Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is pushing for the House to get involved in a lawsuit filed by first son Hunter Biden‘s lawyers against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over whistleblower disclosures.
A letter Gaetz sent on Wednesday urges Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to task the House Office of General Counsel to intervene in the case to defend the IRS agents who raised concerns about the federal inquiry into Biden.
“Due to federal law, this is the only available action of Hunter Biden and the Democrats to silence the I.R.S. whistleblowers who have so bravely come forward with details of Hunter Biden’s tax fraud,” Gaetz wrote.
“The interests of the House of Representatives and the legal rights of our whistleblowers are not being zealously defended by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), who is defending the lawsuit on behalf of the I.R.S.,” he added.
Biden’s lawsuit, filed in September, accused IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler of working to “embarrass and inflict harm” on him with the disclosure of confidential taxpayer information and violating the law.
ABC News reported in January the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case. Shapley’s legal team denied improper disclosures beyond what is allowed in statutes governing whistleblowers.
“We should be doing everything we can to protect these brave whistleblowers,” Gaetz said in his letter to Johnson. He cited House rules and U.S. Code concerning the House Office of General Counsel getting involved in litigation.
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Gaetz requested the speaker “task the House Office of General Counsel with moving to intervene in Biden v. IRS to protect the prerogatives of the House of Representatives and to protect the rights of all Americans to make protected disclosures to Congress.”
Attached to his letter, Gaetz said, was the complaint filed by Biden, as well as the partial motion to dismiss of the DOJ.
“A cursory read of these materials should make clear to the House Office of General Counsel that the rights of the House are implicated in this case and not being adequately represented to the Court by the DOJ,” Gaetz said.
“To give but [one] example among many: the complaint takes an extremely narrow read of Internal Revenue Code § 6103’s whistleblower provisions, a read which DOJ does not contest,” he added.
“The House clearly has an interest in the broadest possible read of the subject matter that an individual may properly disclose to committees of Congress,” Gaetz concluded.
Biden is facing criminal indictments that branched out of the investigation led by special counsel David Weiss rocked by the whistleblower allegations last year. He has pleaded not guilty to federal gun and tax charges.
The first son also participated in a closed-door deposition with House investigators last month as part of an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden, but declined to show up for a public hearing last week.
