WASHINGTON — IRS whistleblowers who alleged interference by the Justice Department into a criminal probe of former first son Hunter Biden are appealing their case to a federal review board that handles workplace misconduct, according to a legal complaint obtained by The Post.
IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and special agent Joseph Ziegler went before the US Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) on Thursday, demanding that their agency restore career promotions they were unlawfully denied.
Shapley and Ziegler also want consequences for those who they say “marginalized and isolated” them before throwing them off the tax fraud case against former President Joe Biden’s son.
Among those subject to the complaint are Delaware US Attorney David Weiss and members of the DOJ’s Tax Division.
“When Joe Biden became the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee in the spring of 2020, DOJ’s preferential treatment of Hunter Biden began to look like gross mismanagement,” wrote lawyers for the whistleblower protection legal nonprofit Empower Oversight in the MSPB filing.
That mismanagement included contradictory testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland about Weiss’ authority to make charging decisions for the case, as well as an October 2022 meeting in which Shapley charged that the Delaware prosecutor was mishandling the investigation.
Both whistleblowers informed their chain of command about the improper handling of the Hunter Biden investigation before turning to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal watchdog, other inspectors general and Republicans in Congress to make protected disclosures about the cover-up.
“Not only did the IRS agree to remove the Appellants, but it also commenced a cascading series of retaliatory actions against the Appellants—especially after they blew the whistle to multiple
inspectors general, to Congress, and to OSC,” the Empower Oversight lawyers alleged.
“Taken together, these actions add up to a significant change in duties, responsibilities, and working conditions.”
In December, OSC wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to reveal that the IRS had put unlawful gag orders on Shapley and Ziegler — and improperly removed them from the Hunter case in retaliation over their disclosures to Congress.
That finding resulted in a prohibited personnel practice report (PPP) that has since been transmitted to the IRS, though the agency has yet to act upon it, according to the whistleblowers lawyers.
Shapley and Ziegler are still working at the IRS — beneath those who retaliated against them — while Hunter Biden was pardoned in late 2024 by his father of both tax and gun charges brought by Weiss — in addition to any crimes Hunter may have committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.
Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt, who is the lead lawyer repping the whistleblowers, has asked for MSPB to “order all appropriate corrective action from the IRS and DOJ,” as well as hold a hearing on the many improper actions outlined in the 84-page filing.
