House Republicans press Garland for info on Hunter Biden lawyers' push to prosecute whistleblowers

A trio of House Republicans have demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland provide them with information related efforts by Hunter Biden's legal team to push the agency to prosecute a pair of IRS whistleblowers who came forward with concerns over the investigation into the first son.

Biden attorney Abbe Lowell has previously contended that both IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joseph Ziegler broke federal law when making protected disclosures to Congress and reportedly urged the Department of Justice to pursue legal action against the pair.

Writing to Garland on Tuesday, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Chairman James Comer, and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith said that Lowell "slandered the brave IRS whistleblowers as 'disgruntled agents' with an 'axe to grind,' and suggested—again without evidence—that these men were responsible for leaks to media outlets. Mr. Lowell implied that at least one of the whistleblowers, Mr. Shapley, faced 'some investigation into his own conduct.'"

 "As reprehensible as it was for Mr. Lowell to smear Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler, it appears from public reporting that Hunter Biden’s legal team—perhaps including Mr. Lowell— even urged the Department to investigate and prosecute these whistleblowers," they continued. "Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler followed the appropriate process by raising their genuine concerns about how the Department conducted its investigation into Mr. Biden. Both IRS employees sat for transcribed interviews with the Committee on Ways and Means, which then voted to release to the full House the transcripts of these interviews."

The trio set a deadline of Sept. 26 for Garland to provide them with communications between the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden's attorneys about the whistleblowers and any prospective investigation or prosecution of the pair.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.