HOW THE DOJ MADE SURE THAT HUNTER WOULD SERVE NO PRISON TIME AND HOW IT MANIPULATED THE INVESTIGATION SO IT WOULD NOT HURT JOE'S ELECTION CHANCES

Hunter Biden tax probe began as investigation into an amateur porn platform: Bombshell allegations from IRS whistleblower reveal President's son deducted thousands in payments to a prostitute and sex club

 

By Geoff Earle 

Daily Mail

June 23, 2023

 

 

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley says the federal tax probe of Hunter Biden began as an investigation of a foreign amateur porn platform. 

 

A tax probe of Hunter Biden that has the president's son agreeing to plead guilty to misdemeanors began as a probe of a foreign amateur porn platform, an IRS whistleblower told lawmakers.

Their deep dive into Hunter's accounting uncovered a raft of bizarre expenses, including claiming as business expenses payments to a girlfriend, a golf membership, and money for an LA sex club, the whistleblower claims.

'The investigation into Hunter Biden, code name Sportsman, was first opened in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform,' longtime IRS investigator Gary Shapley told members of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The panel released testimony from Shapley and another unidentified whistleblower Thursday, days after DOJ revealed Hunter Biden's plea deal. 

The stunning claims were revealed on a day when Hunter and wife Melissa Cohen Biden attended a State Dinner at the White House. That public showing came just hours after whistleblower charges that Hunter failed to pay taxes on $8.3 million were just coming to light. The government, in its plea agreement, would have Hunter plead guilty to two counts of failing to pay timely tax payments on $1.5 million in income.

Shapley, who examined years worth of Hunter's returns and wanted to mount an aggressive probe amid the 2020 presidential elections, told lawmakers 'he was expensing personal expenses, his business expenses.'

 

Hunter Biden claimed the membership in an elite Los Angeles sex club as a business expense 

 

'So, I mean, everything, there was a payment that -- there was a $25,000 to one of his girlfriends and it said, "golf membership." And then we went out and followed that money it was for a sex club membership in LA,' he said. 

He said there were 'off-the-book employees,' including Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter's daughter Navy who just resolved a nasty fight over the amount of monthly child custody payments Hunter must provide.

'And she was an off-the-book employee that he was giving her healthcare benefits, she wasn't working, you know. All that was expensed. There were multiple examples of prostitutes that were ordered basically, and we have all the communications between that where he would pay for these prostitutes, would book them a flight where even the flight ticket showed their name,' Shapley said under questioning from the committee's Republican majority counsel.  'And then he expensed those,' most likely to his firm Owasco P.C., he said, referencing a firm incorporated in Washington, D.C. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to counsel for Hunter Biden and the White House for any response to the whistleblower's claims. 

The House Ways and Means Committee released bombshell new whistleblower testimony Thursday claiming that Hunter Biden failed to pay taxes on $8.3 million in income and the Department of Justice denied attempts to bring charges in other states. 

The testimony revealed that U.S. Attorney David Weiss - the Trump-era holdover who prosecuted the case against Hunter Biden - allegedly asked for special counsel status and was denied by the Department of Justice. 

Weiss also allegedly tried to bring charges against Hunter in Washington D.C. and California in the fall of 2022 and had that request denied in January 2023. 

But Weiss said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month the DOJ granted him 'ultimate authority' on when and where to bring charges. 

It all amounted to conduct that longtime IRS investigator Gary Shapley said amounted to 'preferential treatment' for the president's son. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland just Wednesday vouched for Weiss, saying he had given him 'full authority' to decide how to handle the situation. 'And that’s what he’s done,' Garland said.

The unverified testimony came from two IRS whistleblowers as news broke this week that Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses while dispensing with a gun charge against him, likely allowing him to avoid prison time.

 

The powerful House Ways and Means Committee released bombshell new whistleblower testimony claiming that Hunter Biden failed to pay taxes on $8.3 million in income and the Department of Justice denied to bring charges in other states

The testimony revealed that U.S. Attorney David Weiss - the Trump-era holdover who prosecuted the case against Hunter Biden - allegedly asked for special counsel status and was denied by the Department of Justice

 

Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., revealed in a press conference that two IRS employees had claimed that the agency sought felony charges against Hunter Biden for attempting to evade taxes and making false statements. 

