WHAT THE WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY — Despite Hunter Biden’s plea deal to resolve misdemeanor tax and gun charges this week, the case just won’t die — at least as a political issue. Two IRS whistleblowers have alleged the investigation was compromised by conflicts of interest, political sensitivities and preferential treatment in documents released yesterday by House Republicans. The disclosures include hundreds of pages of testimony and other documents provided by an unnamed IRS investigator who initially opened the tax investigation and the man’s supervisor, Gary Shapley. Here are eight takeaways from the House Ways and Means Committee release: There is disagreement about whether the prosecutor in charge of the case was blocked from bringing more extensive charges. Shapley said that Delaware U.S. attorney David Weiss, the Trump appointee overseeing the investigation, revealed at a meeting last October he had been blocked by the U.S. Attorney for D.C., Biden appointee Matthew Graves, from bringing charges in Washington. Shapley said Weiss also revealed he had sought special counsel authority from the Department of Justice to bring those charges himself and was denied that authority. Shapley said that another Biden appointee, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, declined to bring charges in the Central District of California. Their testimony conflicts with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s March Senate testimony saying that Weiss had “full authority” to bring charges. Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle disputed Shapley’s account in an email to POLITICO: “As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so.” Garland reiterated the point at a press conference today. A spokeswoman for Weiss’s office, Kim Reeves, declined to comment on the testimony, but referred POLITICO to a letter in which Weiss wrote to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan that he had been granted full authority to bring charges. There is evidence that Joe Biden met his son’s Chinese business partners while out of office: In 2019, Biden said on the campaign trail that he had never discussed his son’s business dealings with him. But documents released yesterday include excerpts of an FBI interview with Hunter Biden business partner Rob Walker in which Walker said that after leaving the vice presidency, Joe Biden stopped by a lunch meeting between his son and executives at the Chinese energy firm CEFC at the Four Seasons in Washington. The documents also include an alleged July, 30, 2017 WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to CEFC executive Henry Zhao that states, "I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled…. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father." White House spokesman Ian Sams declined to comment other than to reiterate that Biden was not in business with his son and the White House was not involved with the investigation. A lawyer for Hunter Biden released a statement this afternoon disavowing anything his client said while addicted to drugs. The unnamed investigator also said that records indicate that Joe Biden’s name was listed on a two-night hotel stay in 2018 that Hunter Biden paid for and deducted as a business expense. There is new evidence undermining Hunter Biden laptop conspiracy theories: Citing analysis by former intelligence officials, Joe Biden suggested the leaked files were a “Russian plant” during a presidential debate, but no evidence has emerged to support this theory, while much of the cache has been authenticated. In March, Hunter Biden sued the repair shop owner who shared the laptop files, accusing him of invasion of privacy. Yesterday’s release includes Shapley’s notes of a meeting with FBI investigators that lists further detailed evidence that the laptop from the repair shop was dropped off by Hunter Biden. Evidence mentioned in the notes include financial records showing that Hunter Biden was shopping in the vicinity of the repair shop on the day he allegedly dropped the laptop off, and phone records showing him in touch with the repair shop after the initial dropoff. There are multiple “spin-off cases” from the Hunter Biden case: The unnamed investigator referred in his June 1 testimony to “current and ongoing investigations” that have been spun off from the case. It is not clear what those spin-off cases pertain to. But the reference is consistent with a Justice Department press release announcing this week’s charges against Hunter Biden, which disclosed, “the investigation is ongoing.” Shapley said he was instructed to avoid investigating Joe Biden: Shapley said that Lesley Wolf, an assistant U.S. attorney involved in the investigation, instructed him not to pursue steps he normally would have taken if they might involve Joe Biden — including asking questions about an email in which a Hunter Biden business partner discusses the equity split in a venture with Chinese energy executives that includes the line “10 held by H for the big guy?” Investigators say they were blocked from searching Joe Biden’s property, interviewing Biden’s relatives: Shapley alleged that Wolf declined to pursue a search warrant at a guest house used by Hunter Biden on his father’s Delaware property, citing “optics” and the difficulty of getting approval. The investigators said that they normally would have interviewed Hunter Biden relatives who received money from him or may have used his credit cards, including his children, but were blocked from doing so. It’s still unclear how the DOJ handled an uncorroborated Joe Biden bribery allegation: House Republicans recently publicized an unverified allegation made by an unnamed FBI source that a Burisma executive claimed to have paid $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden during the Obama administration. Former Attorney General Bill Barr told POLITICO earlier this month that the allegation was ultimately forwarded to the Delaware DOJ office overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation. But both whistleblowers said they were not informed of the existence of the allegation. Shapley said the FBI agents working with his team were not made aware of the allegation either. Biden has called the bribery allegation “malarkey” and the White House has called the Republican efforts to publicize it a “fact-free stunt,” citing a lack of corroborating evidence. The whistleblowers alleged numerous other irregularities: The unnamed IRS investigator says he was warned by a supervisor when he opened the case that he would have to meet a higher evidentiary burden to pursue a case against a “political family.” From there, the whistleblowers allege that a long list of irregularities piled up, including an unusual reversal by IRS officials of their support for bringing charges; extra deference given by prosecutors to Hunter Biden’s legal team; and ultimately the removal of the whistleblowers’ team from the case for protesting the irregularities. An IRS spokesman said the agency is barred from commenting on specifics but is committed to protecting whistleblower rights. A June 7 letter from IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel released by the committee indicates that the whistleblower allegations have been referred to inspectors general in the Treasury and Justice Departments. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at bschreckinger@politico.com or on Twitter at @SchreckReports. Ben Schreckinger is also the author of The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power.
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