The New York Times reported that it had "confirmed independently" the allegations of two IRS whistleblowers that Justice Department officials rejected U.S. Attorney David Weiss' request that charges be pursued against Hunter Biden.
Gary Shapley, a 14-year IRS veteran, and another unnamed IRS employee testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in May that Weiss had reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington and to prosecutors in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, to ask that those offices pursue charges against Biden. The whistleblowers said the requests were rebuffed.
"That [California] episode was confirmed independently to The New York Times by a person with knowledge of the situation," Times reporters Glenn Thrush and Michael S. Schmidt wrote.
The confirmation was buried in the 21st paragraph of a Times story with the headline, "Competing Accounts of Justice Dept.'s Handling of Hunter Biden Case."
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday denied that the DOJ, FBI, and IRS interfered with Weiss' investigation of Hunter Biden.
"While Mr. Weiss had the authority to pursue leads that led to jurisdictions other than his own in Delaware, the department's practices dictated that he secure the approval and cooperation of the U.S. attorneys in those districts before proceeding," Thrush and Schmidt wrote.
"When [Iowa Sen. Chuck] Grassley, at the hearing in March, pressed Mr. Garland on that point — without referring explicitly to Shapley's claim, which would not become public for months, but tracking closely what Mr. Shapley would tell the Ways and Means Committee — the attorney general said he would 'assure' that Mr. Weiss would be able to bring charges outside Delaware if that was his wish. At a news conference after the transcript was released, Mr. Garland repeated that message."
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released redacted transcripts of testimony from Shapley and another IRS employee who worked on Hunter Biden's tax evasion case. The two whistleblowers reported misconduct and government abuse from the agency and the FBI.
Early last week, a letter filed in U.S. district court in Delaware showed that first son Hunter Biden was charged with failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon and reached an agreement with the DOJ.
The Washington Examiner offered its opinion on the Times confirmation.
"We still have no smoking gun proving that it was Garland who gave the order to block Weiss from charging Hunter Biden in California, and more importantly, we still have no smoking gun proving it was the president who interfered in any way," the Examiner reported in an opinion column.
"But in independently verifying that key whistleblower claim, the New York Times is subtly illustrating a potentially groundbreaking realization: Grassley got Garland, on the record and under the penalty of perjury, to say — knowingly or unknowingly — that Weiss was not hindered from bringing criminal charges against Biden outside of Delaware, despite the fact that the assertion was false."