Lloyd Doggett

08/20/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/20/2024 14:37

Tax Notes: Ways and Means Releases Report Claiming Grounds for Impeachment

Tax Notes: Ways and Means Releases Report Claiming Grounds for Impeachment

August 20, 2024

The chairs of three House committees accused President Biden of committing impeachable offenses during his tenures as vice president and as president.

Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo.; Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., released a 291-page reportAugust 19, citing evidence in the report to support their claims, including that the Biden administration interfered in the investigations of alleged tax crimes by Hunter Biden.

The report references nearly 300 statements and documents from two IRS whistleblowers: Joseph Ziegler, a 13-year Criminal Investigation division special agent, and Gary Shapley, a CI supervisory special agent. Ziegler and Shapley appeared beforethe Oversight Committee in July 2023 after the Ways and Means panel released testimonyfrom the pair. Two months later, the Ways and Means Committee voted on party linesto release 700 pagesof testimony, memos, and emails from the two whisteblowers.

Ways and Means Committee Democrats claimed the release under section 6103implicated Hunter Biden and not his father, the president. Hunter Biden faces criminal tax chargesin a California federal court and was convicted in June on felony gun charges in a Delaware federal court. He hasn't been sentenced yet.

The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.

The Ways and Means Committee voted for a third releaseof whistleblower-related documents in December 2023.

"The report details evidence to establish President Biden abused his office and violated his oaths of office as Vice President by engaging in a conspiracy to peddle influence to enrich his family," the committee chairs said in a statement. "As President, Joe Biden and the Biden-Harris Administration obstructed the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry and the criminal investigation of President Biden's son."

While there was talk in the House Republican Caucus of moving an impeachment resolution, particularly in late 2023, that never occurred. After the September 2023 committee vote to release documents from Shapley and Ziegler, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said the attempts to extend accusations about Hunter Biden to his father are "half-truths, innuendos, the kind of defamation that Donald Trump is so good at, and I think he's clearly the puppet master."