IRS
June 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In 2021 ProPublica initiated the publication of a series it called The Secret IRS Files. Running to some 50 stories, ProPublica’s series served “a crusade for higher taxes, especially a wealth tax,” as the Wall Street Journal puts it in an editorial today. ProPublica based its series on information stolen by IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn. Littlejohn’s theft was criminal and the IRS was responsible for it. ProPublica proclaimed ignorance of
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May 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler must be extraordinarily brave men. They blew the whistle on Hunter Biden, the Biden family business, and the Biden Department of Justice’s sham investigation of same. Yesterday the House Ways and Means Committee the Ways and Means Committee released more than 100 pages of newly obtained evidence provided by Shapley and Ziegler. Chairman Smith’s expository press release is posted here, the documents themselves
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January 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden paid tribute to “the passion” of pro-Hamas protesters in his campaign event at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston yesterday. The White House denominated the speech a “political event” in the transcript of Biden’s remarks. C-SPAN has posted video of the event here. Biden is introduced by his political savior, Rep. James Clyburn, and begins speaking at about 8:00. I didn’t think the IRS blessed political events in
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September 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday the House Ways and Means Committee posted a press release headed “Bombshell: Ways and Means Releases New Documents Revealing Hunter Biden Selling Access to White House, Investigators Blocked from Pursuing Evidence Related to President Biden.” The newly released documents are accessible online here. The press release includes highlights from the newly released documents. What’s it all about? New York Post columnist Miranda Devine is the go-to journalist on the
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September 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Abbe Lowell is the high-powered Washington attorney masterminding the defense of Hunter Biden. His theory is that the best defense is a good offense. Lowell entered the scene with an intimidating volley of criminal referrals and cease-and-desist letters this past February. He has asked federal and state prosecutors to investigate John Paul Mac Isaac and others he accused of disseminating Biden’s personal data. He also threatened former Fox News host
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September 1, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
Few things in life can blow one’s day more than receiving a notice from the Internal Revenue Service that your tax return is being examined or audited. Following a nearly decade-long dispute with the IRS over returns filed in 2013 and 2014, the United States Tax Court ultimately sided with LakePoint Land Group, a Georgia LLC, on Tuesday. The court determined that one of the IRS agents handling the case
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July 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Posted yesterday, Andrew McCarthy’s weekly NRO column is “The Biden Family’s History of Influence-Peddling, Explained” (behind NRO’s paywall). It lays out the template of the Biden family business in Romania and then applies it to Ukraine. It is long, lucid, and devastating. NRO has also posted the long editorial “The Jaw-Dropping Hunter Biden–Investigation Revelations.” The editorial is accessible and provides a useful review of what we have learned so far
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July 20, 2023 — John Hinderaker
A Kinsley gaffe, of course, is when a politician inadvertently tells the truth. So, a footnote to yesterday’s IRS whistleblower hearing: Congressman Kweisi Mfume of Maryland denounces the Republicans’ criticisms of the Department of Justice, the FBI and the IRS. Why? Because it is the job of those agencies to “keep this democracy in check.” That is perhaps, in a single sentence, the clearest statement of the difference between the
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July 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler (as we learned today) have given their impressive, powerful, and highly credible statements to the House Oversight Committee on the farcical investigation of Hunter Biden. As I write, the hearing is in progress with the absurd participation of House Democrats. The Democrats too have the spirit of comedy, each in his or her own way. To a man, woman, or somewhere in between,
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July 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
In the matter of the Biden family business and the protection thereof, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced that staff conducted a transcribed interview with a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent assigned to the FBI’s Wilmington office and the Biden criminal investigation. Comer let it be known that the former agent confirmed key portions of the IRS whistleblower testimony — i.e., on December 7, 2020, “[t]he night before the
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July 10, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Senator Grassley worked over the weekend to crank out some questions for United States Attorney David Weiss in connection with his shambolic “investigation” of Hunter Biden. Senator Grassley has posted his July 9 letter to Weiss online here. The operative principle governing the Weiss investigation seems to have been that no harm was to be done to Hunter or the Biden family business. Indeed, no one was to look too
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June 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley appeared for an interview over two segments on Special Report with Bret Baier last night. I have posted video of the first of the two segments below. Fox News has posted stories on the interview here and here. Shapley blows the whistle on the Department of Justice’s “investigation” of Hunter Biden’s tax crimes. As with other famous scofflaws of American history, Biden’s tax crimes open a
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June 26, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal contemplates “Hunter Biden’s ‘fair’ tax share” with the help of the testimony of the IRS whistleblowers released late last week. The Journal editorial bears on a number of issues including the Bide/Dem/left-wing mantra about “the rich” paying their “fair share” (what is it, by the way?) and the nature of the deal that the Biden Department of Justice has extended to Hunter. Here is the summary
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June 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith has just released the committee’s transcribed interview with IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and an unidentified colleague. The interviews took place on May 26 and June 1. Redacted interview transcripts are accessible online here at the bottom of Smith’s press release. Smith’s press release provides this quote: Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the
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June 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal draws attention to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s letter to the IRS in the editorial “The IRS Makes Another House Call.” Subhead: “The House GOP wants to know about the case of the talented ‘Bill Haus.’” The subhead alludes to Patricia Highsmith’s talented Mr. Ripley — the pathological impostor/murderer. The committee has posted a press release on the incident giving rise to Jordan’s letter here.
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June 5, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Matt Taibbi published the subscribers-only post “My crazy IRS case” on May 24 at his Racket News site. I picked it up and quoted from it in part 2 of this series on the deep-state harassment of Taibbi. Taibbi’s post on his IRS case is now available in the video below, narrated by Jared Moore. I can only add that attention must be paid, or so one would think.
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May 26, 2023 — Scott Johnson
In her weekly Wall Street Journal column Kim Strassel turns her attention to the IRS — the cases of Matt Taibbi (discussed here yesterday) and Gary Shapley (discussed in the adjacent post this morning). Strassel notes that Taibbi “may have been targeted by the IRS in retribution for documenting the joint censorship efforts of Big Tech and the federal government.” Coincidences abound. In particular: Mr. Taibbi in March told the
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