political arena or otherwise, where they tipped off? did they get special treatment? the answer is no. >> harris: and the importance of this is of course the timing. we are in primary season, leading up to a presidential election, so getting this information out now is very, very important for voters to know what the facts are and what they are not. now here is "america reports." >> sandra: thank you, ladies. a trio of major life events in washington happening this afternoon. the white house is set to hold everything any moment now, and about an hour from now, a house panel examines the cartel crisis at our southern border. but first, all eyes will be on another hearing set to begin any moment now as two whistle-blower is alleging interference in the hunter biden probe get set to speak. i am sandra smith.

good to be with you. >> john: i'm john roberts and washington. today is highly anticipated testimony will come from two irs agents who claimed that they took several steps to delay their investigation of the president's son. >> sandra: many want answers. fox news team coverage begins now. shannon bream and jonathan turley standing by. >> john: but we begin with chad pergram, live on capitol hill where this hearing is about to get underway. we can hear some protesters in the hallway outside. what is james comer saying about what we are going to see today? >> well, that sheer man, he calls this a pivotal moment in his investigation. he has two witnesses testifying today. one we know, gary shapley. the other, whistle-blower x.

this is important for the house oversight committee. they believe that they will deliver the goods on the bidens. >> we believe that -- it would be the irs. leadership in the criminal division. that's what these two guys are. i am the only one investigating joe biden because what we have seen, the fbi never investigated the bribery allegation. then you say that they were told to stand down. >> one of the whistle-blowers as gary shapley, a senior investigator for the irs. he gave a deposition to house investigator several weeks ago. he says he faced retaliation for targeting the bidens and face roadblocks in his inquiry. >> i mean, we were conducting an investigation of hunter biden, and we were trying to follow the normal process, but there were definitely endurance as i have never seen before in my 14 years

considering this investigation that did not allow us to follow through the investigation of any other individual to include president biden. >> we expect the hearing to go about six to seven hours. 7:00, 8:00 tonight. >> john: it's going to be a big afternoon. sandra. >> sandra: we are about to get into that hearing, but first, shannon bream, can you set this up for us? >> we have seen gary shapley. what we are going to see in addition, a longtime irs who is going to his face and name out there and says that he supports what gary shapley says. >> now to the biggest hearing yet. shannon, thank you. let's head to the hearing room. >> just six months, we've obtained thousands of pages of financial records. this includes bank records for biden family associates and suspicious activity reports generated by the bidens and their associates.

foreign business transactions. what these records revealed is astonishing. the bidens created over 20 shell companies, most of which were created when joe biden was vice president. bank record so far show the biden family, their business associates, and the companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals and related companies. a lot of this money poured in while joe biden was vice president. despite creating many companies after the vice president took office, the biden family used associates companies to receive millions of dollars from foreign companies in china, ukraine, and romania. after foreign companies send money to do business associates companies the bidens then received incremental payments over a time to various different bank accounts. these complicated financial transactions were used deliberately to conceal the

source of funds and total amounts. no normal business operates like this. what were the biden selling? nothing but influence and access to the biden network. this is an influence peddling scheme to enrich the bidens. we need to know whether joe biden is compromised by these games and if our national security is threatened. during our investigation, our committee became aware through whistle-blowers that the fbi had a nonclassified record the details and extortion and bribery scheme involving then vice president biden and avery's my executive. this was generated by a confidential source that they used for over a decade. it memorializes the conversations with the executive who claims that he paid joe biden $5 million in exchange for certain actions. the burisma executive told the confidential source that he did

not pay the "big guy" directly, but that he used so many bank accounts, it would take ten years to unravel. that sounds an awful lot like how the bidens conduct business, hiding the source and total amount of the money. today we have two brave, incredible irs whistle-blowers who have come forward to provide testimony. thank you all for being here today. i know it was not an easy decision. their testimony about the doj, fbi, irs investigation of hunter biden confirms the committee's findings, that there is nothing normal about the biden families business activities. the white house and democrats would have americans believe that this is based on five views of conspiracy theories, but we have facts, and new evidence is uncovered, revealing the corruption. they have put themselves first

and americans last. we will continue to provide the answers, transparency, and accountability that americans demand and deserve. with that, i yield to the chairman, jason smith. >> thank you. we are charged with ensuring that the tax code is enforced fairly. are they the president only believes in making taxpayers pay their fair share if they don't share his last name. these two courageous whistle-blowers provided my committee with devastating testimony, showing that the government is not treating all taxpayers equally and the doj and the irs gave preferential treatment to the president's son during a criminal investigation into his taxes. these individuals in front of us today are credible and the set for nearly 15 hours of interviewers with republicans and democrats. i personally took part in the

