WASHINGTON – A federal prosecutor accused of meddling in the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden to protect President Biden and his son recently left the Justice Department, The Post has learned.
Former Delaware assistant US attorney Lesley Wolf’s quiet departure appeared as she appeared to testify with the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning — following the House’s vote Wednesday night to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over his role in his son’s foreign business dealings. and his brother. business of buying and selling.
Wolf’s central role in alleged cover-ups in criminal tax fraud and foreign lobbying investigations is a key part of the impeachment inquiry — with whistleblowers saying he was discouraged from asking witnesses questions about “big man” or “daddy,” referring to Joe Biden, alleging there was “no crime specific to that line of questioning.”
Two IRS agents who worked on the criminal investigation, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, claimed in previous testimony to a House committee that Wolf told Hunter Biden’s attorney to take investigative steps and prohibited the investigation of Joe Biden even though the communications mentioned it.
Wolf allegedly directed FBI agents in August 2020 to remove references to Joe Biden from search warrant affidavits, writing, “somebody needs to redraft [the affidavit]… There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 here,” according to an email released by the Ways & Means Committee.
A federal prosecutor accused of meddling in the five-year investigation into Hunter Biden’s eldest son has left the Justice Department, a source familiar with the move told The Post. Fedbar.org
“The email, I think, is very important because it’s a one-time example in writing of continued concern following investigative leads that might lead to Joe Biden,” Ziegler said Thursday in a Fox News interview.
“The FBI agents who drafted the affidavit, they believed they had sufficient evidence – probable cause – to support including Political Figure 1 in the affidavit,” said the self-identified Democrat and veteran IRS agent, who worked on the case for five years.
“That’s related to [Ukrainian energy company] Burisma, access to Joe Biden and access to the administration and there is a lot of evidence included in that affidavit that is supported including Political Figure 1. That has a waterfall effect on the investigation because the emails we are looking for may not be admissible. to the team.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said prosecutors have “first-hand knowledge” of the eldest son’s case, having attended “the vast majority, if not all” of the meetings held in Weiss’ office on the case. Rod Lamkey – CNP
Investigators learned in December 2020 that Wolf “contacted defense attorney Hunter Biden and told them” about investigators’ plans to search a northern Virginia storage unit containing business records, Ziegler said in previous congressional testimony — “again avoiding our opportunity to get evidence from potentially destroyed, manipulated or hidden.”
Shapley, who oversaw the three-year criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, testified that investigators were also prohibited from searching the guest house at Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del., where Hunter often stayed, to look for supporting evidence.
Shapley said on September 3, 2020, “Wolf tells us there is more than enough probable cause for a physical search warrant there, but the question is whether the juice is worth the squeeze.”
Wolf also allegedly objected during a meeting on December 3, 2020, to question a key Biden family ally, Rob Walker, about the president.
“Wolf interrupted and said he didn’t want to ask about the big man and stated he didn’t want to ask questions about ‘father'” he said.
“When many people in the room spoke up and objected that we should ask, he replied, there is no crime specific to that question. This also bothered the FBI,” Shapley testified.
Weiss’ office is reportedly considering releasing Hunter Biden for $2 million in tax evasion without charges.
The whistleblower also accused Weiss’ office of giving Hunter Biden’s legal team advance notice of a planned interview attempt in late 2020, obstructing the planned approach, and said prosecutors did not tell them about the paid FBI informant tips Joe and Hunter received. Biden $10 million in bribes from Burisma, which paid Hunter up to $1 million to serve on its board starting in 2014 when his father’s vice president led US policy toward the country.
Shapley and Ziegler also said they were not allowed to obtain cell phone geolocation data that could prove Joe Biden was with his son in July 2017 when Hunter sent a threatening text message to a businessman connected to the Chinese government saying, “I’m sitting here with my. father,” and a warning of retaliation.
Within 10 days of the message, $5.1 million flowed into an account linked to Hunter and James Biden first from CEFC China Energy — after a $1 million tranche earlier that year, less than two months after Biden left office as vice president. A May 2017 email written in Joe Biden, referred to as “the big guy”, for a 10% cut.
Wolf left U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ office in recent weeks — months after he was appointed special counsel in the Hunter Biden case — though it’s unclear when and on what terms.
Former Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf served in the office of Delaware prosecutor David Weiss (pictured) during the investigation into the president’s son. AP
Sources confirmed his departure to The Post after it was first reported by Fox News on Thursday morning.
A representative for Weiss’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wolf “departed from standard investigative procedures” in criminal investigations, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Jordan last month issued a subpoena to summon Wolf for a transcribed interview after the Justice Department denied his request to testify voluntarily.
“When you get into Burisma, you get to the White House,” Jordan said Thursday on Fox News.
Other officials who declined requests for interviews include DOJ Tax Division officials Jack Morgan and Mark Daly, whose team rejected Hunter Biden’s accusations during a June 2022 meeting, according to IRS tax investigators.
Wolf discouraged questions “about the big man” or “daddy,” referring to Joe Biden, according to the IRS whistleblower. AP
“Given the critical role you played in the Hunter Biden investigation, you are in a unique position to clarify whether President Biden played any role in the Department’s investigation and whether he attempted, in any way, to directly or indirectly obstruct either that investigation or our investigation,” Jordan wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to Wolf.
The chairman of the Judiciary said prosecutors had “first-hand knowledge” of the eldest son’s case, having attended the “vast majority, if not all” of the meetings held in Weiss’ office throughout the investigation.
One of those meetings Wolf “blocked,” Jordan said, involved a briefing that former Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady eventually gave Weiss’ office about an FBI whistleblower file alleging Hunter and Joe Biden received $10 million in bribes from the owner of Burisma Holdings.
IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley revealed to GOP lawmakers that Wolf also told Hunter Biden’s defense team about the plan to find the eldest son’s custody facility. Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
Other IRS documents show Wolf asked for references to Biden, then the Democratic presidential nominee, to be removed because he was outside the “scope” of their investigation, the whistleblower said.
In a meeting on January 12, 2022, Shapley noted that he later revealed to GOP lawmakers that Wolf had discouraged digging into allegations that Hunter’s “sugar brother,” Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, paid the first son’s $2 million tax liability. , had committed “criminal campaign finance violations.”
Weiss’ office reportedly considered letting Hunter Biden off the hook for $2 million in tax evasion without charge, before announcing a probation-only plea deal on tax and gun charges in June after an IRS whistleblower alleged a cover-up.
Hunter Biden abandoned the plea deal in July on a lawsuit seeking assurances that he would not face other charges, such as alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, that would implicate his father.
The first son, who theatrically refused to comply with a subpoena for his own testimony on Wednesday, has been re-indicted on tax and gun charges in Los Angeles and Delaware, but critics point to the continued lack of FARA charges for linking the client to his father and other US officials. .
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