The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) removed the “entire investigative team” working on the Hunter Biden case at the request of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), a whistleblower told Congress on Monday.
The whistleblower has supervised the Hunter Biden investigation since 2020, the New York Post reported.
Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, attorneys for the whistleblower, told Congress in a letter:
Today the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress. He was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.
Last month, the whistleblower, through Lytle, told congressional leaders that he wanted to come forward with information about “preferential treatment” in Hunter Biden’s case and alleged Attorney General Merrick Garland gave false testimony to Congress when he assured lawmakers that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss has unilateral authority to make charging decisions, the Post reported.
The attorneys’ letter went on to call the IRS’s decision to remove the investigative team “clearly retaliatory.”
The lawyers added:
On April 27, 2023, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel appeared before the House Committee on Ways and Means. He testified: “I can say without any hesitation there will be no retaliation for anyone making an allegation or a call to a whistleblower hotline.” However, this move is clearly retaliatory and may also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry.
…
Our client has a right to make disclosures to Congress … He is protected by 5 U.S.C. § 2302 from retaliatory personnel actions—including receiving a ‘significant change in duties, responsibilities, or working conditions’ (which this clearly is) because of his disclosures to Congress.
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Any attempt by any government official to prevent a federal employee from furnishing information to Congress is also a direct violation of longstanding appropriations restriction. Furthermore, 18 U.S.C. § 1505 makes it a crime to obstruct an investigation of Congress
The attorneys asked Congress to give the matter “prompt attention.”
“Removing the experienced investigators who have worked this case for years and are now the subject-matter experts is exactly the sort of issue our client intended to blow the whistle on to begin with,” Lytle and Leavitt added.
One week after the whistleblower stepped forward last month, Hunter Biden’s attorneys met with DOJ leaders, signaling an upcoming charging decision in his case.
Hunter Biden is under investigation for tax violations relating to his foreign business affairs, among other things.
Watch: Biden: Hunter Has “Done Nothing Wrong” and His Situation Impacts My Presidency “by Making Me Feel Proud of Him”
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.