WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors looking into alleged tax fraud against Hunter Biden’s eldest son had to delay a decision on charges in the case until after last year’s midterm elections to avoid “shooting themselves in the foot,” according to newly released whistleblower documents.
The disclosure comes from a typed note by IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley following a meeting on September 22, 2022, between investigators and prosecutors, in which the Delaware US Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department’s Tax Division “decided not to press charges until after the election.” ”
“They said why they should shoot themselves by charging before,” Shapley wrote in his notes from that day.
The message was delivered to the investigative team by Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf, Shapley wrote in an affidavit dated September 20, 2023.
Prosecutors looking into the alleged tax fraud against Hunter Biden decided to delay a decision in the case until after last year’s midterm elections to avoid “shooting themselves in the foot.” Reuters
“AUSA Wolf disclosed that prosecutors had decided not to prosecute the case until after the midterm elections so as not to shoot themselves in the foot – even though they were not directed by Justice Department headquarters to cease overt activities,” he said in the document.
It’s unclear what prosecutors mean by “shooting yourself in the foot.”
The memo was released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee as part of a 700-page trove of documents, messages and emails from a five-year investigation of Hunter, now 53.
The revelations came from IRS agent Gary Shapley’s typed notes following a meeting between investigators and prosecutors.CNP/startraksphoto.com
After learning of the prosecutor’s decision to wait until the election was over, Shapley made a series of objections via email and in meetings, according to the documents.
That continued until he and fellow whistleblower IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler were abruptly removed from the case last May “at the request of the Delaware USAO and DOJ.”
According to Shapley, other members of the investigative unit, including Baltimore FBI Special Agent in Charge Tom Sobocinski and FBI Assistant Agent in Charge Ryeshia Holley, also raised “major concerns about the delay, decision-making and lack of resolution in this case.”
The memo was released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee as part of a 700-page trove of documents, messages and emails from the five-year investigation of Hunter Biden.Getty Images
In the May 15 meeting, Shapely claimed that the prosecutors’ request to replace him and Ziegler “seems malicious … because the original team raised contemporaneous unethical conduct by prosecutors that could only be dismissed by the DOJ with the new team,” according to his post. taken that day.
“[I] States that [I] has provided an update to the IRS-[Criminal Investigation] leadership since at least June 2020 that provided specific examples of the Delaware USAO and DOJ being unethical, inappropriate and giving preferential treatment to the subject,” Shapley wrote.
“[I] stating that if they simply do what the party asks without considering that they are not acting accordingly,” he added, “that IRS-CI will be complicit in unethical conduct by the Delaware USAO and DOJ.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