interview with mr. ziegler. here's what we learned from the interviewees. the irs recommended multiple -- the irs recommended multiple felony charges against hunter biden for tax years 2014 through 2019, relating to at least 8.3 million in income from foreign companies, including one based -- companies based in china, romania, and ukraine. and that is the only amount discovered, despite the roadblocks and obstruction their investigation faced. the department of justice engaged in a campaign to delay, divulge, and deny that investigation. they delayed investigators for years, leading to the expiration of the statute of limitations for many of the crimes involved. they divulged key investigative details to bidens attorney is

and even the president's transition team. and they denied investigators the ability to authenticate evidence, serve warrants, question witnesses, and bring charges. this led to hunter biden sweetheart agreement announced five years after the investigation started. but mere days before my committee voted to publicly release this testimony. would americans in my congressional district or any others, ever receive the same treatment? after raising their concerns internally at the irs, these whistle-blowers were discouraged and demoralized and turned it to congress as a last resort. they bravely reported wrongdoing to us. and what have president biden's allies, including hunter biden's lawyers done? they responded with a vicious --

a vicious smear campaign to discredit these whistle-blowers and discourage others from coming forward. and may have even coordinated with the white house on this effort. this is a disgrace. i urge any irs employee watching today, if you know of misconduct, please come to the ways and means committee so that we can hold accountable those who are responsible, and let me be clear, there will be zero tolerance for any retaliation against whistle-blowers by doj and the irs. the american people expect answers about whether the federal government is treating all taxpayers equally or if the wealthy and politically connected get special treatment. our committees are working together to get to the bottom of this abuse of power and will

work tirelessly to do so and to make sure it doesn't ever happen again. americans should not have to expect to tears of justice in this country. one if your last name is biden, and one for everybody else. i want to thank both whistle-blowers whistle-blowers for coming forward publicly and for your testimony today. i yield it to mr. jordan. >> the question is who are you going to believe? april 26, the attorney general said david weiss is in charge of the investigation. and then david weiss said i am not the deciding official. who are you going to believe? i rode the attorney general asking him why there is no special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. he did not respond, which is unusual in and of itself. i rode again on may 25th. again, the attorney general did not respond, but david weiss did.

he was what said. "i have been granted ultimate authority over the matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges. that is what the u.s. attorney said on june 7th. three weeks later, mr. weiss rode me again, and he said "i stand by what i rode, but i wish to expand." wow. already changing his story 23 days later. "my charging authority is geographically limited to my home district." you just told me you have ultimate authority. now you change it. then again on july 10th, mr. weiss wrote "senator graham, to clarify, i have not requested special counsel designation. rather, i had discussions with departmental officials. "he cannot get his story straight. three different stories in a five week time frame.

june 7th, he is tarzan. i've got ultimate authority. i can do what i want. file charges where i want, when i want. actually, no i can't. then july 10th, he says to clarify, i have not requested special counsel status, but i've been talking to the folks. three different positions in a little over a month. you know who the story has not changed? these two guys. their testimony has been consistent. their testimony has been the same. guess what? two days ago, an fbi agent confirmed their testimony. who are you going to believe? the justice department cannot get their story straight, changed three times. are these guys? the justice department that was found to center americans just two weeks ago, the justice department that said moms and dads are terrorists, that said

if you are a pro-life catholic, you're an extremist. the justice department that i cannot get it story straight, or these two guys. a decade of experience for both of them. the a-team when it comes to investigating these matters all over the world, they have done this, and they have been consistent throughout. i think i will believe these guys. i think they are the ones telling the truth. that is fundamentally what this comes down to, so god bless you for being here because you care about equal treatment under the law. that is what is at stake. plain and simple. i yelled back. >> i now yielded to the ranking member for his opening stat statement. >> thank you, mr. truman. good afternoon to the witnesses. the chairman declared his top priority the crusade to find evidence of wrongdoing by president biden, but now the

long promised our witness turns out to be a fugitive, and arms trafficker indicted on eight criminal -- unregistered agent for china who tried to trade chinese arms for iranian oil, so i guess he's not going to be a witness for the majority anytime soon. after the field reports, we can conclude that this inspector crusoe style request for something that does not exist has turned our committee into a theater of the absurd, an exercise in futility and embarrassment. now we can finally definitively say why the efforts have run dry time and again. just yesterday, mr. chairman, you and i got a letter from the ukrainian born american businessman who was at rudy giuliani's side as his right-hand man for a year between november 2018 and october 2018, as giuliani and president trump tried to smear joe biden before the 2020

