The IRS whistleblowers and the special counsel

Shapley testified that warrants were ready as early as April 2020 but delayed until after the election and never pursued; that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf agreed there was probable cause to search the guest house at Joe Biden’s Delaware home but cited the optics of doing so; that prosecutors told investigators not to ask about the “big guy” or “dad” in interviews; that agents were not allowed to follow up on the WhatsApp message in which Hunter claimed to be sitting next to his father; and that the Biden transition team was tipped off the night before planned interviews. Ziegler said the IRS had recommended felony charges for 2014 through 2019. [1]

His central charge was about authority. Attorney General Garland had told Congress that the case was in the hands of a Trump appointee. Shapley said that on 7 October 2022 Weiss told a room of senior officials “he was not the deciding person on whether charges were filed,” and that the U.S. attorneys in Washington and Los Angeles, both Biden appointees, had declined to bring charges in their districts. Weiss wrote to Congress on 7 June 2023 that he had “ultimate authority over the matter,” then on 30 June that his “charging authority is geographically limited to my home district,” and on 10 July that he had “not requested special counsel designation” but had “discussions with departmental officials.” [1]

In December 2024 the Office of Special Counsel, the federal whistleblower agency, found that certain IRS communications about Shapley were unlawful and that the IRS could not support removing him from the case, according to a letter from the agents’ lawyers. In March 2025 the Treasury made both men senior advisers to the secretary, and in October 2025 their lawyers announced settlements with the IRS and Justice Department, including compensation. [1][2][3]

Hunter had sued the IRS in 2023, saying the agents illegally disclosed his tax information; he dropped the case in May 2025. The agents’ own defamation suit against his lawyer Abbe Lowell, over Lowell’s public attacks on them, was dismissed in October 2025, the judge finding Lowell’s statements protected. [4][5]

Hunter, a Yale Law graduate, consented to disbarment in Washington, D.C., on 1 May 2025. On 15 December 2025 a Connecticut judge disbarred him under an agreement in which he admitted professional misconduct. A pardon removes federal punishment; it does not require a bar to keep a member. [1][2][3]