The IRS has removed a whistleblower and his team from a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and business dealings at the request of the Department of Justice, according to the whistleblower’s attorneys.
“Today, the [IRS] Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress,” the whistleblower’s lawyers said in a May 15 letter (pdf) addressed to multiple congressional lawmakers.
“He was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.”
Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, has been under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud, lobbying crimes, and money laundering.
He confirmed in December 2020 that his business deals were being investigated. Few details have been revealed about the probe since then.
The unnamed IRS agent had been overseeing an “ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020,” his lawyer, Mark D. Lytle, a former DOJ lawyer, told Congress in an April 19 letter.
Although that letter didn’t mention Hunter Biden by name, Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an April 20 interview on Fox News that the whistleblower was bringing information about a potential conflict of interest with the Hunter Biden investigation.
The IRS’s removal of the whistleblower from the criminal probe into Hunter Biden is “clearly retaliatory and may also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry,” Lytle and another attorney, Tristan Leavitt, told lawmakers in the May 15 letter.
The May 15 letter was addressed to Democrat chairmen and top Republicans on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees, and the Republican chairman and top Democrats on the Judicial and House Ways and Means committees.
