Lawyers for whistleblower disclose to lawmakers sudden move, raise concerns of obstruction of congressional probe.
The Justice Department removed an IRS whistleblower and his entire team from the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden’s taxes in what his lawyers described to Congress on Monday as an act of retaliation and possible obstruction of congressional inquiries, according to correspondence to lawmakers obtained by Just the News.
The IRS whistleblower, whose name has not been released, is a decorated supervisory criminal investigative agent who led the team probing the presidential son’s tax affairs.
He received whistleblower protection a few weeks ago from Congress and the Justice Department inspector general to disclose evidence he says shows there was political interference in the Hunter Biden probe.
“Today the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile, controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress,” the whistleblower’s lawyers, Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, wrote in a letter to multiple House and Senate committees. “He was informed the change was at the request of the Department of Justice.”
The move stunned lawmakers in Congress, who had just taken action to accept the IRS agent as a whistleblower and were making plans to conduct a transcribed interview with him in coming days.
Lytle, a former DOJ lawyer, and Leavitt, a former congressional investigator who serves as president of the Empower Oversight whistleblower center, wrote lawmakers that they were concerned that the removal of their client and his entire team was a form of reprisal for his coming forward to Congress, something the IRS chief just vowed would not happen.
By John Solomon
