IRS whistleblower’s boss recommended his removal from Hunter Biden probe

A top IRS official involved in the government’s probe into Hunter Biden recommended booting whistleblower Gary Shapley from the investigatory team and was aware of complaints that investigators were “limited” in what they could ask witnesses, according to congressional testimony. 

IRS Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon told the House Ways and Means Committee in closed-door testimony on Friday that he suggested Shapley’s removal due to a “perceived” bias, according to Fox News. 

“So before I left the special agent in charge position, in February, I recommended to [IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf] that Gary Shapley be removed as the [supervisory special agent] from the Hunter Biden investigation, primarily due to what I perceived to be unsubstantiated allegations about motive, intent, bias,” Waldon said.

“And, again, my goal was to protect the integrity of the investigation and figure out a way forward.” 

The Post reported in May that the IRS’s “entire investigative team” was booted from the Hunter Biden tax fraud probe in alleged retaliation against Shapley going public. 

“This move is clearly retaliatory and may also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry,” lawyers for Shapley told congressional leaders at the time. 

Waldon denied playing a role in Shapley’s removal from the investigation, noting in his testimony that he was special agent in charge between “April of 2021 through February of 2023.” 

“DOJ would communicate what their preference is, and then we would deliberate on that conversation,” he said generally about how decisions are made to reassign IRS investigators. 

Waldon responded, “No,” when asked if he thought the investigation was being politicized. although he characterized it as “sensitive.”

Waldon backed Shapley’s claim that he protested that his investigatory duties in the probe were being limited. 

“Yes. Or I should say at least of the things that they can ask in interviews, is my general awareness,” Waldon said when asked if Shapley complained that he and his team were “limited in who they could interview.”

He also confirmed that there was “a discussion” about Shapley’s team being “restricted from requesting certain interviews of relatives of Hunter Biden,” but did not recall any specific requests that were denied. 

When asked about Shapley’s claim that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss was told he could not bring charges against Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., or California, for 2014 and 2015 tax fraud allegations, Waldon told the House Ways and Means Committee that a case was “presented” to DC US Attorney Matthew Graves but that his office “did not agree to take the case on.”

“There was processes that Mr. Weiss would have to work out with the Department of Justice, and that’s my basic understanding,” Waldon said of what Weiss would have had to have done to bring cases against the first son in California and DC. 

Waldon is one of several senior-level managers from the IRS, the FBI and the Delaware US Attorney’s Office named by Shapley as having attended an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting in which Weiss allegedly declared that he was not the “deciding official on whether charges are filed” against Hunter Biden.

Waldon told GOP investigators that Weiss informed him after the meeting that he would no longer be speaking with Shapley.

“Mr. Weiss stated to me that he would not be communicating with Mr. Shapley anymore and he would be going directly to me,” Waldon said, remembering a communication from the Delaware US attorney sent later that month.

Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee in May that the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting was his “red-line” moment in the investigation. 

He recalled that the meeting “was very contentious and ended quite awkwardly” and that he expressed to Weiss “several concerns with how this case had been handled from the beginning.” 

“It would be the last in-person meeting I had with United States Attorney Weiss,” Shapley said in his testimony.