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A 14-year IRS veteran made his first public appearance Wednesday about a whistleblower claiming to have information about alleged mishandling and political interference in Hunter Biden’s ongoing criminal investigation.
Gary Shapley recently deleted The investigation, from the Justice Department, was interviewed by CBS Evening News ahead of Friday’s scheduled meeting with the House Ways and Means Committee.
“There were multiple steps under the direction of the Justice Department that were slow — just not done at all,” Shapley said Tuesday in an interview with CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Jim Axelrod. When I took over this particular investigation, I immediately saw a deviation from the normal process. It was far beyond the norm that I have experienced in the past.”
“We’ve been noticing these deviations in the investigative process for several years. You know, I just can’t fathom that the Department of Justice might be acting unethically on this,” he added.
Shapley told CBS News he is concerned about how federal prosecutors are handling the “high-profile, contentious” investigation.multiple sources previously confirmed to CNN At the center of the investigation is Hunter Biden.
In a letter to federal regulators this month, Shapley’s lawyers said he first raised concerns about “irregularities” in the Trump administration’s Justice Department handling of the case in the summer of 2020. Shapley said he continued to voice concerns about the case in the ensuing years of the Biden administration.
Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware, which is overseeing the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, and a spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment. The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Claiming he wasn’t blowing the whistle for political reasons, Shapley told CBS he was “not involved in any of these things,” adding: “It’s not what I want to do. I’m just not a political person at all. It’s A job, and my oath of office is to treat everyone we investigate fairly.”
A Intense meeting in October 2022Shapley told CBS that this was his “red line meeting,” saying “it just got to the point where that switch was flipped and I couldn’t silence my conscience any longer.”
As CNN previously reported, federal prosecutors have spent years, spanning three attorneys general, investigating Hunter Biden and weighing charges against the president’s son for alleged tax crimes and false statements. So far, no charges have been filed and Hunter Biden has denied wrongdoing.
Shapley’s attorneys, who had hoped their client would be able to sit for a joint interview with House and Senate committees, recently expressed disappointment that the bicameral interview didn’t work out.
On Wednesday, an aide to the Senate Finance Committee said the whistleblower’s team pulled out of meetings with the committee.
“Committee staff from both parties agreed that attorneys would meet directly with the whistleblower next week, but the whistleblower has since walked out of that agreement and declined to reschedule,” said Ryan Carey, a spokesman for Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. “Should a whistleblower wish to meet with the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Wyden’s staff stands ready to arrange a meeting, subject to compliance with laws protecting taxpayer data and ensuring a fair and rigorous investigation.”
The whistleblower’s legal team never agreed on a date for an interview with the Senate Finance Committee, according to a person familiar with the matter.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.