election with the very same allegations we are still running through the political spin cycle every week in this committee. i asked you and to the parnassus letter into the record. in this extraordinary letter, he describes the campaign to dig up dirt on the bidens and spread misinformation through various networks, including government officials, fox news personnel. after explaining this campaign to fabricate corruption charges, parnas concludes his letter by saying the extensive campaigns and networking done by trump allies and giuliani associates including the enormously thorough interviews and assignments that i undertook, there has never been any evidence that hunter or joe biden committed any crimes related to ukrainian politics. never during any of my communications with ukrainian officials or connections to

burisma did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the bidens to illegal activities. as mr. parnas concludes, there has never been any factual evidence, only conspiracy theories, spread by people who knew exactly what they were doing, and then he calls on this committee to end the wild-goose chase and come and testify. this is mr. giuliani's guy, his interpreter and right-hand man who spent a year out there trying to cook the books against joe biden, and he offers to come testify, so let's bring him in as a witness, and let's hear about the crusade that they were on to smear president biden by providing the same baseless conspiracy theories that this committee serves up as leftovers every day. and today, we are going to hear about wrongdoing by hunter biden, who is pleading guilty on two tax charges and a gun charge next week. we will hear about the

back-and-forth among investigators and the trump appointed attorney, people who spent four use investigating the president's son. four years about how they disagreed on investigative steps and what criminal charges to bring. all normal stuff in government investigations that does not usually lead to a congressional hearing, but one thing you will not hear today is any evidence of wrongdoing by president joe biden or his administration. like every other tried by our colleagues to concoct a scandal about president biden, this one is a complete and total bust. in fact, the ongoing case that the majority invites us to interfere with today is actually a striking illustration of the success of the american system of independent prosecutors operating under the rule of law and outside the realm of the kind of political influence my colleagues are trying to exercise today. so what happened?

the son of the sitting president of the united states lost his brother and then lost his way, badly, in 2015. as to many families around the country no, drug addiction is dark, and hunter biden made foolish and criminal choices, including failing to pay his taxes and owning a firearm in violation of federal law and now being held criminally accountable for it. his investigation began under the trump investigation, conducted by a u.s. attorney for delaware, who donald trump appointed to office and who was chosen for this assignment to conduct this investigation. in his final press conference in september 2020, attorney general barr expressed full confidence in his work, saying it was "being handled responsibly, and to this point, i have seen no reason to appoint a special counsel, and i have no plan to do so before i leave."

further, joe biden never challenge this prosecution. when it began, he did not decry it as a witch hunt. it like donald trump. he placed his faith in the fairness of the system here not only did he not use his power to halt the investigation, he kept in place the handpicked attorney, even though incoming presidents usually replace u.s. attorneys with their own appointees. and his attorney general, merrick garland, make sure that mr. weiss, appointed by donald trump, have full authority and resources to pursue this probe however he saw fit in any district in the country, and in the past few weeks, as hunter biden accepted a guilty plea, the president and his attorney general have done nothing to interfere with the case which is overseen by a federal judge appointed by, yes, donald trump. can you imagine donald trump saying nothing about a witch hunt, not trying to quash

the prosecution if it were his son being prosecuted? indeed, the traditional and scrupulous respect stands in sharp contrast to trump's spectacular disrespect for the rule of law and his serial efforts both in office and outside office to get prosecutors to go after and lock of his political rivals and to suspend accountability and specific criminal cases when it comes to his friends. when michael flynn was investigated for lying to the fbi and later convicted for it about communicating with the russians or when paul manafort was investigated and later convicted for bank and tax fraud or when roger stone was arrested and later convicted, and outraged president trump repeatedly denounced the department of justice for prosecuting his cronies and reportedly got william barr to pressure prosecutors to recommend more leniency in their

cases. trump also went to james comey and pushed him to pledge absolute loyalty to trump and to find a way to let flynn go. ultimately he use the power of the presidency to pardon all these convicted criminals. unlike his blatant abuse of the rule of law and the relationship between the president and doj, there is no evidence that president biden has involved himself in the investigation into his own son, an investigation that's been overseen by trump's appointed attorney. and i appreciate the testimony of our witnesses. there is no evidence that he has received any kind of official favoritism in this prosecution for being joe biden son. on the contrary, they are more than 10 million americans who have filed taxes but failed to pay them, the exact crime he is pleading guilty to. the vast majority of these cases are -- they obtain convictions

