The two IRS whistleblowers who shed light on failures to properly investigate Hunter Biden — and who were allegedly retaliated against as a result — have now received promotions from the Trump administration.

IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler will serve as senior advisers to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Just the News has learned.

“Rewarding merit rather than retaliating against whistleblowers is exactly how government ought to work. At long last, I’m happy that’s finally what is happening for Gary and Joe. They earned these promotions through integrity and hard work for the American people,” Jason Foster, the founder of Empower Oversight, which is representing the IRS whistleblowers, told Just the News.

The promotions of the Hunter Biden whistleblowers were first reported by the New York Post on Tuesday morning.

“We are enormously grateful to Secretary Bessent, Senator Grassley, and all of the members of Congress for their leadership and trust,” Shapley and Ziegler said in a statement released by Senator Chuck Grassley’s office. “We have been motivated by one singular mantra: do what’s right, and do it the right way. It has not been easy, but having a clear conscience is worth the effort. We appreciate the opportunity Secretary Bessent is giving us to put our experience and firsthand knowledge to good use for the American people to eliminate waste and reform the IRS.”

Grassley had sent a private letter to Bessent in late February, telling the new Treasury Department chief that “their bravery, courage, expertise, and integrity are all leadership qualities that should be exemplified within the ranks of the IRS.”

“Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler put their entire careers on the line to stand up for the truth, and instead of being thanked, the Biden administration treated them like skunks at a picnic. Far too many whistleblowers share a similar experience of retaliation,” Grassley said. “I hope today is the first of many redemption stories for whistleblowers who’ve been mistreated. By taking a stand for whistleblowers, President Trump and his cabinet are ushering in a new era of transparency and accountability.”

Lawyers for the whistleblowers have said that Shapley and Ziegler were removed from the Hunter Biden investigation in May 2023, and alleged that their clients have been repeatedly retaliated against since then. The IRS whistleblowers have consistently argued that they did nothing "unlawful" and followed all of the laws and procedures when they blew the whistle about DOJ and IRS stonewalling on the federal case against Hunter Biden.

Grassley had demanded in a 2024 letter that then-IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel end all retaliation against the whistleblowers. The Iowa senator also sent a letter to President Donald Trump in February telling him that Shapley and Ziegler “were illegally issued gag orders and retaliated against by the IRS under the Biden administration” and that “this is unacceptable, and you have the power to put a stop to it today.”

Hunter Biden initially reached a plea agreement with then-special counsel David Weiss on federal charges related to tax crimes and the illegal purchase of a handgun in what congressional Republicans dubbed a “sweetheart deal” in June 2023. The deal collapsed under scrutiny by a federal judge the next month, thanks in part to the revelations made by the IRS whistleblowers.

And now, Bessent said Tuesday morning that “I am pleased to welcome Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler to the Treasury Department, where they will help us drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS.”

“Illegal retaliation by the IRS & DOJ”

Last month, Empower Oversight — who is defending the two IRS agents — released findings from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), in which the lawyers said OSC found ​​“the IRS issued illegal gag orders and improperly removed them from the Hunter Biden investigation as reprisal for their protected disclosures.”

Lawyers for the whistleblowers then filed a lengthy complaint with the Merit Systems Protection Board last month, alleging “illegal retaliation by the IRS and the Department of Justice.”

Empower Oversight wrote that “although the retaliation came at the urging of the Biden-era Justice Department, investigations of DOJ have been delayed and no one has been held accountable.” The whistleblower lawyers contend that “the IRS officials who retaliated against Shapley and Ziegler remain in their chain of command and have been promoted after being found to retaliate rather than disciplined as the law requires.”

The whistleblower lawyers have also argued that the Biden Justice Department and Biden IRS failed to properly defend their clients.

Hunter Biden’s legal team, led by Abbe Lowell, also filed a September 2023 lawsuit against the IRS, claiming that the IRS whistleblowers had engaged in the “unlawful disclosure of Mr. Biden’s confidential tax return.” Lowell also previously sent letters to the Biden DOJ’s National Security Division and the Delaware attorney general in 2023, pressuring them to launch investigations into a number of figures involved in helping disseminate the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop computer. 

The Hunter Biden legal team initially directed its 2023 lawsuit at the IRS as an agency, but because the actions of the whistleblowers are what's at issue, the whistleblowers moved to intervene in the case to make their voices and arguments heard. According to their attorneys, the courts blocked them for more than a year from being able to do so. Empower Oversight also argues that the IRS has not been vigorously defending against this lawsuit the way that they should.

When Hunter Biden filed suit against the IRS, the Justice Department handed the case to its Tax Division: one of the very same offices upon which Shapley and Ziegler had blown the whistle.

