Former President Joe Biden's pardon for his son Hunter swept "under the rug" an "unprecedented" level of corruption involving the Biden family, according to two IRS whistleblowers.
In a new "Pod Force One" interview, IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said their years-long probe into Hunter Biden's taxes and foreign cash trails was repeatedly stymied by political sensitivities and prosecutorial gatekeeping before the elder Biden's sweeping pardon wiped the slate clean.
Shapley and Ziegler described what they called pressure, delay tactics, and blocked investigative steps whenever lines of inquiry touched the Biden family.
"The Biden family lived five miles down from the office or a few miles down from the office. The guest house where Hunter Biden stayed for a while, five miles from the office," Ziegler told the New York Post's Miranda Devine of the five-year probe into the former president's son's $1.4 million tax delinquency.
"Throughout the investigation, we heard about Joe Biden coming into the FBI office. I mean, it was really, really concerning from like, 'Is this honestly the best place to work this tax investigation?'"
The whistleblowers also claimed that even routine investigative requests, including search warrants and location data that could corroborate communications, were repeatedly kicked down the road or denied.
The whistleblowers pointed to references in communications tied to Hunter Biden's business dealings that used "the big guy" as shorthand for Joe Biden — a line of inquiry, they said, prosecutors discouraged them from pursuing aggressively.
Shapley and Ziegler said that kind of evidence normally would be chased down immediately to determine whether income or benefits were being held for another person.
Their allegations are colliding with the reality of Biden's December 2024 clemency decision, which did far more than erase Hunter's convictions.
The White House posted the pardon language, which showed it covered offenses Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" over nearly an 11-year span — from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024 — and was not limited to charges already filed.
That broad scope matters, conservatives argue, because it reaches back into the period when Hunter Biden's overseas business entanglements — including Ukraine-related work frequently scrutinized by House Republicans — were at their peak.
The whistleblowers said they were not shocked by the pardon, contending it capped a pattern of protection for the Biden family.
"If that ever went to trial, then we would have had to thoroughly investigate the FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] stuff. We would have thoroughly investigated all the money related to Ukraine, and it would likely have shown a lot more evidence of Joe Biden's involvement," Shapley said.
"It's almost criminal. It was obstruction."
They also emphasized that their fight was never about politics, but about equal treatment under the law and about exposing what they described as a culture in Washington that can slow-walk sensitive cases until they die on the vine.
Shapley and Ziegler have since landed in senior roles tied to IRS reform efforts, moves praised by Republicans as a corrective after alleged retaliation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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