and sentences and fewer than 700 cases for tax crimes of any kind, a minuscule percentage. the fact that hunter biden faced a four-year criminal probe involving dozens of agents and prosecutors from the irs, the fbi, doj demonstrates to my mind at the very least that he received no special treatment but arguably selectively tougher treatment than the millions of people who never fails criminal investigation for doing the same thing. if my colleagues think that the treatment of millions of tax laws or even the handful who face criminal prosecution like hunter biden is too lenient, i invite them to join us democrats and supporting that $80 billion in funding for the irs that we passed last year. this money will enable the irs to make long-overdue improvements in customer service but will also enable the agency to restore lost capabilities in enforcement to identify and prosecute tax cheats, but the

very first thing that they did was vote to rescind that funding while disparaging these future irs employees who will do the same kind of work today as when this is due. senator cruz called them "bite in the shadow army." senator grassley said they will be going around ready to shoot some small business person iowa. today we get to witness republicans take the side of irs agents from the deep states, exercising his second amendment rights, no facing gun charges that they would call in any other circumstance "purely technical here" we are going to hear from two investigators that will describe their frustrations and disagreements with supervisors as well as with mr. weiss and his team of prosecutors who they consider in your not up to snuff generally. we will hear about their confusion and profound misunderstandings about mr. weiss and how he reviewed

the evidence and made the ultimate decision about charging hunter biden. a lot of the controversy here relates to failure to distinguish between special counsel and lawyers, but we will clear that up today. america needs to understand the only political interference play is coming from donald trump and my republican colleagues. we will listen carefully to the testimony, and i thank you you, mr. chairman. >> i would like to remind the members of the public that section 6103 makes taxpayer information confidential except in certain circumstances. one of those exceptions is the process the ways and means committee used to receive testimony from these whistle-blowers and report transcripts to default house of representatives to make that information public. they've gone above and beyond to submit information to congress in accordance with the law, and we are grateful to them for that. the witnesses can only justify to the tax information that has already been released through

proper procedures through the ways and means committee. they may have to decline to answer a question and instead submit additional information at a later date through the appropriate process. they are each accompanied by counsel to address questions that arise. and are not present today to provide testimony or answer membership question. we look forward to hearing what our courageous witnesses have to say. further, due to the complex nature of the matter at hand, shall have 10 minutes for their opening testimony. i would now like to introduce our witnesses. mr. joseph ziegler is a special agent with the internal revenue service. criminal investigation division specifically assigned to the financial crimes division. this is a group of 12 elite special agents who are subject matter experts in complex international tax and other related crimes. he started his career with the irs in 2010 as a special agent

and has developed successfully the multitude of complex investigation. money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, health care fraud, violations of the bank secrecy act, identity theft, filing false claims. mr. ziegler has won multiple performance awards throughout his career in recognition for his work. and mr. gary shapley, supervisory special agent of the international tax and financial crimes unit. he started in july 2009. detailed to the department of justice tax division from 2013 to 2018 investigating foreign institutions. foreign financial institutions. also assigned to the joint terrorism task force working at both the fbi and washington field office and the fbi baltimore field office. he was promoted to provide three

special agents of the elite group in 2018. he also served as the assistant special agent in charge of both the new york field office and the chicago field office. i want to again thank both gentlemen for their willingness to come forward and share their testimony today for the members of this committee and for the american people. pursuant to committee rule 9g, they will please stand and raise their right hands. do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? let the record show that the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. we look forward to your testimony. let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements, and they will appear in full. please press the button on your microphone in front of you so that it is on. i recognized mr. ziegler to

please begin his opening statement. >> thank you. members of the committee, today i sit here before you not as a hero or a victim but as a whistle-blower compelled to share the truth. in coming forward, i believe i am risking my career, my reputation, and my casework outside of the investigation we are here to discuss. i ultimately made the decision to come forward after what i saw were multiple attempts at blowing the whistle at the internal revenue service. no one should be above the law, regardless of your political affiliation. i humbly view my role here today as providing the facts as i best understood them and to let congress and the administration and the public consider those facts and determine the best path forward. i recognize why i was present at the start of this investigation and was closely involved for roughly five years.

