June 22, 2023 4:27pm EDT
Hunter Biden tax probe began as 'offshoot' IRS investigation into amateur pornography shop: whistleblower
Testimony: IRS decisions 'at every stage' of probe 'had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation'
By Brooke Singman | Fox News
The Hunter Biden tax investigation — codenamed "Sportsman" — was opened in November 2018 as an "offshoot" of an IRS investigation into a "foreign-based amateur online pornography platform," a whistleblower told the Houses Ways and Means Committee.
The committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be "influenced by politics."
One whistleblower, Gary Shapely Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that decisions "at every stage" of the probe were made that "had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation."
Shapely detailed the origins of the probe in congressional testimony unsealed Thursday.
"The investigation into Hunter Biden, code name ‘Sportsman,’ was first opened in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform," Shapely testified. Testimony released by the committee didn't include any further explanation of how the pornography outlet and Biden were linked.
The investigation had previously been believed to have been predicated, in part, by suspicious foreign transactions.
Nearly a year later, in October 2019, Shapely said the "FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime."
more
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-tax-probe-began-as-offshoot-irs-investigation-into-amateur-pornography-shop-whistleblower
