The extent to which the American justice system is rigged against the weak is exemplified by the $20 million defamation lawsuit filed by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler on Friday night against Hunter Biden's lawyer, Abe Lowell.
First, a lawsuit like this would typically cost over $1 million, and also, Lowell is one of the most feared lawyers in the country, and very few in the legal profession want to go against him.
The good news is that after several failed attempts, whistleblower support group Empower Oversight was successful in securing the services of Mitchell Landsberg, a Las Vegas defamation lawyer whose clients include billionaire Steve Wynn.
Add to that the fact that the legal industry has become dominated by highly partisan Democratic firms willing to fund legal efforts against Donald Trump and his supporters, provide pro bono legal advice to anyone politically useful to the Democratic Party, and bow to Democratic pressure to fire politically inconvenient partners. There is also no shortage of left-wing billionaires willing to fund pro bono litigation, such as LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who funded the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit against Trump.
Those who do not have interests in conservatives or the Democratic Party do not have such deep pockets.
So even though Shapley and Ziegler's lawsuits had a good chance of succeeding, their low salaries as public servants and their reliance on donors meant that their lawsuits were unlikely to succeed.
“The unfortunate truth is that whistleblowers usually face a well-funded, retaliatory smear campaign,” said Jason Foster, a former chief investigative counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and founder of Empower.
“That’s just not right, which is why we’ve launched a new crowdfunding initiative. Defendwhistleblowers.com [to] “We will level the playing field, and with the public's cooperation, we will fight back strongly to ensure that retaliationists think twice before hurling false accusations next time.”
Shapley and Ziegler emerged from the shadows last year to tell Congress how the Justice Department obstructed and delayed its criminal investigation of First Sun for five years. Their shocking testimony included prosecutors tipped off Hunter's lawyers about pending search warrants, allowing the statute of limitations on the most serious charges to lapse, concealing evidence from investigators at the scene and barring witnesses from mentioning Joe Biden or his nickname, “The Big Guy,” during questioning.
In return, their careers were destroyed, IRS officials abandoned them, and their reputations suffered “incredible and malicious damage” when Lowell accused them of illegally leaking Hunter's personal tax information.
They allege that Lowell acted with “manifest malice” by retaliating against their lawful whistleblower disclosures with false and defamatory statements to the media.
“As whistleblowers, Messrs. Shapley and Ziegler acted with honor and integrity in exposing conflicts of interest, preferential treatment and political motivations that they reasonably believed were obstructing the criminal tax investigation of Hunter Biden,” the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. District Court, states.
A sweet plea deal between Hunter and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss fell apart after Shapley and Ziegler went public with their concerns, which were realized this month when Hunter pleaded guilty in California to all felony tax evasion charges against him.
The information disclosed to Congress by honest IRS investigators provides a valuable record of the misconduct of bad actors within the federal government. They helped ensure that Hunter did not go unpunished and provided evidence to pursue others in the future.
“The truth matters,” Shapley said. “The truth mattered when I blew the whistle and did my duty last year. The truth mattered when justice was served last week. And the truth matters now as I must defend my reputation from false accusations that I broke the law. I'm not just doing this for myself, I'm doing this for all whistleblowers who may face public attack.”
Anti-Trump cartoons
In a bold attempt to brainwash young Pennsylvania voters, Anti-Trump cartoons A report full of lies about the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is being sent to every public high school and library in key battleground states on the eve of the presidential election.
“1/6: Graphic Novel” is scheduled to ship this week. Philly Voiceis called ” The Handmaid's Tale.”
The comic, funded by the left-leaning Kettering Foundation, is set in a fictional Washington, D.C., where President Trump's “insurrection” has been successful, authoritarians have taken over the country and begun executing journalists.
“It's clear to me that the forces that caused that riot – white supremacy, disinformation – are still with us today,” said Alan Jenkins, the Harvard Law professor who engineered the politically nasty ploy. Philadelphia Inquirer.
If this isn't election interference, I don't know what is. There should be some limits on forcing students to do blatant political propaganda before an election.