i'm just a part of the story. others including my colleague and supervisor gary shapley has their own views and understandings of what took place during this investigation. i've been an agent with the irs since 2010. in 2007, i received my undergraduate degree from ohio university. prior to starting my career, i worked at ernst & young as an external auditor. throughout my career with the irs, i've worked a variety of successful criminal attacks and money laundering investigations. in 2018, i traveled down my transition to being a part of the group out of the washington, d.c., field office. i was the lead on the hunter biden investigation. i recently discovered that people are saying i must be credible because i am a democrat who happens to be married to a man. i am no more credible than this

man sitting next to me due to my political beliefs. my credibility comes today from my job experience with the irs and my intimate knowledge of the agency standard and procedures. i was raised and have always strived to do what is right. although i do have my supporters, others have said that i'm a traitor to the democratic party and that i am causing more division in our society. i implore you to consider that if you were in my position, ask yourself if you would be doing the exact same thing. i hope i am an example to other lgbtq people out there who are questioning doing the right thing at the potential cost to themselves and others. we should always do the right thing, no matter how painful the process may be. i kind of equate this to feelings i encountered coming out. it was honestly one of the hardest things i ever had to go through. i contemplated scenarios that would have been highly regrettable, but i did what was

right and i am standing in front of you today. i would first like to take a minute to thank people for their unfettered help and support. first off god for giving me the strength and courage. my husband who has been my rock, has put up with me, my stress, has had to deal with his personal information being out there. my attorney who has agreed to represent me through this matter pro bono and someone who has provided me so much help and guidance. the work that was done on this case is tremendous but seems to be overshadowed by what is happening here today, and i just want to say to the investigative team that i am thankful for having worked with you. i want to thank my family and friends back on in northeastern georgia and ohio. i had to fly here and had to pay out-of-pocket for all my travel related expenses and being a whistle-blower. i would like to make another statement that i have not accepted a single payment from

anyone for being a whistle-blower. mr. chairman, my written statement as well as my testimony before the ways and means committee, i would like to touch on briefly seven specific matters. first, in a recent letter to congress, mr. weiss stated that he had been granted ultimate authority over this matter but that later stated that he is geographically limited and that he would need a president biden appointed u.s. attorney to partner with him and charge in the case. mr. weiss stated he was making all decisions necessary to preserve the integrity of the prosecution consistent with federal law, the principles of federal prosecution, and departmental regulations. in the criminal tax manual, found on the doj website, tax division of policy that cases involving individuals who fail to file tax returns or pay it a tax but also commit acts of evasion or obstruction should be

charged as felonies to avoid treatment. in early august 2022, federal prosecutors drafted a 99 page memorandum. and so, they were recommending for approval felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017, '18, '19 tax years. that did not happen, and i'm not sure why. as the special agent on this case, i thought the felony charges were well supported. when considering the elements under the criminal code, there are two -- in the criminal context, willfulness is defined as voluntary, intentional violation of a no legal duty. the tax loss is the monetary loss of the government. in early 2020, hunter biden unfiled and delinquent tax returns were being prepared

which included his 2018 tax return. during the 2020 time. my, my hunter biden's own account, he was sober, newly married, and writing his memoir. his accounts requested that he signed a representation later stating that all the deductions were for business purposes and were being reported appropriately. statements he made in his book completely contradicted what he was deducting as business deductions on his 2018 return. while writing his memoir, hunter stated "i hold up inside the chateau and learned how to cook crack." he allegedly falsely claimed a business deductions for payments made to date chateau marmont, a hotel room for his suppose a drug dealer, sex club memberships, falsely referenced as a golf membership. hotels he was blacklisted from. and a columbia university

tuition payment for his adult daughter. felony tax evasion. these false deductions claimed by hunter biden caused a false return to be prepared that underreported by a $267,000 and a loss to the u.s. treasury of $106,000. hunter biden did not report any of the money he earned from burisma for the 2014 tax year which would have been a tax loss to the government of $124,000. according to my previous testimony, hunter biden did not report this income to the irs or pay tax on the source of income. there is nothing that i see in the public documents as the department of justice action against hunter biden that indicate that hunter biden will be required to pay tax on this burisma in, or amend his 2014 tax return. i would like to note that the plea agreement may provide a

greater understanding. i would like to make clear that the charging document for the district of delaware hunter biden was charged with failure to timely pay his taxes in excess of $100,000. on his 2017 and 2018 tax returns, he reported taxes owed of 581,620,000, respe respectiv. from the filed false return of $106,000. thus, as i read the public documents as the department of justice action against hunter biden, there is nothing that indicates hunter biden will be required to amend his false tax return for 2018. a false tax return that includes improper deductions for prostitutes, sex clubs, and tuition for his adult children.

