WATCH LIVE: 'Whistleblower X' speaks on Biden probe preferential treatment in front of Congress.
Hunter Biden was permitted to plead guilty to minor charges.
The identity of the anonymous IRS whistleblower alleging political misconduct throughout the Hunter Biden investigation was revealed on Wednesday as special agent Joseph Ziegler — a gay Democrat with more than a dozen years serving within the agency’s criminal investigative division.
Ziegler appeared for the first time publicly before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, alongside his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, who also has blown the whistle on political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal probe into the president's son.
Ziegler said he is a 13-year special agent within the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division and described himself as a "gay Democrat married to a man."
He testified that Hunter Biden "should have been charged with a tax felony, and not only the tax misdemeanor charge," and that communications and text messages reviewed by investigators "may be a contradiction to what President Biden was saying about not being involved in Hunter’s overseas business dealings."
IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler testifies during a House Oversight Committee hearing related to the Justice Department's investigation of Hunter Biden, on Capitol Hill July 19, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Ziegler has previously been known as "Whistleblower X." (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Ziegler explained the "corrosion of ethical standards and the abuse of power that threaten our nation" that he has witnessed.
He testified on several instances in which prosecutors "did not follow the ordinary process, slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case," including prosecutors blocking questioning and interviewing of Hunter Biden’s adult children.
Ziegler asked Congress and the Biden administration to "consider a special counsel" for the Hunter Biden investigation and "all the related cases and spin-off investigations that have come forward from this investigation."
Ziegler said specifically that Congress should consider "establishing an official channel for Federal investigators to pull the emergency cord and raise the issue of the appointment of a special counsel for consideration by your senior officials."
FORMER FBI AGENT CONFIRMS KEY DETAILS OF HUNTER BIDEN WHISTLEBLOWER’S TESTIMONY, GOP SAYS
Gary Shapley, left, supervisory special agent at the Internal Revenue Service, and Joe Ziegler, IRS Whistleblower X, arrive to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability during a hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 19, 2023. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Shapley, who had participated in multiple media interviews since the House Ways & Means Committee released his transcribed interview last month, testified that prosecutors "had decided to conceal some evidence from the investigators" that they found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
He said the Delaware's U.S. Attorney's Office "slow-walked steps like conducting interviews, serving document requests, and pursuing physical search warrants in California, Virginia and Delaware" until after the 2020 presidential election.
"The warrants were ready as early as April 2020, but the Delaware USAO pushed them off until after the November 2020 election and then never pursued them," Shapley said.
"After an electronic search warrant on Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud account 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," Shapley said. "Prosecutors would not allow it."
When pressed on this, Shapley said there "were multiple instances in this investigation where there are references to the father of the subject, President Biden."
"And in the course of any normal investigation, when the subject's father is somehow related to the finances of the subject," Shapley said. "Now, in the normal course of any investigation, we would have to go and get that information to properly vet the financial flows of money in that investigation to determine what we end up charging."
David Weiss (L), Hunter Biden (C), and Joe Biden (R). (Fox News)
Shapley testified that a search warrant for the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence was being planned, but, despite agreeing there was "probable cause," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf "cited the ‘optics’ of executing a search warrant at President Biden’s residence as the deciding factor for not allowing it to be completed."
"This was the decision even though she admitted there would be evidence at that location that would further the investigation," Shapley said. "AUSA Wolf also told investigators they should not ask about President Biden during witness interviews even when the business communications of his son clearly referenced him."
During the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said the whistleblowers' testimony confirms much of his committee's findings throughout its six-month-long investigation into the Biden family's business dealings.
Ziegler confirmed that between 2014 and 2019, the Biden family received approximately $17 million from Romania, China, and other foreign countries.
"What were the Bidens’ selling?" Comer said. "Nothing but influence and access to the Biden network."
But the White House mocked the hearing as the whistleblowers testified publicly.
"Despite years of obsession and countless wasted taxpayer dollars on a wild goose chase, the House GOP hasn't offered a single credible piece of evidence of wrongdoing by the President," White House spokesman for oversight and investigations Ian Sams tweeted Wednesday. "This waste of time reflects the extraordinarily misplaced priorities of House Rs."
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said the testimony confirmed much of what his committee has found about Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
"The White House is TERRIFIED of the Biden Family's corruption being exposed," the House Oversight Committee's Twitter account posted in reply. "Makes you wonder, why?"
Sams responded with a joke. "Your caps lock is stuck on," he said.
The highly-anticipated hearing comes amid a joint-congressional investigation by the Oversight Committee, Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee into the federal probe into Hunter Biden and whether prosecutorial decisions were influenced by politics.
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The Justice Department announced last month that Hunter Biden had entered a plea agreement that would likely keep him out of prison. As part of the deal, the president's son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income taxes and to one charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to make his first court appearance July 26.
The Justice Department has denied the investigation was influenced in any way. U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, who is in charge of the probe, has said the investigation is "ongoing."
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