020. A source familiar with the letter told the Washington Examiner that this is about President Joe Biden’s troubled son, who is being investigated for several potential crimes.

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The whistleblower’s lawyer, Mark Lytle, sent a letter to the heads of multiple House and Senate committees, telling them his client’s “protected disclosures” lay out “examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.”

The IRS agent’s allegations also “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee” and “involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case” against Hunter Biden.

The whistleblower’s lawyer said the IRS agent has also already made “legally protected disclosures” internally at the IRS, as well as to the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration and the Department of Justice’s inspector general.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly vowed to ensure that Weiss would be insulated from any political interference.

“He has been advised that he should get anything he needs,” Garland said of Weiss during Senate testimony in March. “I have not heard anything from that office that suggests they are not able to do anything that the U.S. attorney wants them to do.”

Republicans have long contended that Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings in Ukraine and China indicate he may have committed crimes related to foreign lobbying or money laundering, although recent reports have indicated federal investigators may have narrowed the focus to Hunter Biden’s potentially committing tax fraud in 2016 and 2017 and lying on a federal form when purchasing a handgun in 2018.

Both are potential felonies that could lead to prison time if pursued by the Justice Department.

It is up to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-appointed holdover and the Delaware prosecutor overseeing the case, to decide whether to indict the president’s son. In February 2021, Joe Biden asked all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump for their resignations, with Weiss a rare exception.

Although the Justice Department indicting the son of a sitting president would be a major development, the bigger questions remain whether the department has been considering more significant charges tied to money laundering or foreign lobbying and whether investigators have been looking into the national security implications of Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, especially his association with businessmen linked to Chinese intelligence.

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Republicans would likely be disappointed if the Justice Department only charges Hunter Biden with tax fraud or gun charges.

“Based on recent protected disclosures to my office, the FBI has within its possession significant, impactful, and voluminous evidence with respect to potential criminal conduct by Hunter Biden,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said in an October 2022 letter to Garland, Weiss, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Those whistleblower allegations relate to the duo’s dealings with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC as well as to Hunter Biden’s work for Ukrainian energy giant Burisma.

CEFC was founded by Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party-linked business tycoon who has since disappeared in China but with whom Hunter Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals.

Hunter Biden and his associated businesses received at least $5 million in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, and CEFC deputy Patrick Ho also agreed to pay Hunter Biden a $1 million retainer. Hunter Biden referred to Ho as “the f***ing spy chief of China” in a May 2018 voice recording.

Ho was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was deported to Hong Kong in June 2021 after serving his sentence.

A Washington Examiner investigation also found that Hunter Biden disclosed in text messages in 2018 and 2019 that his accounts were frozen temporarily after his attempted payments to “girls” of a woman named Eva, his primary point of contact for the UberGFE escort service, that had raised a “red flag” with his bank for Russian-linked email accounts
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The president’s son spent over $30,000 on escorts linked to Eva and UberGFE between Nov. 26, 2018, and March 10, 2019. Eva directed him to make payments to bank accounts linked to “.ru” Russian email addresses at least 11 times during that time frame.

Hunter Biden was able to spend this much money thanks in part to Joe Biden committing to wiring him a total of $100,000 to allegedly help pay his bills from December 2018 through January 2019. In one instance, Joe Biden wired his son $5,000 while he was actively engaged with an UberGFE escort.

Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) have demanded that the FBI and DOJ investigate that too.