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The IRS whistleblowers say Justice sabotaged the investigation, so how can the agreement stand?
By Eileen J. O’Connor
Supervisory Special Agent Gary A. Shapley Jr., a 14-year veteran of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, sat on May 26 for hours of sworn and transcribed testimony with members of the majority and minority staffs of the House Ways and Means Committee. On June 1, an IRS criminal investigator who chose to remain anonymous did the same. These whistleblowers came forward because they believe that Attorney General Merrick Garland gave false assurances to Congress when he testified that he had empowered U.S. Attorney David Weiss with full authority to investigate Hunter Biden’s alleged criminal activity and bring any resulting charges.
The plea agreement reportedly reached between Mr. Weiss and the president’s son gives credence to the whistleblowers’ statements. The judge to whom that agreement is presented on July 26 ought to consider rejecting it.
Was the Hunter Biden Investigation Handled Improperly?
IRS special agents are the agency’s criminal investigators. They are the best in the world at tracking down the proceeds of crime. Because of this, they are frequently invited by other federal law-enforcement agencies to participate in matters far removed from tax crimes. They work hand-in-glove with assistant U.S. attorneys and Justice Department tax prosecutors to obtain search warrants and other authorizations necessary to explore leads.
The IRS opened its investigation into Hunter Biden in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation it was conducting of a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform. In October 2019 the Federal Bureau of Investigation learned of certain devices, including laptops, that had been abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. According to Mr. Shapley, FBI agents had confirmed within weeks that the devices belonged to Mr. Biden and that their contents were authentic. After taking possession of the devices in December 2019, FBI agents notified the IRS that they likely contained evidence of tax crimes. Notwithstanding this notification and that the FBI had legitimate possession of the devices and unfettered access to their contents, Mr. Shapley’s testimony describes how prosecutors never permitted the IRS special agents to examine them.
This is only one of the roadblocks the whistleblowers claim prosecutors threw in the way of their investigation into Mr. Biden’s financial dealings. The IRS special agents testified that they requested and were denied permission to search the guest house at Joe Biden’s Delaware mansion and the storage locker Hunter Biden maintained in Northern Virginia. The whistleblowers claim they had reason to believe they would find records in those locations of at least some of the numerous pass-through entities that reportedly served as conduits for illicit and likely unreported payments to Hunter Biden and possibly other members of his family.
Federal rules provide that the government generally must prosecute an offense in the district in which it was committed. Charges brought in an improper venue can be dismissed. U.S. attorneys are the chief federal law enforcement officers for their districts. When a U.S. attorney discovers crimes that need to be charged in another district, he generally transfers the case and, if necessary, details some of his own staff to handle it.
By June 2021, Mr. Weiss’s prosecution team had gathered enough evidence to understand that Delaware wasn’t the proper venue in which to prosecute Hunter Biden’s tax crimes. Crimes allegedly committed in 2014 and 2015 would have to be charged in the District of Columbia and those allegedly committed 2016-19 would have to be charged in the Central District of California.
According to the whistleblowers’ testimony, the U.S. attorneys in the capital and Central California refused Mr. Weiss’s requests to charge Hunter Biden in their districts. Mr. Shapley testified that Mr. Weiss then asked “Main DOJ” to name him special counsel and was denied—possibly not for the first time. In March testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee the attorney general said that although he hadn’t made Mr. Weiss special counsel, he had given Mr. Weiss all the authority he needed to bring charges in any district he deemed appropriate.
But on Oct. 7, 2022, Mr. Shapley claims, Mr. Weiss declared in a meeting of the prosecution team that in fact he wasn’t the final decision maker with respect to charges that might be brought against Hunter Biden. It was this statement that shocked and troubled Mr. Shapley such that he braved the consequences of becoming a whistleblower and sought legal counsel on how to do so.
The Justice Department’s alleged foot-dragging and refusal to permit IRS special agents to follow the evidence allowed the statutes of limitations for 2014 and 2015 to expire, notwithstanding that Mr. Biden’s defense counsel had, according to Mr. Shapley, agreed to more than one extension. Far worse, Mr. Garland’s failure to designate Mr. Weiss a special counsel essentially guaranteed that Mr. Biden wouldn’t be prosecuted for any of his alleged tax crimes.
The “criminal information”—the charging document in the absence of an indictment—prepared by Mr. Weiss’s office, to which Hunter Biden will reportedly plead on July 26, states that Mr. Biden received but didn’t pay federal taxes on “taxable income in excess of $1,500,000.00” in 2017 and in 2018. House Oversight Committee Republicans claim to have seen Treasury Department suspicious-activity reports suggesting that Mr. Biden received vastly more than that during the years the IRS was investigating.
