{"id":4367,"date":"2023-07-21T05:03:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T05:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4367"},"modified":"2023-07-21T05:57:18","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T05:57:18","slug":"iowa-senator-chuck-grassley-says-irs-whistleblower-testimony-in-hunter-biden-probe-shows-two-track-system-of-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4367","title":{"rendered":"Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley Says IRS Whistleblower Testimony in Hunter Biden Probe Shows \u2018Two-Track\u2019 System of Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/iowa-senator-chuck-grassley-says-irs-whistleblower-testimony-in-hunter-biden-probe-shows-two-track-system-of-justice\/mkittle\/2023\/07\/21\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014<\/strong> U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley said Wednesday\u2019s testimony from two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers alleging political interference in the Hunter Biden criminal probe underscores the \u201ctwo-track\u201d system of justice in America.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Iowa senator is leading a group of Republican senators demanding the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation protect whistleblowers who disclosed records alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.<\/p>\n

Long-time IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who until Wednesday, was known only as \u201cWhistleblower X,\u201d testified before the House Oversight Committee about alleged meddling in the Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n

Shapley, who works in the IRS\u2019 Criminal Investigation division, and Ziegler, part of the agency\u2019s International Tax and Financial Crime Section, detailed examples of Biden administration interference in the probe \u2014 a years-long investigation ending with what critics call a \u201csweetheart\u201d plea deal for the president\u2019s troubled son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a reason to believe that there was gross mismanagement present throughout this investigation, that there was a gross waste of funds relating to the tax dollars spent on investigating this case, and that there was an abuse of authority with DOJ-Tax and the Delaware United States Attorney\u2019s Office,\u201d Ziegler said in opening remarks to the committee.<\/p>\n

Democrats scoffed at the whistleblowers\u2019 testimony, with leftist New York U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) calling the allegations \u201ca new conspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grassley said the men are true professionals with distinguished careers in going after \u201ctax cheats\u201d like Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m outraged to hear that they were taken off the case by somebody in the Justice Department to say, in a sense, \u2018You\u2019re not going to go after the Bidens,\u201d the senator told The Iowa Star<\/em> <\/strong>Wednesday on the Simon Conway Show<\/a> on NewsRadio 1040 WHO<\/em> in Des Moines. \u201cThat\u2019s entirely wrong. That gives us a two-tiered system of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapley testified that he was prevented from taking \u201cinvestigative steps\u201d in the probe. The whistleblowers assert the IRS had recommended charging Hunter Biden with attempted tax evasion and other felonies, much stiffer charges than the probation-filled plea deal ultimately offered by David Weiss, the Delaware U.S. attorney who oversaw the criminal probe.<\/p>\n

Grassley said he met with Shapley days before his testimony before the House committee this week. Shapley thanked the senator for the work he\u2019s done in helping federal whistleblowers over the years, Grassley said. He added that those who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse in government are helping congress perform a vital role in representative democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just pass laws or appropriate money. We\u2019ve also got a responsibility to make sure the president and his people do what the constitution requires to \u2018faithfully execute the laws,\u2019\u201d Grassley said. \u201cAnd this two-track system of justice in this country is contrary to the constitution and the spirit of our whole revolution against Great Britain 240 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grassley has led Republican efforts in uncovering evidence of possible corruption involving President Joe Biden and his family. Recently, he released an unclassified FBI-generated record describing an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a Ukrainian business executive. Grassley acquired the record, an FD-1023, via legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers.<\/p>\n

He told The Iowa Star<\/em><\/strong> he expects to make more announcements on possible Biden family wrongdoing \u201cin the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that front, Grassley and U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) are leading a group of 23 of their Republican colleagues in calling on the Department of Justice and the FBI to commit to protecting agency whistleblowers who disclosed the existence of FBI records alleging the criminal scheme involving Biden when he was vice president.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhistleblowers have and continue to play a vital role in exposing government misconduct at all levels. Without whistleblowers, Congress would have never known the existence of the unclassified FD-1023 form involving an alleged multi-million dollar bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and a foreign national,\u201d the lawmakers wrote in a letter<\/a> this week to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, we demand that you commit that no taxpayer funds will be used by DOJ or FBI to expose the identity of or retaliate against any whistleblowers,\u201d\u00a0the senators wrote.<\/p>\n

Federal law prohibits agencies from retaliating against employees for whistleblowing. The senators are seeking express commitments from Garland and Wray to following the law.<\/p>\n

Grassley said his office is working \u201c28 lives cases\u201d involving government whistleblowers. Noting that not a single Democrat signed the letter, the senator said his colleagues on the other side of the aisle have chosen politics over whistleblower protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the difficulty of getting Democrats [to sign on] now is because they see every effort to protect whistleblowers as taking on the Biden Administration,\u201d Grassley said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
\n<\/strong>Photo \u201cChuck Grassley\u201d by Chuck Grassley.<\/a>
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\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The post Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley Says IRS Whistleblower Testimony in Hunter Biden Probe Shows \u2018Two-Track\u2019 System of Justice<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/iowa-senator-chuck-grassley-says-irs-whistleblower-testimony-in-hunter-biden-probe-shows-two-track-system-of-justice\/mkittle\/2023\/07\/21\/ WEST DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}