IRS whistleblowers want their promotions back after DOJ retaliation during Hunter Biden probe
WASHINGTON — IRS whistleblowers who alleged interference by the Justice Department into a criminal probe of former first son Hunter Biden are appealing their case to a federal review board that handles workplace misconduct, according to a legal complaint obtained by The Post.IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and special agent Joseph Ziegler went before the US Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) on Thursday, demanding that their agency restore career promotions they were unlawfully denied.Shapley and Ziegler also want consequences for those who they say “marginalized and isolated” them before throwing them off the tax fraud case against former President Joe Biden’s son.Among those subject to the complaint are Delaware US Attorney David Weiss and members of the DOJ’s Tax Division.“When Joe Biden became the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee in the spring of 2020, DOJ’s preferential treatment of Hunter Biden began to look like gross mismanagement,” wrote lawyers for the whistleblower protection legal nonprofit Empower Oversight in the MSPB filing.That mismanagement included contradictory testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland about Weiss’ authority to make charging decisions for the case, as well as an October 2022 meeting in which Shapley charged that the Delaware prosecutor was mishandling the investigation.Both whistleblowers informed their chain of command about the improper handling of the Hunter Biden investigation before turning to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal watchdog, other inspectors general and Republicans in Congress to make protected disclosures about the cover-up.“Not only did the IRS agree to remove the Appellants, but it also commenced a cascading series of retaliatory actions against the Appellants—especially after they blew the whistle to multipleinspectors general, to Congress, and to OSC,” the Empower Oversight lawyers alleged.“Taken together, these actions add up to a signif...