IRS whistleblowers sue Hunter Biden’s attorney for $20M in defamation case: 'Clear malice'
IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler accuse attorney Abbe Lowell of retaliating against them for blowing the whistle on the politicization of the Hunter Biden investigation
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Two IRS agents who blew the whistle on the political interference into Hunter Biden’s tax crimes filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against an attorney for the president’s son late Friday, accusing him of behaving with "clear malice."
IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler accuse attorney Abbe Lowell of retaliating against them for their efforts in exposing the kid glove treatment Hunter Biden was receiving in regard to his non-payment of taxes.
The lawsuit, filed in D.C. court, states that the pair are bringing the case to "vindicate their reputations for the incredible and malicious harm they have suffered."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Agent with the criminal investigations division, take their seats at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing with IRS whistleblowers on July 19, 2023, in Washington. The pair are suing Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell for defamation (AP)
Shapley and Ziegler claim that as whistleblowers, they acted "with honor and integrity in exposing conflicts of interest, preferential treatment, and political motivations that they reasonably believed were interfering with the criminal tax investigation of Hunter Biden."
They claim that they acted in accordance with statute and that Lowell "falsely and maliciously" accused them of committing crimes, "namely, the illegal disclosure of grand jury materials and taxpayer return information — despite the fact that they never publicly discussed return[ing] information that was not already public."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Lowell’s malicious and false allegations, including accusations that Shapley and Ziegler ‘committed felonies’ and ‘violated the law,’ were published to third parties, including the media, and have severely harmed their professional and personal reputations," the complaint states.
Hunter Biden, left, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell, right, at the O'Neill House Office Building for a closed-door deposition in a Republican-led investigation into the Biden family, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Among the instances cited in the lawsuit is a Sept. 14, 2023, letter that Lowell sent to several congressional committees in which the pair say Lowell falsely accused them of violating grand jury secrecy rules and the taxpayer confidentiality statute.
"This was an act designed to harm Shapley and Ziegler by republishing the entire package of previous defamatory falsehoods in a larger forum," the complaint states.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The whistleblowers also accuse Lowell of releasing Biden's legal team’s communications to the media that day, which included an April 21, 2023, letter written by another Biden attorney to the Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General’s Office accusing one or both of the whistleblowers of leaking information to the press revealing that an investigation was taking place, apparently in violation of federal law.
Last week, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax charges as part of an "open plea" without negotiating a deal with prosecutors. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The complaint states that in December 2020, Hunter Biden had already publicly disclosed that he was the subject of a criminal tax investigation.
Furthermore, the whistleblowers accuse Lowell of releasing a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, which "falsely stated that Shapley and Ziegler had disseminated ‘grand jury and taxpayer information, including through multiple nationally-televised on-camera interviews of [Shapley],’ which it called a ‘clear-cut’ crime unprotected by any whistleblower statute or other federal law.’"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They are each suing Lowell for at least $10 million.
Fox News Digital reached out to Lowell for comment via his law firm, Winston & Strawn LLP, but were unsuccessful.
Shapley, who led the IRS’ portion of the Biden probe, and Ziegler, a 13-year special agent within the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division, alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the Biden investigation, which began in 2018.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Supervisory IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, right, are sworn-in as they testify during a House Oversight Committee hearing related to the Justice Department's investigation of Hunter Biden, on Capitol Hill July 19, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden previously secured a sweetheart deal with Delaware U.S. attorney David Weiss, but it fell apart last year after Shapley and Ziegler went public with their concerns.
Shapley has said that decisions "at every stage" of the probe "had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Additionally, Ziegler has said that Biden "should have been charged with a tax felony, and not only the tax misdemeanor charge," and that communications and text messages reviewed by investigators "may be a contradiction to what President Biden was saying about not being involved in Hunter’s overseas business dealings."
Ziegler also alleged that federal investigators "did not follow the ordinary process, slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case," including prosecutors blocking certain questioning and interviewing of Biden’s adult children.
Last week, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax charges as part of an "open plea" without negotiating a deal with prosecutors. An open plea is where a defendant pleads guilty to all the charges and leaves a judge to decide on sentencing, without an agreed-upon recommendation from prosecutors.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden hug on stage at the conclusion of the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 19, 2024.
Weiss charged President Biden's son with three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid. Weiss alleged a pattern by which Hunter did not pay his federal income taxes while also filing false tax returns.
In the indictment, Weiss alleged that Hunter "engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hunter Biden faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison. He remains free on bond until the sentencing date of Dec. 16.
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.