Judges can reject plea agreements. That would be an appropriate disposition here. And Congress, in fulfillment of its oversight obligation, must learn and share with the American public what evidence the IRS gathered, what evidence its agents weren’t permitted to obtain, and what charges might have been brought if they had.
Ms. O’Connor, a Washington lawyer, headed the U.S. Justice Department’s tax division, 2001-07. Jay Starkman contributed to this article.
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New Poll Shows the Battle Between Trump and DeSantis Is Too Close to Call
By Sarah Arnold
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White House Hires Anti-Israel Professor From University Engulfed in Anti-Semitism Controversy
CUNY professor Ramzi Kassem says 9/11 terrorists were not driven by 'intrinsic evil'
By Adam Kredo
The White House's newest hire is a City University of New York (CUNY) professor who has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "systematic genocide," a move that is raising alarms among the many people who are already concerned about the Biden administration's failure to combat anti-Semitism on America's college campuse
Ramzi Kassem, a professor at CUNY's law school, was tapped to serve as a senior policy adviser for immigration in the White House's Domestic Policy Council. Kassem is a vocal Israel critic who spent a portion of his time as an undergrad at Columbia University writing scathing criticisms of the Jewish state, a Washington Free Beacon review found. Kassem, who helped defend terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, charged the Jewish state with genocide and decried "unconditional" support for Israel.
Kassem's hiring comes as the Biden administration fights the perception it is feeding Israel's opponents. A closely watched White House plan on combating anti-Semitism, for instance, was recently watered down by anti-Israel activists. The State Department admitted on Monday that it is boycotting research partnerships with certain Israeli organizations.
CUNY announced that Kassem "will work to support the Biden-Harris agenda across a range of immigration issues" using his expertise as "a national leader on progressive immigration reform." Kassem enters the White House after working for more than a decade at CUNY, which has repeatedly found itself in hot water for promoting anti-Semitic hate speech and, in some cases, subjecting Jewish students to "severe and persistent anti-Semitic harassment." CUNY's law school, in particular, promotes anti-Semitic boycotts against Israel and recently featured a graduation speaker who accused Israel of sending "lynch mobs" after Palestinians.
Kassem's past writings strike a similar note. In an April 1998 article, the White House adviser claimed there is "sufficient evidence" implicating Israel in a "systematic genocide" against the Palestinians. The Jewish state's behavior, Kassem wrote in the Columbia Spectator, is "a clear-cut case of ethnic cleansing." In another April 1998 article, titled "Zionism Impedes Middle Eastern Peace," Kassem claimed European Jews came to the Middle East "with the intention of conquering the land." A two-state solution between the parties "is not viable, nor is it desirable," he insisted.
Kassem also maintained that peace will only be achieved if Israel affords Palestinians the "right of return," a long dormant policy proposal that would erase Israel's Jewish majority.
"It doesn't make sense that Jewish Americans living in Brooklyn have more rights to the land than Palestinians who live in Lebanon and can't return to their historical land," Kassem was quoted as saying in a November 2000 Spectator interview.
In a separate piece authored in October 2000, Kassem claimed that Israel has no business defending Jews from terror attacks in Nablus, a Palestinian city where militants frequently clash with Israeli security forces.
"The fact that Israel has no internationally recognized right to be there in the first place is conveniently omitted, and never mind that the citizens in question happen to be illegal settlers armed to the teeth by the Israeli military and heavily subsidized by their government," Kassem wrote in that Spectator article, which includes several other bylines.
Kassem also decried "unconditional" U.S. support for Israel, saying in the November 2000 interview with the Spectator that "the power of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee and other lobbying groups has allowed Israeli 'ethnocracy' to flourish."
Kassem's role at the White House is generating scrutiny among pro-Israel advocates already upset by the Biden administration's efforts to undermine the current Israeli government.
"The peril lies in the White House's choice to enlist an individual who has espoused profoundly offensive and injurious rhetoric concerning Israel and Jews," Hen Mazzig, a senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, which combats anti-Semitism, told the Free Beacon. "History has shown us that individuals harboring anti-Israel notions may attempt a performative transformation upon assuming public office, yet their stand remains the same within."
"Were any other marginalized community at stake," Mazzig said, "unequivocal consensus would swiftly denounce the wisdom of appointing such a person with employment."
Kassem also took issue with Columbia University's 1999 decision to call one of its sandwiches an "Israeli wrap," writing in a letter to the editor of the Spectator that the term is offensive to Muslims and Arabs.
"The hiring of an anti-Israel college professor from CUNY Law, a school riddled with anti-Semitism, to the highest levels of the United States government is incredibly concerning," StopAntisemitism.org executive director Liora Rez told the Free Beacon. "With anti-Semitism skyrocketing across the country, the last thing we need are bigots with anti-Semitic views advising the president on immigration policy. Kassems hiring is antithetical to the White House's anti-Semitism strategy , which has already been watered down plenty by anti-Israel groups that share his values."
