Two IRS agents who risked their careers by blowing the whistle on the tax agency’s treatment of former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, are being promoted to top jobs in the Treasury Department, according to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley is being promoted to deputy chief of IRS Criminal Investigations, while Special Agent Joseph Ziegler is promoted to senior adviser for IRS reform. Both men will work from the office of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler put their entire careers on the line to stand up for the truth, and instead of being thanked, the Biden administration treated them like skunks at a picnic,” Grassley said in a statement announcing the promotions.
“Far too many whistleblowers share a similar experience of retaliation. I hope today is the first of many redemption stories for whistleblowers who’ve been mistreated.”
Grassley’s announcement comes during Sunshine Week, a period during which many members of the news media celebrate the birthday of Bill of Rights author and former President James Madison, the passage of the federal Freedom of Information Act in 1966, and the Whistleblower Protection Act in 1989.
In a statement released by Empower Oversight, the nonprofit government watchdog that defended Shapley, the two whistleblowers thanked Grassley and Bessent for coming to their aid following their public disclosures of information about IRS leniency for Hunter Biden during a tax-evasion investigation.
“We are enormously grateful to Secretary Bessent and Senator Grassley and all of the members of Congress for their leadership. We have been motivated by one singular mantra: Do what’s right,” Shapley and Ziegler said.
“It’s never been easy, and there have been more pitfalls than one would hope, but we appreciate the opportunity Secretary Bessent is giving us to utilize our skills and firsthand knowledge of the agency to further the work of the administration to root out waste and fraud from the federal government and make a difference.”
After coming across evidence that he and Shapley would later disclose to Congress, Ziegler opened an official criminal tax investigation. He believed the evidence pointed to tax evasion and possible links to prostitution rings. When he requested documents and interviews, he encountered increasing resistance from IRS higher-ups and the Department of Justice.
After Shapley became Ziegler’s supervisor in the IRS, they reported that the case was being slow-walked, especially by avoiding charging decisions in jurisdictions overseen by Biden administration DOJ appointees. In several cases, they determined that Hunter Biden’s name had been removed from search warrants.
As the evidence of tax evasion and related offenses connected to Hunter Biden grew without any prosecutorial actions, the whistleblowers turned their evidence over to Congress, including Grassley’s judiciary panel and the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The two whistleblowers also appealed to the Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Department of Justice inspector general.
Things then went rapidly downhill for both men.
Hellbound and Down 