NEWSWEEK
An IRS agent is seeking whistleblower protections to come forward with information in the ongoing criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, according to a letter from the agent’s attorney.
The letter, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and later obtained by CBS News, was sent to a list of congressional members on both sides of the aisle on Wednesday by attorney Mark Lytle, who is representing the unnamed agent. According to the letter, the career IRS criminal supervisory special agent has information that the investigation has been hindered by “preferential treatment and politics.”
Several outlets, including the Journal, have confirmed that the investigation is the tax probe of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden‘s son. Federal prosecutors have been investigating the president’s son for several years regarding taxes and a statement pertaining to a firearm purchase.
“Despite serious risks of retaliation, my client is offering to provide you with information necessary to exercise your constitutional oversight function and wishes to make the disclosures in a non-partisan manner to the leadership of the relevant committees on both sides of the political aisle,” Lytle wrote in the letter.
Newsweek has contacted Lytle via email for comment.
The recipients of Lytle’s letter include Representative James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who has previously accused the Biden family of having ties to businesses overseas. Comer said in a statement Wednesday that the news about the IRS whistleblower is “deeply concerning,” adding that the Oversight Committee “has been following the Bidens’ tangled web of complex corporate and financial records.”
“We’ve been wondering all along where the heck the [Department of Justice] and the IRS have been,” Comer said. “Now it appears the Biden Administration may have been working overtime to prevent the Bidens from facing any consequences. The House Oversight Committee will work to hold accountable anyone in the Biden Administration who may be covering up this criminal activity.”
The statement was shared to Twitter by CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge and was reposted by Comer.
Comer has previously accused Hunter Biden and other Biden family members of receiving millions of dollars in payments from an associate of the former president’s son who was affiliated with a Chinese energy company. Republicans argue that the alleged payments raise questions about foreign influence over the Biden family, although there is no evidence connecting President Biden.
A spokesperson for Hunter Biden previously said that the allegations are a “baseless right-wing conspiracy,” adding that the president’s son is “a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors.”
Comer has promised to use his time as chair of the Oversight Committee to investigate “waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government,” echoing several of his Republican colleagues who argue that the federal government has been “weaponized” under the Biden administration.
Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment.
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