A supervisory IRS agent has made overtures to lawmakers in Congress detailing the mishandling of the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden. Through attorney Mark Lytle, a letter asking for whistleblower protections was submitted to ranking members and chairs of various congressional committees. The government has spent the last two years updating protections and making much noise about how “transparency” is the new watchword for this administration – yet this potential disclosure has been met with a bevy of “no comments” and abject silence.
The first son has been under investigation since at least 2018; his father has repeatedly stated that he knows nothing of Hunter’s business or financial dealings. But the investigation appears to be ongoing, even if at a snail’s pace. Comments from the whistleblower’s attorney hint that a high-level official in the Biden administration could be implicated. It does not take a professional sleuth to determine why this particular anonymous deep throat is persona non grata.
The Whistleblower Blues
“Despite serious risks of retaliation, my client is offering to provide you with information necessary to exercise your constitutional oversight function and wishes to make the disclosures in a non-partisan manner to the leadership of the relevant committees on both sides of the political aisle,” Lytle wrote.
He detailed that his client had already made legally protected disclosures through normal internal channels and to outside federal agencies, including the Department of Justice. These disclosures allegedly include:
(1) contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee
(2) involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case, and
(3) detail 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.
According to the New York Post, the “senior political appointee” is Attorney General Merrick Garland. Speaking with Fox News’ Brett Baier on Thursday evening, Lytle noted that he “can’t talk specifics about who it was my client is talking about”. “But what I can say is a career law enforcement officer, who knows the right way to do an investigation, when he hears a senior politically appointed official at the Department of Justice under sworn testimony say something and, in his mind, it is directly contradictory to what he knows is going on with the investigation – what he can prove with documents, he wants to come forward,” Lytle said.
In a conversation with CBS News, Lytle warned that: “Political considerations were having an impact on the decision for agents to make investigative steps in the case. And those political considerations are not normally a part of a career investigator’s toolkit.”
The purpose of the letter is to seek guidance on how these disclosures can be presented to Congress, signifying that the whistleblower perhaps believes his information is not being acted upon presently.
Chairman for the Ways and Means Committee, Rep Jason Smith (R-MO), said that he will “go where the facts lead and investigate”. In a statement, he noted: “The committee takes seriously any allegations of misconduct by government officials or offices and will, on behalf of American taxpayers, look into concerns that are brought to our attention. It is our responsibility to ensure the tax code is applied fairly and appropriately to all Americans – whether through the oversight efforts this committee initiates or the need for oversight that is brought to our attention.”
Noise vs Silence
Naturally, congressional Republicans, who are already on the trail of Hunter Biden for his foreign business dealings, were keen to add this arrow to their existing quiver. “It’s deeply concerning that the Biden Administration may be obstructing justice by blocking efforts to charge Hunter Biden for tax violations,” Rep James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement to JusttheNews. “We’ve been wondering all along where the heck the DOJ and the IRS have been. Now it appears the Biden Administration may have been working overtime to prevent the Bidens from facing any consequences.”
Other GOPers have also made public comments on the allegations. But from the other side of the aisle, the silence has been deafening. The White House Press Secretary reiterated her standard response that the administration takes no part in the investigation and will leave all comment to the relevant agencies. The relevant agencies, meanwhile, have remained remarkably tight-lipped.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden took to pooh-poohing the whistleblower without actually denying the claims made. Attorney Chris Clark suggested that the IRS agent had “committed a crime”. “It is a felony for an IRS agent to improperly disclose information about an ongoing tax investigation,” Clark said in a statement. “The IRS has incredible power, and abusing that power by targeting, embarrassing or disclosing information about a private citizen’s tax matters undermines Americans’ faith in the federal government.”
What’s the Difference?
Whistleblowers in the United States today are – at least on the surface – welcomed by the government with open arms. Retired Lt Colonel Alexander Vindman, who featured so prominently in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, was hailed as a hero and is still a much sought-after commodity for left-leaning newsgroups. Almost every Senate committee web page has extended an invitation to potential whistleblowers, assuring them full protection should they come forward. The Securities and Exchange Commission offers million-dollar pay-outs to those who expose corruption.
For this whistleblower, however, it seems the welcome wagon is in the shop.
The IRS agent may, in fact, have little more than suspicions, or his accusations could turn out to be motivated by animus – but his attorney staunchly denies both. However, with scant reaction from either the Senate majority or the White House, the likelihood that this gets spun as a partisan attack regardless of the actual merits increases.
“We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance,” then-President Barack Obama said of whistleblowers in 2009. But then, as now, it seems this only applies if said leakers are doing so for the political benefit of the party in power.