According to Smith, the whistleblowers, one of whom the committee later identified as Shapley, said Hunter failed to pay $2.2 million in taxes on $8.3 million in income from foreign entities in Ukraine, China, and Romania.

His guilty plea this week only related to $1.5 million in unreported income.  

Smith said the testimony also shows the DOJ sought to 'delay the investigation long enough to reach the statute of limitations' and 'divulged sensitive actions by the investigative team to Biden's attorneys.' 

In one example whistleblower testimony claimed that the IRS was going to search a storage unit in Virginia belonging to Hunter Biden but tipped off his lawyers before doing so. 

In one revelation a July 2017 WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Chinese business partner Henry Zhao the president's son invoked his father to threaten Zhao for payment. 

'I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,' the text message read.

'And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.'

 

The whistleblower reveals a July 2017 WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Chinese business partner Henry Zhao (pictured) where he claimed his father was sitting next to him

 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

According to Smith, the whistleblowers claimed the DOJ dragged its feet in authenticating the message. They had obtained it in August 2020 after getting the results back from an iCloud search warrant. 

'The messages included material we clearly needed to follow up on,' whistleblower testimony said. 

In the lead-up to the 2020 election, the IRS had 'prepared for when we could go overt' by obtaining further leads in the case. 

The testimony also revealed that the investigation into Hunter Biden, code name Sportsman, was first opened in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.

According to 'whistleblower 1,' identified as former IRS agent Gary Shapley, one point it became clear to the IRS that they needed to search the guest house of Joe Biden where Hunter had been living for a time. 

'Assistant United States Attorney, Lesley Wolf, told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze,' the whistleblower said. 

 

A whistleblower chafed at limitations being imposed by the Justice Department, and wanted to interview a dozen people in a tax probe of Hunter Biden

 

According to his testimony, Shapley chafed at restrictions and limitations being imposed by DOJ as part of its internal policies on probes that might interfere with an election – although he happened that many of the interactions took place months before the November 2020 elections.

He complained to IRS leadership in June 2020 that 'DOJ Tax has made a concerned effort to drag their feet concerning conducting search warrants and interviewing key witnesses in an effort to push those actions to a time frime where they can invoke the Department of Justice rule of thumb concerning affecting elections.'

Then-President Donald Trump's election overturn effort stalled things further.

'Because the 2020 election was contested, our original plan to go overt on or around November 17th was delayed. DOJ pushed back against the day of action date because they did not want to approach Hunter Biden while he was in Delaware, potentially collocated with President Biden,' he told lawmakers.

Then, the whistleblower said, his team began preparing for a 'day of action' on December 8, 2020, with document requests and a dozen interviews, while seeking a search of Hunter Biden's residence, which he called a 'Hail Mary' idea. 

Shapley wanted to question Hunter Biden associate Rob Walker about information from the infamous laptop, including an email that said 'Ten held by H for the big guy,' bus said the assistant U.S. Attorney in Delaware said there was no specific criminality to the line of questioning.

Shapley memorialized his complaints to higher-ups. 'This investigation has been hampered and slowed by claims of potential election meddling,' he complained in a May 3, 2021 memo. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf "does not want to include [DOJ's] Public Integrity Unit because they would take authority away from her,' Shapley claimed, who added, 'We do not agree with her obstruction on this matter.'

According to Shapley, Wolf 'supported charging Hunter Biden for tax evasion and false return in 2014, 2018, and 2019, and failure to file or pay for 2015, 2016, and 2017. It is my understanding that the Tax Division then authored a 90-plus-page memo that recommended prosecution.'

According to the agreement announced this week, Hunter is pleading guilty to only two counts of failure to timely pay taxes owed, to the tune of about $200,000.

'That process meant no charges would ever be brought in the District of Columbia, where the statute of limitations on the 2014 and '15 charges would eventually expire,' Shapley said.

Those years did not just account for additional income that Shapley said was owed. Those years included foreign income Hunter earned from his lucrative position serving on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

Shapley called it a 'scheme to evade his income taxes through a partnership with a convicted felon,' as well as 'potential' disclosure issues regarding required registrations as a foreign agent for those years.

'The purposeful exclusion of the 2014 and 2015 years sanitized the most substantive criminal conduct and concealed material facts,' according to his testimony.