Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, claiming the agency’s investigators violated his privacy rights by disclosing details to Congress and the public about his taxes and the investigation into his conduct.
Mr. Biden, the president’s son, filed the lawsuit days after the Justice Department indicted him on separate counts related to his purchase of a handgun in 2018. The decision “Moving forward with the suit shows that he and his legal team continue to take an aggressive stance to fend off demands from congressional Republicans even as he faces the possibility of further prosecution of tax charges by the Department of Justice in the midst of his father’s re-election campaign.
The complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington, claims that IRS investigators violated the agency’s rules on taxpayer privacy and “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden through public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private matter. citizens’ tax issues.
It highlights public testimony and statements from two IRS investigators, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who provided information to House committees seeking evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden and his family. Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler told House Republicans that they believed the Justice Department’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes was influenced by politics.
That assertion has been disputed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who oversaw the case and who recently received special counsel status from Mr. Garland.
Hunter Biden “has the same responsibilities as any other American citizen, and the IRS can and must ensure that he meets those responsibilities,” the suit says.
“Similarly, Mr. Biden has no fewer rights than any other American citizen, and no government agency or government agent has carte blanche to violate his rights simply because of who he is,” can we read. “Yet the IRS and its agents have behaved under the assumption that the rights that apply to any other American citizen do not apply to Mr. Biden. »
IRS agents, their lawyers and House Republicans have said they followed the law in how information about Mr. Biden was disclosed to Congress. They said the disclosures were protected by law because they were covered by whistleblower protections and were ultimately made public by the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax matters .
The complaint filed by Mr. Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, disputes this argument. In addition to the disclosures to Congress, the suit says, the agents and their attorneys made other details about the investigation public to the media in more than 20 interviews and public statements.
“These agents’ alleged ‘whistleblower’ status cannot and does not protect them from their misconduct in making unauthorized public disclosures that are not authorized by the whistleblowing process,” the suit states.
In addition to claiming that Mr. Biden received preferential treatment from the Justice Department, IRS agents disclosed details of the investigation that were potentially damaging to Mr. Biden and his father. A search warrant found that Hunter Biden invoked his father – who was not in office at the time – while pressuring a Chinese businessman to move forward with a proposed d energy agreement.
“Tell the director I would like to resolve this issue now before it gets out of hand, and that is now tonight,” Mr. Biden wrote, referring to the other participants in the proposed deal. “And, Z, if I receive a call or text message from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the president, I will make sure that between the man sitting next to me and anyone I he knows and my ability to hold a grudge forever that you will regret not following my instructions.
House Republicans argued that investigators’ revelations to Congress were legal because they revealed government corruption.
Although the suit involves the IRS, it is not directly related to the Justice Department’s investigation into Mr. Biden’s conduct.
In June, Mr. Biden and Mr. Weiss’s office announced that they had reached an agreement in which Mr. Biden would plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and a separate deal to avoid a gun charge.
Mr. Biden’s side believed the agreement marked the end of a long-running investigation, which Republicans and former President Donald J. Trump hoped would inflict political damage on the president.
But the plea deal was broken at the last minute, during a court hearing in July. Mr. Weiss’s office charged Mr. Biden last week with three counts of violating gun laws, alleging that he lied about his drug use on a federal form when he purchased a handgun in Delaware five years ago.
Mr. Biden could also still face tax charges related to late filing of his returns for several years and disputes over deductions he took.
Seamus Hughes reports contributed.
