Prosecutors added last minute to Hunter probe, lawyers say

Prosecutors who approved a probation-only plea agreement for first son Hunter Biden apparently replaced veteran counselors late in the investigation, according to lawyers for an IRS whistleblower who oversaw key aspects of the case.

Delaware US Attorney David Weiss’ team undertook a five-year probe into Hunter’s alleged tax and gun crimes, but several prosecutors who worked with IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley were left off the charging documents filed June 20.

Those veterans of the Delaware office’s investigation included Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf, as well as Weiss deputies Shawn Weede and Shannon Hanson, the IRS whistleblower told the House Ways and Means Committee in his May 26 testimony.

Of the three prosecutors who did sign the Hunter plea documents — Special Assistant US Attorneys Leo Wise and Derek Hines and Assistant US Attorney Benjamin Wallace — none participated in the bulk of the investigation, one of Shapley’s attorneys told The Post.

“It’s unclear why the prosecutors who worked on the case for years didn’t sign the government’s filings, but it raises serious questions about why and whether that best served the American people’s interests as opposed to Hunter Biden’s,” said Tristan Leavitt, who is also president of nonprofit public accountability group Empower Oversight. “Congress ought to get to the bottom of those questions as soon as possible.”

If a judge approves the plea deal on July 26, the first son will serve two years of probation for tax misdemeanors and enter into a pretrial diversion program for lying on a federal gun purchase form while he was addicted to crack cocaine.

Hunter will be barred from owning a firearm in the future and will submit to drug testing to prove he has remained sober.

Shapley and an anonymous IRS agent blew the whistle on the Hunter probe in closed-door testimony that was made public last month, alleging Weiss and other prosecutors at the Justice Department ran interference for the first son — who they said should have been slapped with felony charges for evading $2.2 million in taxes.

In a letter to lawmakers last week, Weiss reaffirmed he had “ultimate authority” to pursue the first son’s alleged wrongdoing, despite testimony from Shapley that the prosecutor was barrred from bringing charges in Southern California and Washington, DC, last year.

Shapley and the unnamed agent cited Wolf more than any other member of the Delaware prosecutorial team, alleging she had blocked them from interviewing witnesses who may have had knowledge of President Biden’s involvement in his son’s business affairs.

At one point, Shapley said, Wolf also tipped off Hunter’s lawyers before a planned search of a storage unit in late 2020 where the first son may have held incriminating information. 

Wise and Wallace joined the Delaware US Attorney’s Office in March 2023 — less than three months before Hunter was charged.

A Maryland US attorney had demoted Wise earlier that month from being chief of that office’s public corruption and fraud division, before he left for Weiss’ team.

The prosecutor had been leading the case against ex-Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who was indicted for perjury and making false mortgage applications after abusing COVID relief funds to buy vacation homes in Florida.

Wallace, a Yale Law School grad and former Supreme Court clerk, worked at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, DC, before coming to Delaware.

Hines may have his own conflicts of interest in the case, having worked for years on behalf of a close associate of Hunter Biden, former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

In 2016, Freeh and Hunter attempted to stop Romanian prosecutors from investigating Gabriel Popoviciu, a real estate tycoon who was later convicted of bribery.

A spokeswoman for the Delaware US Attorney’s Office declined to comment to The Post about staffing or personnel matters.