President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has recently filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The lawsuit alleges that IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, along with their legal representatives, illegally disclosed Hunter’s private tax information to the public between April and August 2023.
An account issued by Shapley’s legal team maintains that none of Hunter’s confidential taxpayer information was ever released, except through authorized whistleblower disclosures. They further argued that when Shapley’s previously confidential testimony was made public by the Congress, he retained the right to discuss that public information.
As per sequence of events, on May 26, 2023, Gary Shapley was secretly interviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee. He claimed to be involved in a special investigation of Hunter Biden, coded “Sportsman”. According to Shapley, the handling of this case was an outlier compared to all other investigations he has conducted throughout his 14-year career at the IRS.
During the interview, the committee counsel advised Shapley that the information discussed was confidential, as per Section 7213 of the Internal Revenue Code. This law prohibits unauthorized disclosures of tax returns and return information.
However, on June 22, 2023, the Ways and Means Committee released the transcript of the confidential hearing to the public on its website.
Hunter Biden’s complaint asserts that Shapley violated these confidentiality terms by speaking to the press multiple times. This claim was verifiable from one interview Shapley conducted with CBS News on May 24, 2023, which occurred prior to the public release of the hearing transcript.
According to IRS website, the whistleblower exemption, as cited by Shapley’s team, comes into action in administrative or judicial proceedings pertaining to whistleblowers under Section 6103(h)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.
It now falls to the court to determine whether the public statements made by Shapley, Ziegler, and their legal teams on the investigation into Hunter Biden, specifically those made before the public release of the hearing transcript, violated tax return confidentiality laws.
Hunter Biden’s complaint is seeking damages, costs and attorney’s fees, and a declaration that the IRS unlawfully disclosed his tax information. He also wants the IRS to be directed to implement a data security plan. As of now, the IRS has not issued any statement in relation to this litigation.