Trump Admin Promotes IRS Whistleblowers ‘Wrongly Punished’ Over Hunter Biden Probe

Two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers are receiving promotions after they were “wrongfully targeted” following their testimony on embattled former first son Hunter Biden’s tax evasion, according to a Tuesday press release from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The release indicated that Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler would be given new roles as Senior Advisors within the Treasury Department, and that part of their job would be to “drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS.”

“The United States Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today announced that the two IRS whistleblowers who had been wrongfully targeted for investigating Hunter Biden’s evasion of taxes on his $8.3 million income would be brought in to the U.S. Department of Treasury as Senior Advisors,” the press release stated.

What followed was a statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who added, “I am pleased to welcome Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler to the Treasury Department, where they will help us drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS. These veteran civil servants join us to help further the agency’s focus on collections, modernization, and customer service, so we can deliver a more effective and efficient IRS experience for hardworking American taxpayers. I appreciate Senator Grassley’s efforts in Congress to support whistleblower protections in order to improve transparency, accountability and root out the culture of retaliation.”

The release concluded, “Shapley and Ziegler, who spent years working on the Hunter Biden tax evasion case, came forward in 2022 and subsequently faced political persecution by the IRS, including several attempts to discredit their reputations and ruin their careers.”

Both Shapley and Ziegler were named in a lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden’s attorneys, alleging that they had made confidential tax information public in their testimonies.

“This suit against the IRS is just another frivolous smear by Biden family attorneys trying to turn people’s attention away from Hunter Biden’s own legal problems and intimidate any current and future whistleblowers,” Shapley responded at the time through his own legal team.