fourth, the decision to bring felony counts wasn't agreed to by both prosecutors and investigators. in the fall of 2021, i met with prosecutors assigned it to the case, and we all decided which charges we were going to recommend, which included felony counts related to 2014 and '18. in march 2022, the prosecutors requested discovery and presented the case to the d.c. u.s. attorney's office. in later meetings, the prosecutors, all four attorneys agreed to recommend felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017 '18, and '19. in so that the attorney sent an email about the process of bringing charges to include felony and misdemeanor tax charges and two separate districts. delaware and los angeles.

less than a month later, gary shapley and i met with with stairways who stated that he agreed with us. but that this could somehow affect the later year misdemeanor and felony charges that he conveyed were stronger. despite these facts, the plea deal that is being discussed occurred. to this day, i do not have a reason why this occurred appeared from my perspective, this might not have been problematic, had the investigation been handled in the ordinary course. as i previously testified and is contained in my written testimony, i have outlined for you some instances in which a sign prosecutors did not appear to follow the normal investigative progress, so blocks the investigation, put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case. a number of times we were not able to follow the facts. i am happy to respond to

questions concerning these instances. next, i will also note that while the impression has been conveyed by the u.s. attorney in delaware that he has similar powers to that of the special counsel, free reign to do as needed, that was not the case. it appeared to me based on what i experienced at the u.s. attorney in delaware and our investigation was hamstrung, limited, marginalized by doj officials as well as other u.s. attorneys. i still think that a special counsel is necessary for this investigation. to further handle ancillary investigations that are spun off and relate to joe biden but may not have venue in delaware. lastly, i would like to conclude again by encouraging congress and the administration to consider establishing an official channel for federal investigators to pull the emergency cord and raise the issue of the appointment of the special counsel for

consideration by senior officials. i do not want my colleagues at the irs, fbi, and other health federal law enforcement agencies to go through my frustrating journey -- to go through my frustrating journey and that of our team. i believe this will strengthen the public's confidence in their institutions and they are fair and equal treatment of all americans under the law. thank you, and i look forward to the questions. >> thank you very much. mr. shapley. >> thank you for inviting me to testify here today. i want to thank every member and staff are on both sides of the aisle who -- for the work that you do to represent your constituents and hold government accountable. my name is gary shapley. i have worked for the irs for 14 years. i risen to become a senior leader and currently supervised 12 elite agents and the financial crimes unit. i have worked directly with the

multiple districts and have supervised or investigated cases and more than a dozen offices across the country. i have executed search warrants and more than a dozen countries. i've investigated and managed some of the largest cases, recovering more than $3.5 billion for the united states taxpayer. we believe in the rule of law, and that applies to everyone. there should not be a two track justice system depending on who you are and who you're connected to. yet in this case, there was. i am here to tell you that the department of justice handling the hunter biden tax investigation was very different from any other case in my 14 years at the irs. every stage, decisions were made that benefited the subject of this investigation. for example, prosecutors concealed contents of his laptop from investigators. including interviews executing

search warrants. warrants that were ready as early as april of 2020 but were delayed until after the november pursued. investigators were not allowed to follow up on what that message is from his icloud back up where he suggested he was sitting next to his father. leslie will cited the objects of executing a search warrant at his residence as a deciding factor for not allowing it, even though she agreed that the probable cause existed here prosecutors instructed investigators not to ask about "the big guy" or dad, when conducting interviews. tipped off about interviews the night before the investigation went over very. that counterpart confirmed to this committee and recent testimony that only one witness spoke to investigators that day. these are just some of the examples of how our investigation was stymied. i am not here to support partisan agendas on either side.

i'm here because our tax system relies on the american people having confidence that it is administered fairly and equally to everyone, regardless of political connections. if the handling of this case was inappropriate, it does not matter if it happened under a democrat or republican administration. you can be sure that my testimony is true and correct to the best of my ability. unfortunately, the way this has already been handled by some members and the media has done immeasurable damage to the future would be whistle-blowers. i have been attacked as incompetent, falsely accused of being a liar, leaker, or worse. all by people who know nothing about me or the facts of this case. some have questioned if i should even be called a whistle-blower. because they don't like what i'm saying. we've seen the shoe on the other foot before, and some republicans have made the same

