Handwritten notes from IRS Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Gary Shapley indicate that now-Special Counsel David Weiss was “not the deciding person” on charging Hunter Biden with tax, gun, and Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations.
“SSA Shapley took notes during the meeting” in October 2022, Shapley’s lawyers disclosed to Congress Wednesday. “These notes, combined with his fresh memory of the meeting, formed the basis for the email he sent later that day and corroborate his current recollection.”
2023-09-13 Letter to House Judiciary – 10-7-22 Notes by Breitbart News on Scribd
The handwritten notes emerge as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden based on four premises, including “special treatment” Hunter Biden received during the investigation.
Hunter Biden was under investigation for five years by then-U.S. prosecutor Weiss for gun, FARA, and tax violations. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel after Weiss’s plea deal with Hunter Biden blew up under judicial scrutiny.
Both Weiss and Garland claimed Weiss was the sole authority to charge Hunter Biden, a claim contradicted by Shapley’s boss, Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who confirmed Weiss did not have authority to charge Hunter Biden.
In March, Garland told Congress he had the authority to authorize any charges against Hunter Biden — including in a separate “jurisdiction.”
“I would then have to authorize it and permit it to be brought in another jurisdiction and that is what I promised I would do,” he said.
Months later, Garland appeared to backpedal. “He was never told no. I’m saying, he was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own,” Garland responded to a reporter’s question.
The release of the handwritten notes comes after the Washington Post published a Tuesday story reportedly based on a transcript it obtained of the House Republicans’ interview of FBI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Sobocinski.
Sobocinski, who oversaw the investigation into Hunter Biden, disputed Shapley’s claims that the DOJ “stymied” Weiss’s probe.
Shapley’s lawyers on Wednesday cast doubt on Sobocinski’s claim, noting he failed to recall in his interview with Republican investigators certain details of the meeting recorded in Shapley’s email.
“Mr. Sobocinski apparently acknowledged that he took no notes in the meeting, nor did he document it in any contemporaneous fashion afterwards,” the lawyers wrote. “By contrast, SSA Shapley took notes during the meeting. These notes, combined with his fresh memory of the meeting, formed the basis for the email he sent later that day and corroborate his current recollection.”
“In order for you to assess the truthfulness and reliability of Mr. Sobocinski’s testimony, please find attached a version of the contemporaneous handwritten notes that redacts information not previously released by the House Ways and Means Committee,” Shapley’s lawyers wrote.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
