Whistleblower: Full Timeline of DOJ OBSTRUCTION of IRS investigation into Hunter Biden, 2018-2023

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley gave testimony to the House detailing the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden's alleged tax crimes. This is the timeline he laid out for that investigation, and what he alleges was the obstruction the IRS faced when trying to carry out that probe. 

Shapley has been with the IRS since 2009 and currently serves as a "supervisory special agent with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation," a position he's held since 2018.

He told Congress that he was "blowing the whistle because the Delaware U.S. Attorney's Office, Department of Justice Tax, and Department of Justice provided preferential treatment and unchecked conflicts of interest in an important and high-profile investigation of the President's son, Hunter Biden."

Further, he stated that he is "alleging, with evidence, that DOJ provided preferential treatment, slow-walked the investigation, did nothing to avoid obvious conflicts of interest in this investigation."

"The investigation into Hunter Biden, code name Sportsman," Shapley told Congress, "was first opened in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform."
 

"In October 2019, the FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime. The FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden's Apple iCloud ID."

"When the FBI took possession of the device in December 2019, they notified the IRS that it likely contained evidence of tax crimes. Thus, Special Agent [redacted] drafted an affidavit for a Title 26 search warrant, which a magistrate judge approved that month."

"In January 2020, I became the supervisor of the Sportsman case. The group, known as the International Tax and Financial Crimes group, or the ITFC, is comprised of 12 elite agents who were selected based on their experience and performance in the area of complex high-dollar international tax investigations."

"As early as March 6th, 2020, I sent a sensitive case report up through my chain of command at IRS reporting that by mid-March the IRS would be ready to seek approval for physical search warrants in California, Arkansas, New York, and Washington, D.C."

"Special Agent drafted an April 1st, 2020, affidavit establishing probable cause for these physical search warrants. We also planned to conduct approximately 15 contemporaneous interviews at that time."

Shapley noted in his testimony that in April 2020, it became apparent that Joe Biden was going to be the presidential nominee of the Democrat party, and at this point, it became apparent that the DOJ slowed down its investigation.

Shapley said "after former Vice President Joseph Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in early April 2020, career DOJ officials dragged their feet on the IRS taking these investigative steps.

"By June 2020, those same career officials were already delaying overt investigative actions. This was well before the typical 60- to 90-day period when DOJ would historically stand down before an election. It was apparent that DOJ was purposely slow-walking investigative actions in this matter."

In June 2020, Shapley told his superiors that the search warrants had not yet been executed. "On a June 16th, 2020, call Special Agent [redacted] and I had with our chain of command up to the Director of Field Operations, I pointed out that if normal procedures had been followed we already would have executed search warrants, conducted interviews, and served document requests. Nevertheless, my IRS chain of command decided we would defer to DOJ."

After that, Shapley discussed the case with the Department of Justice and the US Attorney's Office in Delaware. While "investigative steps were denied," and "enforcement operations rejected by DOJ," Shapley and his team continued their investigation.

In August 2020, they "got the results back from an iCloud search warrant. Unlike the laptop, these came to the investigative team from a third-party record keeper and included a set of messages." This warrant unearthed a WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao from July 2017. It showed that Hunter was demanding money from Zhao, and asserted that his father, Joe Biden, was in the room. Joe Biden had left the office of the vice presidency under Obama just a few months prior in January 2017.

Prosecutors, Shapley explained, denied requests for an investigation as to the location from which the messages were sent. Shapley wanted to search the guest house on Biden's Delaware property where Hunter had stayed for a while.

In September 2020, Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf said that "there was more an enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there," and attested to Shapley that much more evidence would likely be found at the guest house. Wolf said, however, that a search warrant for that residence would not be approved.

Prosecutors, Shapley told Congress, "even wanted to remove Hunter Biden's name from electronic search warrants, 2703(d) orders, and document requests. Special Agent said on the call he felt uncomfortable with removing the subject's name from those documents just based on what might or might not be approved, as that seemed unethical. But his concerns were ignored."

"Wolf also said in September 2020 that a search warrant for the emails for Blue Star Strategies was being sat on by OEO [Office of Enforcement Operations]," Shapley said. Blue Star Strategies is a "consulting firm linked to the president’s son for potential illegal lobbying," Politico reported in 2021.

"The firm, Blue Star Strategies, took on as a client the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while Hunter Biden served on its board," the outlet further reported.

This, Shapley said, was "a significant blow to the Foreign Agents Registration Act piece of the investigation." On September 4, a cease and desist was issued by Deputy Attorney General Donoghue of "all overt investigative activities due to the coming election."

