Democrat IRS Whistleblower Joseph Ziegler Says He ‘Felt Handcuffed’ from Investigating Hunter Biden

IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler told CBS News in an exclusive interview Wednesday he felt “handcuffed” from pursuing “certain roads” in the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden.

“When you’re prevented from going down certain roads, I guess I don’t know what could have been found if we were not hamstrung or not handcuffed,” he told the outlet.

Ziegler’s identity was anonymous until Wednesday, when he testified in front of Congress with fellow IRS whistleblower Gary Shapely.

Ziegler said he handled “95%” of the tax evidence in the five-year investigation and was blocked from pursuing leads that could implicate President Joe Biden.

For example, Ziegler said he wanted prosecutors to obtain a search warrant for a Virginia storage unit to search for potential business records, but that they declined. He said requests to interview Hunter Biden’s adult children about tax payments were “frustrated by prosecutors.” Ziegler said they told him those requests could “get us into hot water.”

Ziegler also tried to get location data to determine if Joe Biden was indeed in the room when Hunter Biden pressured a Chinese businessman to make a payment, telling him, “I am sitting here with my father..we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.”

“Anytime we potentially wanted to go down the road of asking questions related to the president, it was ‘That’s gonna take too much approvals. We can’t ask those questions,'” Ziegler said.

He said at a point, the respond would be, “‘Well, let’s think about it. Let’s put that on the back burner.’ And it would now move down to item number 50,” he said.

Ziegler said his requests came under then-Attorney General William Barr, but he was not “aware” of any approvals that were sought from Barr.

Ziegler said the evidence that they did uncover supported more serious criminal charges than was sought by the Justice Department against the younger Biden, who is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations and enter a diversion program for a gun violation next week.

“In August of 2022, we had a phone call with all of the assigned prosecutors and they had said that all four of them were recommending the approval of felony and misdemeanor tax charges,” Ziegler said.

Ziegler said evidence he collected showed that Hunter Biden improperly claimed business deductions for personal expenses, including college tuition for his children, bills for a posh Hollywood hotel, escort payments, and no-show employees.

Zeigler said in 2021, he drafted a memo recommending that prosecutors charge him with multiple felonies and misdemeanors.

He said U.S. Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, told him he agreed with certain felony charges, but that there was resistance from other officials inside the Justice Department who thought that a jury would be sympathetic to Hunter Biden’s drug addiction and the death of his brother Beau.

“David said to us…’I’m getting some concern from the Department of Justice Tax Division, the evidence that might come in related to his substance abuse and the death of his brother, Beau Biden, those might affect the jury’s opinion,'” Ziegler said.

Ziegler also reiterated his claims that he and Shapely were told that prosecutors in Delaware were prevented in bringing charges in other jurisdictions, including California and D.C.

“D.C. said, ‘No, we are not gonna assist you with bringing charges in our district. And we don’t think you should bring these charges forward in our district,'” Ziegler told CBS News.

Ziegler said he did not vote in the last presidential election because it would be “irresponsible” to show bias.

“At the end of the day, it’s a matter of are we treating everyone the same? Are we treating all taxpayers the same?” Zielger told CBS News. “And in this case, no, I don’t think so.”

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook.