IRS whistleblowers slam Hunter Biden and IRS amid legal battle over Biden tax returns

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler on Wednesday responded to first son Hunter Biden's and the IRS's requests to stop them from intervening in Biden's lawsuit against the agency, where he alleged the whistleblowers unlawfully disclosed his personal tax information. 

The whistleblowers filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit in May, which was opposed by both sides of the case. The whistleblowers originally brought concerns to the House Ways and Means Committee that the Justice Department had provided preferential treatment to Biden during the probe into his alleged tax violations. Biden later sued the IRS.

The men claimed they should be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit because they have subject matter jurisdiction, the request to intervene is timely, and because the case is about their actions and will impact their reputations, which gives them Article III standing.

The men also blasted the IRS and Biden for trying to prevent them from intervening, claiming that although Biden's objection makes sense, the IRS's does not when the intervention would allegedly help the IRS.

"Instead of taking the position any litigant on the defense side of a civil lawsuit would take, the IRS opposes dismissal and purportedly wants 'to wait for a fully developed factual record to present its defenses,'" they argued in a new court filing. "In other words, the IRS wants the parties to engage in written discovery and depositions, even if unnecessary to resolve this case in its favor."

The filing continued: "The IRS mischaracterizes the pending motion to intervene by framing the issue as who “has the right to decide [the IRS’s] litigation strategy.' But unless the IRS’s “litigation strategy” is not to prevail in this case, it begs the question of why the IRS opposes enabling the two people whose conduct is at issue to have a seat at the table."

The whistleblowers' full response can be found below: