House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) just sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding information and communications relating to the removal of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent and investigative team from an ongoing Hunter Biden criminal investigation. This investigation was the subject of the agent’s protected whistleblower disclosure, and the timing of their removal and the removal of the investigative team raises serious concerns of retaliation.
Read the letter:
“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the Department of Justice, including serious allegations of whistleblower retaliation. Recently, the Committee learned that the Department requested the removal of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Supervisory Special Agent—who is also a whistleblower—and ‘his entire investigative team’ from a ‘high-profile, controversial’ ongoing investigation. The timing of the Department’s removal of the agent and investigative team raises serious concerns given that the investigation was the subject of the agent’s protected whistleblower disclosure. The Committee will not tolerate the Department’s retaliatory conduct against this or any other whistleblower.
“Whistleblowers play an integral part in identifying and rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, and corruption within federal agencies. Federal law protects whistleblowers from retaliation. The Department’s alleged efforts to remove an IRS whistleblower from an ongoing investigation could be a retaliatory action prohibited under United States law. Accordingly, to inform our ongoing oversight, we ask that please provide the following documentation and information:
1. All documents and communications referring or relating to the removal on or around May 15, 2023, of an IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent and investigative team from an ongoing investigation;
2. All documents and communications between or among the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service referring or relating to any investigations involving both the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service, from May 1, 2023, to the present;
3. All documents and communications between or among the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware referring or relating to the removal on or around May 15, 2023, of any IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent and investigative team from an ongoing investigation. Please provide this information as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 8, 2023.”
Read the full letter to AG Garland here.