error, so there's plenty of blame for both sides. the cycle has to stop. when i first started noticing deviations from the normal investigative process around june 2020, i did not run to congress to air grievances. i documented my concerns and made internal disclosures to my chain of command. i tried to give prosecutors the benefit of the doubt for a fairly long time. they recommended charging him with several misdemeanors for 2014 through 2019. the tax division attorneys -- listed in exhibit two of my interview transcripts on pages 44 and 45 which were officially referred to the division in february of 2022. this case was presented to the washington, d.c., u.s. attorney's office in and/or

around march of 2022. april 2022, asked how the american people can be confident when the administration was conducting a series of investigations into his own son, he responded by saying because we put the investigation in the hands of a trouble appointee. leading congress to believe that it was insulated from improper influence because all decisions were being made exclusively by david wyeth's, but that was not true. the justice department allowed the president's political appointees to weigh in on whether they charge the president son. matthew graves, appointed by president biden, refused to bring charges in march of 2022. i watched him tell a room full of senior leaders on october that he was not the deciding person on whether charges were filed. that was my redline. i had already seen a pattern of preferential treatment and

obstruction. now he was admitting that what the american people believed based on the attorney general sworn statement was false. i could no longer stay silent. in november of 2022, the statute of limitations was set to expire for the 2014 and 2015 charges which included the felonies for the attempt to evade tax or fraud or false statement regarding burisma income earned by hunter biden in those years. it has been extended with an agreement, and they were willing to extended past november 2022. weiss allows us to expire. executors presented the criminal tax charges to the district of california around 2022 only after the nominee was confirmed. january of this year, i learned estrada had declined it to bring the charges. for all intents and purposes, the case was dead with the exception of one gun charge that

could be brought in delaware. when senator chuck grassley asked about the case, garland testified the united states attorney has been advised he has full authority to bring cases in other districts if he needs to do that. he's been advised that he should get anything he needs. after the october 7th redline meeting, there was no way to reconcile the statements, his office's actions, with attorney general garland's public testimony. i am 100% certain of what delaware and the district attorney's office did in california. "the new york times" reported and has independently confirmed the charges brought in california if you're plenty of other witnesses are familiar with these facts in addition to those who witnessed weiss' private admission. i encouraged him to tell the truth about what he heard. although these facts contradict

the testimony and raise serious questions, i have never claimed to have evidence that he knowingly lied to congress. whether attorney general garland knew his testimony was false it is for you and the inspector general's to determine, not me. the same is true for weiss' three letters to congress. that is for others to investigate and determine whether that contains knowingly false statements. however, it is clear that weiss story to the american public has evolved. he's gone from unequivocally echoing garlanded to corroborating the disclosures that we made about limits on his authority. then admitted he is geographically limited. to go beyond those, weiss later admitted he had to partner or get special authority. garland says weiss has authority. he was assured he would get

authority. if he never requested or denied special authority as he told us on october 7th, the american public deserves to hear why he allowed 2014 and 2015 charges to expire. no member of carefully worded denials or half-truths and overshadowed the stark fact. when i say that they will each be sitting for these committees one day, they will have to admit that despite all their hockey station, the absolute fact is that this case was presented to two u.s. attorney is in the u.s. in california that no charges were brought in those districts tells you everything you need to know. i don't claim to be privy to their communications, but the united states attorney weiss said that he was not the deciding person, denied special authority after d.c.'s declined to press charges and that of california declined, would have to ask again.

i understand the gravity where full responsibility lies with garland or weiss is for congress and ultimately the public to decide. when i decided after october 7 to come forward and began researching whistle-blower attorneys, i wanted to abide by the law as i navigated the complex statutes. i carefully followed the whistle-blower process to the letter with the advice of counsel at every step. i am fortunate to be represented by the federal prosecutor for 25 years including five years with the department of justice tax division. also grateful for the nonprofit whistle-blower group whose president was previously nominated by president biden to the protection board and unanimously confirmed by the united states senate. while some have tried to paint me with a partisan brush because they employ some former staffers to g.o.p. -- their expertise developed working for the

stomach chuck grassley has been invaluable. meanwhile, the biden family attorneys appeared to be representing hunter biden, president biden, and the department of justice, and they are not working for free. it has been recorded that there is a large fund paying for legal fees. the source of those funds is unknown. they have virtually unlimited resources to pursue their agenda well my motives are questioned simply for finding competent representation from a small nonprofit that helps whistle-blowers. only passed to ensure whistle-blowers like me are heard and received competent advice. my intention was not to be the sole source of information, and i implore you to obtain as much evidence as possible from as many sources as possible to be able to fully inform your conclusions. i am confident both sides will find serious issues that closely align with my testimony.

