IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who alleged a Justice Department cover-up in the Hunter Biden tax investigation, will be promoted by President Trump and serve as acting commissioner of the agency, according to multiple reports.
“Congratulations to my friend Gary Shapley on being named Acting Commissioner of the IRS,” Tristan Leavitt, the whistleblower’s lawyer, wrote on X Tuesday, in response to a Wall Street Journal report on his client’s promotion.
“Couldn’t think of a single better person, both as a dedicated leader and as a whistleblower who has seen the agency’s weaknesses and had the courage to speak up about them,” Leavitt added.
Shapley, who less than a month ago was promoted to senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, will replace Melanie Krause as acting commissioner of the tax-collecting agency, according to a memo obtained by the Journal.
The former IRS supervisory special agent will serve as acting commissioner until former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), Trump’s pick to permanently lead the agency, is confirmed by the Senate.
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, praised Shapley’s long career at the agency but would not confirm the reports.
“Gary is a long-tenured civil servant who has dedicated the last 15 years of his professional life to the IRS,” the spokesperson told The Post. “Gary has proven his honesty and devotion to enforcing the law without fear or favor, even at great cost to his own career.
“He’ll be a great asset to the IRS as we rethink and reform this crucial organization.”
Reports of Shapley’s big promotion emerged on Tax Day, the annual income-tax filing deadline.
Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler were removed from the Hunter Biden case in December 2022 after they raised concerns with their bosses at the agency that DOJ and then-Delaware US Attorney David Weiss were obstructing their investigation and slow-walking the case.
Shapley and Ziegler testified to Congress that an assistant prosecutor in Weiss’ office, Lesley Wolf, had shielded Joe Biden from scrutiny in the case — and tipped off Hunter’s legal team about a planned search for evidence at a storage unit in Northern Virginia.
The tax agents also claimed that Weiss’ office didn’t give them full access to files from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, blocked them from interviewing other Biden family members and vetoed a request for a search warrant for a guest house at Joe Biden’s Delaware home.
Shapley further alleged that Weiss said at an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting that he did not have the ultimate authority over what charges to bring against Hunter and where to charge him — contradicting then-Attorney General Merrick Garland’s congressional testimony.
Months after Shapley and Ziegler came forward, Hunter Biden was charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors in California accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
Hunter pleaded guilty to all charges in the case in September.
The former president issued his son a sweeping pardon before his sentencing in the tax case and a separate felony gun conviction in Delaware, which spared the former first son from prison.
The elder Biden had repeatedly vowed that he would not interfere in his son’s legal matters before he issued the pardon, weeks before leaving office.
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