Hunter Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden on Wednesday abruptly dropped his lawsuit against two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers who had accused the Justice Department of covering up parts of a tax fraud investigation into him, effectively ending his claim that they unlawfully disclosed his private tax information.
The 55-year-old, who has faced numerous controversies, voluntarily dropped his lawsuit against IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the investigators who publicly disclosed details of his tax issues. He gave no specific reason for ending the case.
“It’s always been clear that the lawsuit was an attempt to intimidate us,” the two men said in a statement.
“Intimidation and retaliation were never going to work. We truly wanted our day in court to provide the complete story, but it appears Biden was afraid to actually fight this case in a court of law after all,” they added, according to the New York Post.
Earlier in 2023, Biden had filed a lawsuit against two whistleblowers, claiming they “had targeted and sought to embarrass Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters.”
The withdrawal follows approximately one month after Biden’s legal representatives – Abbe David Lowell, Christopher Man, David Kolansky and Isabella Oishi – submitted their motion to withdraw from the case.
Shapley and Ziegler had raised concerns through official channels regarding the management of the government’s investigation into Biden.
Subsequently, they contacted the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal oversight body and Republican congressional members.
In May 2023, Shapley gave a CBS interview, detailing his allegations that the Justice Department deliberately delayed the investigation. Additionally, the DOJ filed charges against Biden following the collapse of his plea agreement and pretrial diversion arrangement.
The tax charges included nine counts alleging he avoided paying $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, which he later settled.
Biden admitted guilt to all charges last year, after which his father, Joe Biden, issued him a “full and unconditional” pardon.
Earlier in the day, a federal judge has rejected a motion to free a former FBI source who fabricated allegations about Hunter receiving bribes, which subsequently became integral to Republican impeachment proceedings.
The ruling, delivered by US District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, follows a recent joint application from a newly appointed prosecutor and Smirnov’s legal team seeking his release during his appeal process. The prosecution had indicated their intention to re-examine their “theory of the case.”
In his written statement, Wright maintained that Smirnov continues to pose a flight risk, regardless of the prosecutors’ willingness to review the case. He stated, “The fact remains that Smirnov has been convicted and sentenced to seventy-two months in prison, providing ample incentive to flee.”
Smirnov, aged 44, received his sentence in January after admitting to tax evasion and providing false information to the FBI regarding the fabricated bribery scheme. Previous prosecutors handling the case characterised his actions as an attempt to affect the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.