IRS whistleblowers push back on Hunter Biden lawyer’s effort to dismiss defamation case

The IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler are pushing back on an effort by Hunter Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell urging the court to dismiss the whistleblowers' defamation lawsuit against him. 

Shapley and Ziegler filed the lawsuit against Lowell in September alleging that the lawyer’s public claims about them damaged their careers and reputations. During his defense of first son Hunter Biden during the House Republican impeachment probe Lowell accused both the whistleblowers of violating the law by leaking nonpublic tax return and grand jury information and disseminating that information. 

In an effort to dismiss the whistleblowers’ lawsuit last month, Lowell argued that he was simply expressing legal opinions when he aired the accusations.

But, the whistleblowers say the very specific claims Lowell made were verifiably false. In their response to Lowell, the whistleblowers point out any information they talked about publicly had been released by the House Ways and Means Committee, which has the proper authority to do so. Thus, the whistleblowers did not violate the law. 

You can read the new filing below:

The whistleblowers originally brought concerns to the House Ways and Means Committee that the Justice Department had provided preferential treatment to Biden during a probe into his alleged tax violations, providing the panel documents and their testimony about the probe. Ultimately, the Ways and Means Committee chose to release some of that information and testimony to the public.

In their original September complaint the whistleblowers alleged Lowell acted with malice by sending letters to several different Congressional committees, where the lawyer "falsely accused the Plaintiffs of violating grand jury secrecy rules... and the taxpayer confidentiality statute.”

Lowell’s client, Hunter Biden, also sued the IRS over the whistleblowers’ disclosures, claiming they had unlawfully disclosed his private tax information. 

The investigation originally led by the whistleblowers’ IRS team eventually led to tax evasion and gun charges for Biden, though he was pardoned by his father, President Joe Biden, earlier this month.