Lawfare and ongoing court battles have become such a major topic in the news in recent years that it’s almost impossible to keep up with them all. One of the stranger developments in the already strange case of First Son Hunter Biden and his legal entanglements is that in the midst of his prosecution for gun and tax violations, he had the chutzpah to sue the IRS for… investigating his tax violations.
Hunter Biden sues the IRS over his despicable attempt to attack whistleblowers
Now Hunter Biden has sued his father’s government, She claims that IRS agents “targeted him and tried to embarrass him.” The lawsuit specifically attacks IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the two whistleblowers who went to Congress to explain the tardy pace and problems they saw in the handling of the case. Biden argues that the whistleblowers launched a campaign to “publicly defame” him.
This followed on the heels of his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, send a letter to the Republicans in the House of Representatives, who sharply criticized them for the investigation into his client. But he also accused the whistleblowers – Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler – of violating federal law with their revelations.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer admits he violated gun laws when he accused Republicans of “congressional manipulation”
Shapley and Ziegler were not named as defendants in Biden’s lawsuit against the IRS, although they have sought to intervene in the case. (The court has not yet ruled on their motion to intervene.)
But now they are going on the offensive. On Friday, Shapley and Ziegler filed a defamation suit against Lowell in the same court (DC District Court), demanding $20 million in damages.
NEW: Defamation lawsuit filed by IRS whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler against Hunter Biden’s lawyer.
“…bring this lawsuit to protect their reputation for the incredible and
malicious harm they suffered at the hands of Abbe Lowell.”“Shapley and Ziegler acted as whistleblowers … pic.twitter.com/H0VUhuL1Sf
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) 14 September 2024
🚨 NEW IRS WHISTLEBLOWER DEFAMATION PROCEEDINGS: Please go to https://t.co/VuJHQBubJp to support Empower hold accountable those who retaliate against whistleblowers. #FightTheLies pic.twitter.com/9BIFuABJmp
— Empower Oversight (@EMPOWR_us) 14 September 2024
The 11-page Complaintnaming Lowell as the sole defendant, lays out the experience and background of Shapley and Ziegler, as well as the chronology of events surrounding the obstacles they encountered in conducting a legitimate investigation and their decision to make protected whistleblower disclosures. It also suggests that they are justified in delicate of Biden’s guilty plea to the tax charges.
Justification: The legal team of IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley
Statement on Hunter Biden’s guilty plea
BREAKING NEWS: Hunter Biden pleads guilty in LA, faces up to 17 years in prison
The impact of Lowell’s claims in delicate of his standing and reputation is then pointed out:
14. It is particularly ironic and damaging that such a well-known attorney as Lowell – in his own words, “one of the nation’s leading criminal defense and trial lawyers” who is “widely regarded as the preferred counsel for individuals facing government investigations and potential charges” – chose to falsely accuse these special agents of criminal conduct. Lowell’s reputation and credibility in the legal community only compounded the damage caused by his defamatory statements.
15. Lowell’s malicious and false allegations, including accusations that Shapley and Ziegler had “committed serious crimes” and “violated the law,” were leaked to third parties, including the media, and severely damaged their professional and personal reputations.
In addition, the complaint sets out the basis for the allegation that Lowell’s statements were made in bad faith.
17. On September 14, 2023, Lowell sent a letter to several congressional committees that included many of Biden’s attorneys’ previous communications to government agencies and congressional committees falsely accusing the plaintiffs of violating grand jury secrecy rules (Rule 6(e)) and the Taxpayer Confidentiality Act (26 U.S.C. § 6103).
18. Lest there be any doubt that Lowell had malicious intent to cause solemn professional and personal damage to Shapley and Ziegler, he was not content to simply make his false accusations to investigators and other government officials. In this letter, Lowell also wrote to Congress: “[W]We are also making these materials available to the public.” The goal of this action was to harm Shapley and Ziegler by republishing the entire package of previous defamatory falsehoods in a larger forum.
19. On the same day, with obvious malicious intent—in retaliation for their protected whistleblowing activity and to damage Shapley and Ziegler’s professional and personal reputations—Lowell republished all of his legal team’s previous defamatory communications to the media. In doing so, Lowell made each false statement a new and separate act of defamation.
20. In particular, Lowell’s September 14, 2024, media release published a letter dated April 21, 2023, written by Christopher Clark (“Clark”), another Biden lawyer, to the Office of the Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice. At the time, Lowell understood the April 21, 2023, letter to be a false accusation by one or both plaintiffs of “leaking information[ing] Information to the press, apparently in violation of federal law, regarding the investigation of our client [Biden]and Lowell knew that readers of his September 14 letter would understand the same thing (“Slanderous Accusation A”). It is worth noting that Biden had already publicly announced years earlier, in December 2020, that a criminal tax investigation had been launched against him.
Defamation suits can be tricky—and costly—(hence the crowdfunding request from Empower Oversight, the firm representing Shapley and Ziegler). As I noted in this article, sharing the statement from Shapley’s legal team following Biden’s guilty plea:
The country owes a debt of gratitude to Mr Shapley and Mr Ziegler.
And Hunter Biden and his legal team, as well as Merrick Garland and the congressional Democrats who pilloried them, owe them a honest apology. (I wouldn’t advise them to hold their breath waiting for one, though.)
I still wouldn’t advise Shapley and Ziegler to wait for that apology. But if justice prevails, they may receive a nice jury award or settlement for their trouble.
