IRS whistleblower files formal complaint claiming he was removed from Hunter Biden tax investigation

An IRS agent working on a criminal investigation involving Hunter Biden says the DOJ rejected him for a promotion and removed him from the investigation for flagging alleged favorable treatment of the president’s son.

The male officer, who has not been identified, filed a formal complaint on Monday over what he says was a backlash he suffered for acting as a whistleblower against alleged unfair treatment.

His complaint comes days after the Justice Department removed the entire team probing Hunter Biden‘s tax returns.

That removal is part of the latest complaint and would have been received retaliation against a whistleblower who claimed that his colleagues covered up the financial crimes of the president’s son.’

The agent filed his complaint after IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told Congress in late April that his agency would not retaliate against whistleblowers.

The anonymous agent’s lawyers, Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, wrote a letter to Werfel on Saturday demanding an explanation for the moves.

They wrote to Werfel that after informing Congress, “The IRS has inexplicably decided to take additional retaliation against these Special Agents, apparently for a protected disclosure directly to you. This is unacceptable and against the law, which clearly prohibits it.”

“We understood that while the IRS carried out the retaliation, it was doing so on behalf of DOJ officials who had motive to retaliate because the appropriateness of their own actions had been called into question by the protected disclosures,” they added. .

Lytle and Leavitt also noted that an agent under their client’s supervision sent him an email Thursday expressing concerns about the Biden investigation.

They claim Werfel’s office responded “with accusations of criminal conduct and warnings to other officers in an apparent effort to silence anyone who would raise similar concerns.”

The lawyers demanded that the agency stop “harassing” whistleblowers.

The agent has previously come forward seeking protection from whistleblowers, claiming that politics is “improperly infecting decisions” in the investigation.

Lytle and Leavitt have also written to Congress asking why no one in either party has done anything to help or protect their client.

In a letter addressed Monday to the heads of several House and Senate committee chairs, the still-anonymous agent’s lawyers allege Washington has done nothing “to help protect our client and other IRS employees.” of further reprisals.

They responded by filing a “prohibited personnel practice complaint” with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Hunter’s business dealings have come under scrutiny since a series of leaked emails raised suspicions that he used his political connections to win lucrative consulting contracts.

“Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent received word that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject our client sought to whistleblower about. to the congress.

“He was told the change was at the request of the Justice Department,” Lytle and Leavitt wrote.

That whistleblower has not publicly identified Hunter as the subject of his cover-ups, but congressional sources have.

On April 27, 2023, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel appeared before the House Committee on Ways and Means.

He testified, “I can say without hesitation that there will be no retaliation for anyone making an accusation or calling a whistleblower hotline.”

“However, this move is clearly retaliatory and could also impede a congressional investigation,” the lawyers said.

“Our client has the right to provide information to Congress… He is protected by 5 USC § 2302 against employee retaliation – including receiving a “significant change in duties, responsibilities, or working conditions” (which this clearly is ) for his revelations to Congress.

Any attempt by a government official to prevent a federal employee from providing information to Congress is also a direct violation of longstanding credit restrictions.

“In addition, 18 U.S.C. § 1505 makes it a crime to obstruct a Congressional investigation,” Lytle and Leavitt wrote.

“We respectfully request that you give this matter your prompt attention. Removing the experienced detectives who have worked this case for years and are now the subject matter experts is exactly the kind of problem our client wanted to announce in the first place.”

Hunter Biden is still waiting to find out if he will be charged with tax fraud as corruption claims pile up against his family.

His legal team met with Justice Department officials on April 26 to indicate that a decision will be made on whether he will face criminal charges.

The investigation will look into whether the adviser has evaded taxes, laundered money and lied about past drug use in order to purchase a gun.

There has been “growing frustration” within the FBI that Delaware’s US attorney David Weiss, who oversees the case, has yet to press charges after the agency completed most of its work last year.

The White House has repeatedly denied involvement in the matter.

Republican lawmakers are currently investigating how ten family members of Joe Biden raked in more than $10 million from foreigners around the time he was Obama’s deputy.

Those who benefited included Hallie Biden, Beau Biden’s widow, and Hunter Biden’s one-time girlfriend, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.

Hunter Biden’s current wife Melissa Cohen Biden, Biden’s brother James and his wife Sarah, and Joe Biden’s grandchildren and nieces and nephews also reportedly received payments.

Joe Biden met with family members’ business associates on many occasions — including those from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine — and House Republicans allege that Biden family members offered no legitimate business services and only sold access to the upper echelon of the US government.

After his father took office as president and pledged not to cause further family conflicts of interest abroad, Hunter began an art career, seeking as much as $500,000 for his early works.

Hunter’s membership of the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy company also raised suspicions of influence.

He and the president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, traveled on Air Force One during the commander-in-chief’s recent visit to Ireland.

Biden recently appeared before an Arkansas judge in a paternity suit brought by a former fling, Lunden Roberts.

Hunter will also have to submit to a statement in June in which Roberts’ lawyers are likely to grill him about his various businesses and shady overseas ventures.

Hunter Biden’s laptop also contained a series of lewd photos and a webcam video of the 53-year-old portraying his struggles with flatulence

They’ll also want to know that Hunter’s finances have plummeted as he sells paintings for up to $500,000 each under his new guise as an abstract artist.

Roberts, a former stripper, reportedly won a $2.5 million settlement from Hunter after taking him to court in 2019.

She also forced the ex-Navy reservist, who was kicked out of the army in 2014 for testing positive for cocaine, to take a DNA test to prove he was the father of their daughter, Navy Joan, during their 2017 affair .

Roberts’ lawyers say Hunter Biden has not provided a single item or word of discovery in their ongoing child support lawsuit.