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and recently appointed chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said that Kassem should commit to upholding the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's widely recognized standard definition of anti-Semitism.
"There is only one question I would ask Ramzi Kassem: 'As a senior policy White House adviser do you endorse and will you apply the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism?'" Cooper told the Free Beacon.
In addition to his anti-Israel advocacy, Kassem has sought to downplay the impact of the 9/11 terror attacks, writing in September 2001 article that the attackers were not evil.
"The perpetrators were probably not driven to their actions by some intrinsic evil or inherent hatred of the good United States. These acts of violence were gratuitous only in the sense that they wantonly and indiscriminately targeted innocent civilians," Kassem wrote. "The resentment these terrorists felt towards the United States was rooted in political realities shaped by our country's policies."
As a law professor and CUNY employee, Kassem has helped free several accused terrorists from prison, according to his online profile. He is also the founding director of CUNY's CLEAR program, a legal advocacy group that helps Muslims and other communities pursue allegations of unjust surveillance by local authorities
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. An request for comment sent to Kassem's CUNY email address returned an auto-response saying he is on leave.
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Netanyahu Revives Judicial Overhaul Stripped of Most Controversial Piece
By Dov Lieber and Michael Amon
JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would drop the most controversial part of his plan to remake the country’s court system, pushing ahead with legislation stripped of a provision that would have given the national legislature the power to overturn rulings by the Supreme Court.
“It’s out,” Netanyahu said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that also touched on relations with the U.S., his decision not to supply weapons to Ukraine and his concerns about deepening ties between Russia and Iran.
Netanyahu’s initial judicial-overhaul plan, which sparked large-scale unrest that paralyzed the country earlier this year, was opposed by many secular and liberal Israelis who said they feared the measures would give the government too much power and lead to a rollback in civil liberties.
“I’m attentive to the public pulse, and to what I think will pass muster,” said Netanyahu, who has previously said he wouldn’t support an “unlimited override clause.”
Netanyahu allowed lieutenants to advance the initial legislation, but he has taken control of the plan’s substance and messaging since he paused the effort in March after civil unrest. The prime minister also said he would revise another controversial piece of the legislation, which would have given the ruling coalition more power to appoint judges, though he said he wasn’t sure yet what the new version would look like.
The revisions are unlikely to persuade opposition politicians to support the plan, and risk alienating the religious far-right and ultraorthodox parties that play a critical role in Netanyahu’s coalition government and see the country’s courts as too activist and hostile to their agenda.
It is unclear whether they go far enough to forestall a repeat of mass protests that grew so severe that Netanyahu in March suspended the legislation and started compromise talks with the opposition. He said the sides failed to reach an agreement and that he would move forward with his own revised plan.
He said that with his new version of the law he was determined to find a middle ground so any changes would “stick for a generation.” The opposition says Netanyahu risks plunging the country back into turmoil if he doesn’t return to the negotiating table.
The prime minister said he has also sought a middle ground in Israel’s response to the war in Ukraine.
Netanyahu rejected calls from some Washington lawmakers and Ukrainian officials to join the West’s effort to arm Ukraine, saying, “We have concerns that I don’t think any of the Western allies of Ukraine have.” He said he needs to ensure Israel has “freedom of action” in Syria, where Israeli pilots often bomb Iranian targets in the vicinity of Russia forces, which prop up the Damascus government.
He said he is also concerned that Israeli weaponry could be captured on the Ukraine battlefield and turned over to Iran, which has developed a closer military relationship with Russia in recent months. Specifically, he said Israel couldn’t allow the U.S. to give Ukraine the Iron Dome air-defense system—developed jointly with the U.S.—which has protected Israelis from frequent attacks by Iran-backed militants.
“If that system were to fall into the hands of Iran, then millions of Israelis would be left defenseless and imperiled,” Netanyahu said. He added that Israel had joined United Nations resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion and had delivered an early-warning system for detecting missile attacks to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel called fears of weaponry ending up in Iranian hands “entirely fictional and speculative assumptions.”
Netanyahu said he has conveyed his concerns to Russia about its growing military ties to Iran, which has supplied Moscow with drones that have been used on the battlefield in Ukraine. In exchange, Moscow has helped Iran with its cyber capabilities and is considering requests to help Iran with jet fighters, combat helicopters and potentially its missile-production capabilities, the Journal has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
“It’s a very disturbing relationship,” he said. “We’ve made our concerns known to the Russians.” Netanyahu declined to comment on what Moscow communicated in return.
