The White House won’t respond and Attorney General Merrick Garland is playing defense after the release of sworn testimony from two IRS whistleblowers alleging special treatment in the agency’s investigation of the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted Thursday to make public the transcripts of the IRS agents’ testimonies—two days after the Justice Department announced a plea agreement with Hunter Biden that would result in no prison time for failing to file income taxes and lying on a background check for a gun purchase.

Here’s nine things to know about what the IRS whistleblowers said.

1. ‘WH/DOJ Weren’t Alerted?’

Gary Shapley, a 14-year veteran of the IRS, gave his testimony May 26 to investigators for the House Ways and Means Committee.

Less than a week later, on June 1, a second and anonymous IRS agent also testified under oath.

After the Justice Department announced its plea deal with Hunter Biden on Tuesday, the Ways and Means Committee, in a party-line vote Thursday, decided to release the transcripts.

In a tweet Friday, The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project raised the involvement of the White House and Department of Justice by asking: “Are we to believe that the WH/DOJ weren’t alerted to the explosive whistleblower testimony before [the transcripts were] released?” (The Heritage Foundation is the parent organization of The Daily Signal.)

If someone shared or leaked the IRS whistleblowers’ testimonies before the House committee authorized their release, it could be a violation of federal law (under 26 U.S. Code § 6103) regarding the confidentiality and disclosure of tax returns and information on such returns.

The law states that “no officer or employee of the United States, … shall disclose any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee or otherwise or under the provisions of this section.”

According to whistleblowers, IRS officials recommended that Hunter Biden be criminally charged with attempting to evade taxes, committing fraud, making false statements, willfully failing to file returns, and failing to provide information on over $8.3 million in income.

“Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging, and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes,” Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a public statement.

The Daily Signal sought comment from spokespersons at the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office on their awareness of the testimony before announcement of the plea deal. Neither responded.

The Daily Signal also sought comment from the office of Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, to ask whether any Democrats on the committee shared information with the White House or Justice Department.

Neal’s office did not respond to multiple phone and email inquiries.

2. ‘Sitting Here With My Father’

The Justice Department delayed authentication of messages between Hunter Biden and a Chinese business partner, the IRS’ Shapley, a supervisory agent, testified to House investigators.

“For example, in August 2020, we got the results back from an iCloud search warrant. Unlike the laptop [abandoned by Hunter Biden at a Delaware repair shop], these came to the investigative team from a third-party record keeper and included a set of messages,” Shapley said.

The IRS supervisory agent went on to give an example:

We obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, where Hunter Biden wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’

Shapley also testified that at a September 2020 meeting, Assistant U.S. Attorney for Delaware Lesley Wolf said there was “more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”

The prosecutor also said that “optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant,” the IRS agent testified.

3. White House Won’t Comment

During a White House press briefing Friday, a reporter asked National Security Council spokesman Adm. John Kirby about the whistleblower allegations concerning the text message from Hunter Biden to his Chinese business associate.

“I’m not going to comment further on this,” Kirby said. “I am not going to address this issue from this podium.”

He soon departed quickly, wishing reporters a good weekend.

Later in the same briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to  respond to reporters’ questions about the IRS whistleblowers’ testimonies. She instead referred reporters to the White House Counsel’s Office—which she said already has addressed the matter.

“I believe my colleague at the White House Counsel’s Office has answered this question, has dealt with this, has made it very clear,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “I just don’t have anything to share outside of what my colleagues have shared. So I would refer you to him and the DOJ. I’m not going to comment from here.”

On Tuesday, when the Justice Department announced its plea deal with Hunter Biden, Ian Sams, a senior adviser to the counsel’s office, issued a written statement for the senior Biden.

In it, Sams said: “The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment.”

Sams didn’t respond to an inquiry Friday from The Daily Signal after the White House press briefing. The Daily Signal asked whether either the White House or the Justice Department was made aware of what the two IRS agents said pending announcement of the plea deal with the president’s son.

However, it doesn’t appear that the White House Counsel’s Office has spoken to reporters about the IRS whistleblowers’ allegations.

Asked whether she stood by her earlier statement that Biden knew nothing about his son’s various business dealings, Jean-Pierre said, “Nothing has changed.”

Another reporter asked, referring to Hunter Biden’s text to the Chinese business associate saying his father was right there: “Have you spoken to the president about this? Have you asked him whether he was there with his son on July 30, 2017?”

Jean-Pierre answered: “This is not a conversation that I’ve had with the president. Again, I would refer you to the White House counsel.”

Biden’s press secretary also was asked whether the president would talk to the attorney general, Garland, about the matter.

“I cannot say if the president had a conversation with the attorney general about this,” she said.

4. ‘Weiss Requesting Special Counsel Authority’

U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration who is in charge of the Hunter Biden case, wanted to bring charges in the District of Columbia in March 2022, but was denied permission, according to testimony.

Weiss also sought special counsel status from the Justice Department in the spring of 2022, in order to conduct an independent inquiry. However, superiors also denied that request.

In the fall of 2022, Weiss requested to bring charges against the younger Biden in the Central District of California. The Justice Department denied that request in January.

“From March 2022 through Oct. 7, 2022, I was under the impression that, based on AG Garland’s testimony before Congress and statements by U.S. Attorney Weiss and prosecutors, that they were still deciding whether to charge 2014 and 2015 tax violations,” Shapley testified to House investigators.

“However, I would later be told by United States Attorney Weiss that the D.C. U.S. Attorney would not allow U.S. Attorney Weiss to charge those years in his district. This resulted in United States Attorney Weiss requesting special counsel authority from Main DOJ to charge in the District of Columbia,” the IRS supervisory agent testified.

“I don’t know if he asked before or after the attorney general’s April 26, 2022, statement, but Weiss said his request for that authority was denied and that he was told to follow DOJ’s process,” Shapley said.

5. Garland: Weiss Had Complete Discretion

During a press conference Friday, Garland responded to the whistleblowers’ allegations. As Biden’s attorney general, he previously had testified under oath before the Senate that the Weiss’ Delaware-based investigation would be completely independent…..

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