Two IRS whistleblowers claimed in court filings on Wednesday that the agency has improperly attempted to block them from intervening in a lawsuit between Hunter Biden and the agency.
Veteran IRS criminal investigators Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said they should be allowed to intervene in the complaint the first son brought against the IRS in September.
"When coupled with the fact that the IRS has already retaliated against Shapley and Ziegler, it is hardly a stretch to say the IRS has an inherent and institutional conflict of interest that at the very least should be remedied by permitting Shapley and Ziegler to intervene and to raise appropriate arguments for this Court's consideration," attorneys for the pair wrote.
Shapley and Ziegler went to Congress last year claiming that the IRS and the Department of Justice Tax Division were dragging their feet on a long-running investigation of Hunter Biden in order to protect President Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden alleges in his lawsuit that the two agents are not covered by whistleblower protections and illegally revealed confidential tax information.
The first son's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, cited as examples several "non-congressionally sanctioned" media interviews Shapley and Ziegler did, but the pair responded that the information disclosed in interviews had already been made public by Congress and was no longer confidential.
In the court filings, Shapley and Ziegler's attorneys wrote that they want to intervene in the lawsuit to properly defend their reputations and actions because they believe the IRS has not done so.
"Indeed, at its core, all that granting the pending motion does is enable this Court to consider arguments not raised by Hunter Biden or the IRS," the attorneys wrote.
If permitted to intervene, Shapley and Ziegler's attorneys said they would petition the court to dismiss Hunter Biden's lawsuit in its entirety, after the IRS sought to only have part of it dismissed.
For its part, the IRS asked that Shapley and Ziegler's request to intervene be denied, arguing that the agency should have full control over the defense of the case because it is being sued for damages.
Shapley and Ziegler "do not have a legally protected interest in this case, and permitting them to intervene would unnecessarily delay this case and cloud the issues central to Plaintiff's claims against the government," IRS attorneys wrote in a separate filing.
The agents' attorneys responded that "unless the IRS's 'litigation strategy' is not to prevail in this case, it begs the question of why the IRS opposes enabling the two people whose conduct is at issue to have a seat at the table."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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