Netanyahu said Israel’s relations with the U.S. remained strong, though he has yet to receive an invitation to visit the White House from President Biden. “I think it may take some time, but I think, of course, I should expect to meet President Biden,” he said.
The two men have known each other for four decades, but Netanyahu’s government has pursued policies that have upset the Biden administration, including approval of new Israeli settlements and raids on Palestinian militants in the West Bank. His far-right senior ministers have been unable to meet with Biden administration officials.
“This issue of the invitation clouds people’s views,” Netanyahu said. “In fact, the security cooperation, the military cooperation and the intel cooperation, including cyber, is stronger than it’s ever been under our two governments.”
Netanyahu could meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping before President Biden. Netanyahu’s office said this week that he would soon visit China, though no date was given, a decision political analysts said could further strain relations with Biden. Netanyahu’s office said this would be his fourth China visit and that the U.S. was notified of the visit a month ago. Israeli President Isaac Herzog is set to visit the White House in July.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2017 and could visit China again soon. Photo: Etienne Oliveau/Press Pool
In the West Bank, where Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians has been deadlier than at any point since the early 2000s, Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian Authority for failing to provide security. He said he rejected suggestions from some in his government that the authority should be dissolved and said he supported efforts to strengthen the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership.
“My policy has been to definitely keep the Palestinian Authority. I don’t want it to dissolve the way people are talking. It’s simply ridiculous,” he said.
He said freedom of Israeli security services to operate anywhere in the West Bank was a crucial element to restoring order in the territory. Netanyahu said any peace deal with the Palestinians wouldn’t happen soon, saying Palestinians still don’t accept Israel’s right to exist.
Palestinian Authority officials say that they recognize Israel’s right to exist within its internationally recognized borders, and that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its Egypt-backed blockade of Gaza are the reasons the conflict continues.
While some Palestinian officials say their control of the West Bank has eroded, they blame frequent Israeli military raids, a lack of funding and widespread despair over Israel’s occupation.
The West Bank has also seen a series of Israeli settler mobs attacking Palestinian towns in revenge for deadly attacks against Israelis. Scores of settlers have set fire to dozens of cars and homes, injured more than a dozen Palestinians and left one Palestinian dead from gunshot wounds, according to the Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem.
Netanyahu called the settler attacks “misguided, unacceptable and criminal.” The heads of Israel’s security services have called the mob violence “nationalist terrorism.” Asked whether he agreed with his security chiefs, Netanyahu said: “You can call it nationalistic terrorism. It’s fine, but it doesn’t solve the problem.”
He added: “I will not tolerate any of this vigilantism. The ones who have the monopoly on the use of violence are the military and our security forces, not any individual.”
An Israeli military raid in the West Bank last week destroyed the home of a Palestinian accused of taking part in the killing of an Israeli soldier. Photo: Alaa Badarneh/EFE/Zuma Press
Netanyahu said that he would continue seeking peace agreements with more Arab and Muslim-majority countries, and that over time that would bring Palestinians closer to accepting Israel’s presence.
“I think peace is possible with additional Arab states, effectively ending the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he said. “And I think that would lead to peace with the Palestinians too.”
While Netanyahu says he is focused on expanding the series of peace agreements between Israel and Muslim-majority countries in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords, his coalition has presented a challenge.
In March 2022, the foreign ambassadors of Israel, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. met in Israel’s Negev Desert to discuss regional cooperation following the Abraham Accords.
The sides decided to reconvene every year to continue the work, but that has been delayed because of the discomfort of Arab participants over the escalating tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Netanyahu rejected the idea that his coalition, which includes parties seen internationally as holding extremist views on the Palestinians, represents a stumbling block to advancing the Abraham Accords.
“They joined me. I didn’t join them,” he said of his coalition partners. “And ultimately, policy is determined by me and my colleagues in the Likud.”
Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com and Michael Amon at michael.amon@wsj.com
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I do mot know how long Biden can stonewall but I would assume the problems will mount.
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More Evidence Against Hunter Biden Is Coming
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I have a black friend who told me affirmative action may be against the law but was necessary to get the ball rolling. I understood where he was coming from and I responded murder was ok as long as it called attention to crime. He had no response.
Elites want to retain power and they will resort to anything to retain it. Discrimination to end discrimination is nonsense but if it dumbs the nation down and helps the elites retain power so be it. "When all else fails lower your standards."
Flying in a plane whose pilot is black and less competent is preferable to flying in a plane whose pilot is Asian and excellent. I get it. A kid who believes 1 and 1 is 3 is preferable to the correct answer. I get it. Going to a doctor who graduated at the bottom is acceptable as long as he get's a degree. Patronizing black incompetence is our goal? . I get it.
I want to live in a society that doing everything to become less than it is capable of is a society I want to embrace. I get it.
America's real bigots are Democrat elitists.
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