Top House Republicans are demanding that the Justice Department reveal if it is investigating two whistleblowers who raised concerns about its Hunter Biden investigation, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The scrutiny of the DOJ shows how top Republicans are keeping their Biden probe alive, even as it is unlikely to end in impeachment articles for President Biden.
- Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith demanded that the DOJ turn over all documents referring to any possible agency investigation into the whistleblowers.
- "The Committees will not tolerate any retaliatory conduct by the Department against these or any other whistleblowers," the lawmakers said in the letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The big picture: Special Counsel David Weiss, who is leading the Hunter Biden investigation, suggested the whistleblowers may be part of an ongoing investigation in a recent legal filing.
- Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the two IRS whistleblowers, alleged that the DOJ slow-walked its tax investigation into the president's son and gave him special treatment.
- Hunter Biden is facing two cases for tax evasion and firearm charges, which Democrats argue is proof that the DOJ has not been preferential.
- Weiss and Garland have both testified that politics played no part in the Hunter Biden investigation.
Between the lines: There is also no clear indication that the department is actively investigating Shapley and Ziegler.
- The Republicans point to a motion from Weiss to seal a brief in the Hunter Biden case because it "relates to a potential ongoing investigation(s)."
Axios has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