The whistleblower lawyers contended: “The Tax Division initially failed to defend against the false allegations, omitting any mention of the whistleblower provision in the taxpayer privacy laws and only belatedly burying in a footnote that DOJ did not believe the whistleblowers broke the law.”

Empower Oversight sent an April 14, 2024 letter to then-Attorney General Garland, saying, “It is an understatement to note there are institutional conflicts of interest that could impact how vigorously and effectively the Department (particularly the Tax Division) will defend the actions of SSA Shapley and SA Ziegler. The Department’s behavior raises the prospect that the Department may fail to zealously defend the Government’s interests in this lawsuit, simply out of a desire to see critics of the President’s son punished.”

Whistleblowers: DOJ & IRS “slow-walked the investigation”

After his plea deal collapsed, Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on gun charges in June, and then pled guilty to tax charges in California in September. He was found guilty of making a false statement on his gun application and being in possession of a firearm while being an illegal drug user. Hunter Biden then pled guilty to what the DOJ described as “a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed.”

The Justice Department had reportedly begun negotiations on a plea deal with Hunter Biden in May 2023, roughly one month before Shapley’s lawyer first reached out to Congress to blow the whistle, and the same day that the IRS whistleblowers were told they were being pulled from the Hunter Biden case.

“Don’t ask about the big guy”

The GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee voted to release the IRS whistleblower congressional testimony to the public in June 2023. The IRS whistleblowers said in congressional transcripts that Weiss claimed that he was limited in his prosecutorial decision-making despite then-Attorney General Garland’s claims to the contrary. 

The testimony also stated that a Hunter Biden business associate told the FBI that Joe Biden had stopped by at least one China-related business meeting at Hunter Biden’s apparent request, that “optics” prevented a search warrant at Joe Biden’s guest house, and that the assistant U.S. attorney in the Delaware federal prosecutor’s office had told investigators “don’t ask about the big guy” — in reference to Joe Biden.

Ziegler told Congress that “the assigned prosecutors did not follow the ordinary process, but instead slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case.”

The whistleblowers revealed how their investigation into Hunter Biden’s dealings with CEFC China Energy — a since-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate — was blocked by higher-ups. Shapley testified that “after an electronic search warrant on Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud led us to WhatsApp messages with several CEFC China Energy executives where he claimed to be sitting and discussing business with his father Joe Biden, we sought permission to follow up on the information in the messages” — but “prosecutors would not allow it.”

President Joe Biden pardoned his son in December of 2024, despite repeatedly saying that “I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted." Hunter Biden is still embroiled in civil litigation, and presidential pardons do not nullify a case or judgment in a civil action, thus Hunter Biden may face more expenses he allegedly can't afford if there is any award against him in the civil litigation. 

As for the pardon, the IRS whistleblowers responded by saying that “no amount of lies or spin can hide the simple truth that the Justice Department nearly let the President's son off the hook for multiple felonies.” The whistleblowers wrote that “we produced mountains of evidence and testified under oath about the machinations his Justice Department, including Mr. Weiss, used to shield the Biden family from a thorough investigation of alleged corruption in Ukraine, Romania, and China.”

When it was released in January, Weiss’s final report was only 27 pages long, followed by lengthy appendices. The IRS whistleblowers said that “the Weiss report leaves too many important questions unanswered, and the American people deserve answers. DOJ, FBI, and IRS leadership should have done the right thing from the beginning. We should not have had to risk our careers to end the preferential treatment being given to the President’s son. Years later, we are still facing whistleblower retaliation. Why are we the only ones suffering any consequences? It’s time for a serious investigation, and it’s time for accountability.”

The IRS whistleblowers previously revealed that the FBI verified the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop in November 2019. The subject of the laptop was self-censored by outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post for more than a year until March of 2022. The Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics reportedly found that "79 percent of Americans suggest President Donald Trump likely would have won reelection if voters had known the truth about Hunter Bidenʼs laptop.”

“Lawfare” continues against whistleblowers

Despite their new promotions, the IRS whistleblowers still face what their lawyers have dubbed “lawfare” coming from Hunter Biden.

Empower Oversight continued to express frustration with how the IRS was handling Hunter Biden’s lawsuit against their clients in August, contending that “despite the obviously meritless basis for the frivolous suit against the IRS, the IRS refused to file a motion to dismiss the case entirely and even opposes the IRS whistleblowers’ effort to intervene and ask for dismissal.”

The IRS whistleblowers have also counterattacked by filing their own defamation lawsuit against Hunter Biden’s lawyer in September, arguing that Lowell had “falsely accused the whistleblowers of breaking the law.”

Hunter Biden successfully sought to dismiss one of his other lawsuits this month, arguing that he was too broke to continue the legal effort, but lawyers for the IRS whistleblowers told Just the News that Joe Biden’s son is still continuing his lawsuit against their clients.