The Trump administration promoted IRS Whistlebrowers' Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who were responsible for ending the lover's deal in Hunter Biden's tax evasion crime, indicating a new era of the IRS is beginning.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent announcement On Tuesday, he promoted Shapley and Ziegler to leadership positions in the Department of Treasury. They will work as senior advisers at Bescent for the next 12 months to help reform the IRS, which has been caught up in corruption for decades. After a stint as a senior advisor, the two men acquire senior leadership positions to carry out changes to the tax agency.
I'm glad that Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler are welcomed. @stereasy The department, they will help us promote much-needed cultural reform within the IRS. These veteran civil servants join us and help our agents focus on collections, modernization and customers…
– Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent (@secscottbessent) March 18, 2025
For Shapley and Ziegler, this all began with everything that began in December 2022, when the Department of Justice and then U.S. attorney David Weiss, who obstructed the search warrant and told the IRS Biden investigation that he told the Hunter Biden when he filed a lawsuit when the search for Hunter's investigators was filed when he filed a lawsuit. (Sign up for Mary Luke's weekly newsletter!))
Shapley and Ziegler say they have named six IRS executives in official complaints to the Merit Systems Protection Board despite their whistleblower status.
Hunter Biden IRS whistleblower has been promoted to a leadership role in the Department of Treasury under Scott Bessent. pic.twitter.com/1et8mpjlvx
– Daily Caller (@dailycaller) March 18, 2025
Still, corruption within the IRS has been going on for decades. The Obama administration has transformed the infamous IRS into RAM for abuse against conservative Americans and organizations.
Obama in 2014 I said Daily Show host Jon Stewart, “It's not a big plot out there,” mentions the IRS, which targeted the Tea Party organization. Obama tried to blame it in Congress by saying, “Congress passed a clumsy law that didn't give people guidance in terms of what they were trying to do. They made it poor and stupid.”
But the facts tell a different story. In May 2010, specialists and group managers of the IRS Decision Unit began developing Be Out Out (Bolo) spreadsheets that include Tea Party applications. By August, the Decision Unit had sent a boro saying it should be flagged “tea party organizations” applying for special tax-exempt status for nonprofit organizations.
Just two months later, in October 2010, Lois Lerner, the chief of the IRS exemption organization. I met With DOJ on prosecuting conservative groups. Despite Congress' investigation into issues that began in 2012, this targeting by conservatives lasted more than three years.
Judicial Watch: Unsealed Testimony of a Former Obama IRS Official pic.twitter.com/4bs16l1lqj
– Judicial Watch⚖️ (@judicialwatch) September 14, 2022
J. Russell George, Financial Inspector of Tax Management testimony In a 2013 Congress, a survey revealed that “instead of signs of potential political campaign intervention, the IRS used inappropriate standards for applying for condemnation exemption status based on name or policy position. None other information requests have been issued to the organization.” (Luke: Trump forces Democrats to make a fatal mistake)
(For Obama's IRS and Lerner) In June 2014, the IRS said that Lerner's emails from 2009 to 2011 were lost, destroying the hard drives and backups of six other IRS employees involved with the Target.
That's what Biden was like when he took office. Conservative organization targeting has resumed. In 2021, lawmakers raised serious concerns that Biden's IRS violated a valid consent order by initially denying an application for tax-exempt status filed by the involved Christians. This was about the same time Biden announced the $80 billion expansion for the IRS and announced he would hire an armed forces of auditors.
This illustrates a decades-long pattern of abuse in tax systems against conservatives, but highlights how the left can use the federal government across all institutions to defeat its enemy.
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler made legal disclosures and exposed the corrupt Biden Department of Justice. They faced relentless personal and professional attacks from Biden administrators.
They embody the highest standards of the federal workforce. I'm proud to have been standing by their side. https://t.co/dm2wro6jsk
– Rep. James Comer (@Repjamescomer) March 18, 2025
“This is a victory for all the whistleblowers out there.” I said Ziegler. “Gary and I will continue to do everything in our power to promote truth, promote whistleblowers, and eliminate bad actors who have influenced democracy.”
Bescent's move to bring Shapley and Zeygler as senior advisors to investigate corrupt policies of the IRS is a rare moment when whistleblowers see concrete perceptions rather than just punishment. It helps to cancel the burden on taxpayers and restore some degree of integrity to the IRS. After decades of unfair targeting by conservatives, the balance seems to be finally recovering.
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