House Republicans are saying that newly disclosed interviews and affidavits from two Internal Revenue Service agents show unlawful retaliation against the two individuals after they made accusations that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment from the Department of Justice during an investigation. 

The testimony was disclosed to the public on Thursday by the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees federal tax policy. The committee chairman, Congressman Jason Smith, announced the release of the documents on Thursday, writing that the agents’ testimony “outlines misconduct and government abuse at the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the investigation of Hunter Biden.”

“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,” Mr. Smith added. The chairman also highlighted the fact that the whistleblowers allege that Justice Department officers hoped to “delay the investigation long enough to reach the statute of limitations.”

The whistleblowers also told Ways and Means Committee investigators that an assistant United States Attorney at Delaware, Lesley Wolf, would not allow IRS investigators to pursue a subpoena that would have allowed them to gain access to tax documents related to Mr. Biden’s alleged crimes because the evidence “would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden.” At the time the IRS agents sought a subpoena, the elder Mr. Biden was running for president. 

Despite the fact that the younger Mr. Biden plans to plead guilty to two counts of “willful” tax evasion, the whistleblowers claim that the United States Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, tried on multiple occasions to indict the first son but was denied by superiors at the Justice Department. 

On two occasions in 2022, according to the whistleblowers’ testimony, Mr. Weiss attempted to bring charges in both the District of Columbia federal court as well as the Central California district court, but those indictments were not approved. Mr. Weiss had also allegedly sought special prosecutor status from the DOJ, but that request was also denied. 

Both agents told the Ways and Means investigators that they faced retaliation after bringing these issues to their superiors’ attention, they claim. One of the special agents said he was denied a promotion despite the fact he was “more qualified” than the person who eventually took the position, according to the agent’s interview with the committee. The two whistleblowers, as well as their entire investigative team, were removed from the case on May 15, shortly after they brought their complaint to Congress, Republicans said. 

Based on the IRS allegations, Mr. Smith claims in his memo that the younger Mr. Biden failed to pay $2.2 million in taxes over several years — a crime which can carry a multi-year prison sentence. Mr. Smith also disclosed the fact that the first son was paid $8.3 million from entities in Communist China, Romania, and Ukraine in recent years.

In one of the more damning disclosures, Mr. Smith, at a Thursday press conference, read from what he described as a never-before-seen set of encrypted text messages in which the younger Mr. Biden told a business partner from China that he was awaiting payment and mentioned the fact that he was sitting next to his father while texting. 

“I am sitting here with my father and would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Mr. Biden reportedly wrote in a July 2017 message to his business partner, Henry Zhao.

“I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

The commissioner of the IRS, Daniel Werfel, wrote to Mr. Smith to describe the “significant restrictions” placed on his ability to be transparent with committee members about criminal tax issues. 

“We are obliged to treat all tax return information as confidential,” Mr. Werfel wrote in a June 7 letter, adding that “there are even stricter limitations for many criminal cases.”