In October 2020, Shapley brought the Hunter Biden laptop to Wolf's attention. In an email, he said "We need to talk about the computer. It appears the FBI is making certain representations about the device, and the only reason we know what is on the device is because of the IRS CI affiant search warrant that allowed access to the documents. If Durham also executed a search warrant on a device, we need to know so that my leadership is informed. My management has to be looped into whatever the FBI is doing with the laptop. It is IRS CI's responsibility to know what is happening. Let me know when I can be briefed on this issue."

Shapley wanted the laptop, and they knew the FBI had it. Wolf said "prosecutors decided to keep it from the investigators," Shapley told Congress. Wolf said outright, he continued, that "they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden."

While Shapley's team had intended to make the existence of the investigation public after the election, due to the election being contested, it was not permitted. Shapley and his team continued to plan for a "day of action," designated as December 8, 2020, to conduct 12 interviews across the country. They were still hoping for approval to search Hunter Biden's residence.

In December 2020, the team was congratulated, Shapley said, by the US Attorney for Delaware for managing to keep the investigation a "secret." Wolf said there would be no questioning about Joe Biden, who was then slated to take the presidency the following month. "Wolf interjected," Shapley told Congress, "and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about "dad." When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, "there's no specific criminality to that line of questioning."

Shapley attested that both FBI and IRS agents found this disturbing. The IRS had an interview planned with Hunter at his LA residence for December 8, which was after his Secret Service detail had been assigned. The FBI, Shapley said, "tipped off" the Secret Service, giving them a chance to "obstruct the approach on the witness." As a result, Hunter Biden said his attorneys would be in touch, and the interview was averted.

After the failed "day of action," Shapley met again with the prosecutorial team "to discuss next steps," he told Congress.

One piece of information that came out of the day of action was that Hunter Biden vacated the Washington, D.C., office of Owasco. His documents all went into a storage unit in northern Virginia. The IRS prepared an affidavit in support of a search warrant for the unit, but AUSA Wolf once again objected.

"My special agent in charge and I scheduled a call with United States Attorney Weiss on December 14th just to talk about that specific issue. United States Attorney Weiss agreed that if the storage unit wasn't accessed for 30 days we could execute a search warrant on it."

"No sooner had we gotten off the call then we heard AUSA Wolf had simply reached out to Hunter Biden's defense counsel and told him about the storage unit, once again ruining our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed."

Shapley was clear in his testimony to Congress that "This was the second search warrant where prosecutors agreed that probable cause was achieved, but would not allow the investigators to execute a search warrant, a clear indication of preferential treatment of Hunter Biden."

By March 2021, Shapley wanted to "blow the whistle" on the DOJ's handling of the case. Delays continued through October 2021, as well as what Shapley sees as direct obstruction into the investigation. The IRS had to prepare a document stating what charges should be brought without having been able to properly conduct an investigation.

As the charges mounted, and Shapley and his team attempted to bring charges in various locations of Hunter Biden's residence, only to encounter red tape again and again, Wolf said no action would be taken until after the 2022 midterm elections. The case against Hunter Biden, begun in 2018, would again face delays based on external factors.

In October 2022, US Attorney for Delaware Weiss told Shapley at a meeting that he was "not the deciding official on whether charges are filed." Shapley also learned at this meeting that US Attorney for DC Matthew Graves would not allow charges to be filed against Hunter Biden in his district.

Weiss said, according to Shapley, that "he subsequently asked for special counsel authority from Main DOJ at that time and was denied that authority." Merrick Garland heads the DOJ as AG for the Biden administration. "All of our years of effort getting to the bottom of the massive amounts of foreign money Hunter Biden received from Burisma and others during that period would be for nothing," Shapley told Congress. There was no district that would prosecute the case despite the mounting evidence of criminal activity by Hunter Biden, and implications against his father.

It was after this that Shapley decided to come forward. The IRS removed Shapley's team from the investigation.

The House GOP has also revealed that the FBI was aware that the Russia collusion hoax was propagated by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, but did not give this information to the agents working the case. There is evidence to suggest that Joe Biden took bribes from Ukrainian gas giant Burisma while he was Vice President in order to secure favorable conditions for Burisma to enter the US energy market, and to pressure Ukraine to fire a prosecutor that was looking into Burisma. 

AG Garland has said there was no obstruction, and the White House continues to say that the DOJ is independent. The DOJ is currently prosecuting Donald Trump over seized documents from his Mar-a-Lago home after the FBI raided the home with a search warrant in 2022. The DOJ, under special counsel Jack Smith, has alleged that Trump obstructed justice. They have claimed that this is not a political prosecution.

Hunter Biden plead guilty to misdemeanor charges in what many call a sweetheart deal.

Whistleblower 1 Transcript Redacted by Libby Emmons on Scribd