Two whistleblowers told a House panel that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recommended felony tax charges against Hunter Biden and alleged that there was political interference in the investigation into the president's son.
Gary Shapley, an IRS supervisory special agent, told the House Ways and Means Committee in testimony released on Thursday that the IRS recommended felony tax evasion charges, as well as felony charges for filing false tax returns, against Biden.
Biden ultimately agreed to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement on a separate charge of unlawful possession of a firearm while addicted to a controlled substance, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.
In Shapley's opening statement to the committee, he alleged that Hunter Biden received "preferential treatment" and said the Justice Department "slow-walked the investigation."
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said on Thursday that the whistleblowers' testimony suggests that Biden "received preferential treatment in the course of the investigation," noting that the president's son "has struck a plea deal that will likely keep him out from behind bars."
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), called the allegations from the chairman "premature" and suggested that Republicans' "rush" to put out the findings "shows how pretextual this is in this stunning abuse of power," according to CBS News.
"Two interviews do not make an investigation when more than 50 employees were named, especially when you consider that one recanted key elements of his testimony earlier this week," Neal said.
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