Hunter Biden motions to dismiss IRS lawsuit, whistleblowers speak out
Hunter Biden has decided to drop the lawsuit he filed against two Internal Revenue Service whistle-blowers back in September 2023. Biden’s attorneys brought a motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be brought again in any court. The lawsuit, initially filed by the former first son two years ago, alleged that IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler had “targeted and sought to embarrass” Hunter Biden through statements to the media disclosing the details of the tax matters of a “private citizen.”
Shapley and Zielger had testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier that year, saying they faced various limitations when tasked with investigating former President Joe Biden’s son. In a statement after Hunter Biden dropped the case, Shapley and Zielger mentioned, “It’s always been clear that the lawsuit was an attempt to intimidate us. Intimidation and retaliation were never going to work. We truly wanted our day in court to provide the complete story, but it appears Mr. Biden was afraid to actually fight this case in a court of law after all.”
Lawyers for the two whistle-blowers emphasized how Hunter Biden “dismissed his case with prejudice – meaning he can never bring it again,” and did so “in exchange for nothing at all.” They also stated, “Hunter Biden brought this lawsuit against two honorable federal agents in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the preferential treatment he was given.”
Four of Hunter Biden’s attorneys moved to withdraw as the former first son’s counsel about a month ago. The Justice Department had been investigating Hunter Biden for several years for possible tax crimes when Shapley’s lawyers sent a letter to Congress alleging “irregularities” in the DOJ handling of the investigation, and he sat down with CBS News in May 2023 about his decision to blow the whistle.
Hunter Biden’s plea deal, which would have granted him broad immunity from prosecution in exchange for admitting guilt to two misdemeanor tax counts, fell apart during a July 2023 federal court hearing in Delaware. Eventually, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September 2024 to all nine federal tax charges brought against him by special counsel David Weiss, admitting to failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019. He later paid back the owed amount.
In December, former President Joe Biden granted his son a sweeping pardon, granting Hunter clemency from all crimes he “has committed or may have committed” over the past decade. The decision to drop the lawsuit against the IRS whistle-blowers marks a significant development in the ongoing legal saga surrounding Hunter Biden and his tax matters.