no matter your party, i am not your opposition. i am here with information for you to examine and investigate and determine -- i am on your team, whether we agree on every politically sensitive issue or not. there is no benefit for me blowing the whistle on this case. absolutely none. i have no book deal. the only money that goes into my bank account every two weeks is from my employment with the federal government. i am still leading a group of 12 fantastic agents. unfortunately to this day my immediate supervisors are retaliating against me for making protected disclosures. even last fall, attorneys attacked investigators in the pages of "the washington post" and threatened the prosecutors with career suicide if they brought charges against the president's son. then one of the biden family attorneys sent a ten page a

refilled letter attacking me with innuendo, false statements, baseless speculation that i had leaked information to "the washington post." these statements by biden family attorneys are false. in conclusion, the american people for whom this body works, i implore you to look at the facts. not agenda laced statements from either side of the aisle. i am the average american citizen who worries about how i will send my kids to college and if i will ever have enough money to retire, just like most people watching this today. i'm the first person in my family to go to college. it was not an ivy league school, and i don't have a network of rich and powerful friends to help me weather this storm of character assassination. i am putting myself at risk for the american people who support me and for those who do not. i am just a small-town kid who worked hard to get where i am and will never compromise my integrity. i will never forget who i am,

where i come from, or all the people in my life who has made me who i am today. thank you for your time. >> thank you both for those excellent opening statement. we will now begin the questioning phase, and i will begin questioning with mr. ziegler. we focused on following the evidence. specifically the money trail through bank records and suspicious activity reports, and i want to discuss with you specific payments made to hunter biden and the biden family. they are saying there is no evidence, but let's get into the evidence. i want to direct you to pages 99 and 100 of your transcript. how much money did hunter biden and his associates received from the romanian company you identify? >> so that amount would be from romania, so the approximate total transfer from the romanian company would have been

$3.1 million to everyone. >> how much did hunter biden and his business associates received through the robinson llc? >> total transfer is was 3 million. >> $3 million. was there a $100,000 payment? hunter biden's professional corporation. >> yes, chairman. >> approximately how much was transferred through hudson west three? >> the total transfer to everyone was $3.7 million. >> how much money did hunter biden and his business associates received from the ukrainian company burisma? >> $6.5 million to everyone involved. >> they also paid blue star strategies and a law firm, bringing the total payments over $7 million. is that correct?

>> $7.3 million. >> between 2014 and 2019, this brings the total amount of foreign income streams brought to approximately $17 million, correct? >> that is correct. >> what was the purpose of analyzing money from foreign sources, and do you have documents to support your findings? >> so far, the purpose of documenting the foreign sources is we, as a part of the normal international tax investigation, we have to figure out where the money is coming from, follow the money trail, and as a part of that, we have to follow different transactions, identify different foreign entities that may be paying a person, and then we go and get those records. >> hopefully you can provide that to the committee. >> any records regarding those transactions, we can -- because >> we love evidence on the side of the aisle.

you identified other biden family members who receive relevant payments such as the grandchildren. can you explain why you wanted to interview them? >> so, as a part of the investigation, you want to interview people whom i have received money, people who might have had deductions that were deducted on the tax return, so there's a multitude of reasons why you would want to talk to family members. >> is a comment for grandchildren to receive money from foreign nationals and significant business -- >> i don't know the reason or what's behind any of these payments that might have been made to specific family members, but i can speak to what was in our transcripts. >> thank you. i would invite the media. to review the memorandum which closely matches the irs figures. discussing payments from

ukraine, russia, and other sources very soon based on bank records. we have recently received but have not disclosed he had. can you confirm for me what i've been saying all along, that the committee has accomplished in five months what it took the department of justice five years to figure out. mr. shapley, you stated that there were certain investigative steps you were not allowed to take that could have led to president biden. can you tell us what steps you wanted to take that you cou couldn't? >> so there were multiple instances in this investigation where there are references to the father of the subject, president biden. in the course of any normal investigation, when the subject's father is somehow related to the finances, in a normal investigation, we would have to go and get that information to properly vet the financial flows of money in that investigation to determine what

we end up charging. >> there was a tweet or a message in the laptop from hunter biden to kevin, who -- it said "the bidens are the best i know at doing exactly what the chairman wants from this partnership." now, the chairman he is referring to is chairman yee of -- >> i believe so, yes. >> so, can you tell me what the bidens are best at. do you understand what he would have meant by that? this is a chinese company, and i think the ranking member referred to it -- the same entity that aided the money that he got indicted for for being an