The Trump administration promoted IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who were responsible for ending Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deal on his tax evasion crimes, signaling a new era in the IRS is beginning.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Tuesday that he promoted Shapley and Ziegler to leadership positions at the Treasury Department. They will work as senior advisers to Bessent for the next 12 months, in order to help reform the IRS which has been embroiled in corruption for decades. After their stint as senior advisors, the two men will take senior leadership positions to execute changes to the tax agency.
I am pleased to welcome Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler to the @USTreasury Department, where they will help us drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS. These veteran civil servants join us to help further the agency’s focus on collections, modernization, and customer…
— Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) March 18, 2025
For Shapley and Ziegler this all started in December 2022 when they were removed from the Hunter Biden’s IRS case after they exposed that the Justice Department and then-Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss were obstructing the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden by blocking search warrants, letting the statute of limitation lapse on some of Hunter’s charges, and telling his lawyers when searches were imminent. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
Despite their whistleblower status, Shapley and Ziegler say they were retaliated against, naming six IRS executives in an official complaint to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
🚨 Hunter Biden IRS Whistleblowers PROMOTED to Leadership Roles in Treasury Department Under Scott Bessent, WATCH: pic.twitter.com/1et8mpJLvX
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 18, 2025
Still, the corruption inside the IRS has been going on for decades. The Obama administration infamously turned the IRS into a battering ram against conservative Americans and organizations.
In 2014, Obama told The Daily Show host Jon Stewart there was “not some big conspiracy there,” referring to the IRS targeting Tea Party organizations. Obama tried to blame it on Congress saying, “Congress had passed a crummy law that didn’t give people guidance in terms of what it was they were trying to do. They did it poorly and stupidly.”
However, the facts tell a different story. In May 2010, an IRS Determinations Unit specialist and group manager began developing the Be On the Look Out (BOLO) spreadsheet which included Tea Party applications. By August the Determination Unit sent out the BOLO stating that they should flag “Tea Party organizations” applying for I.R.C. § 501(c)(3) or I.R.C. § 501(c)(4) status, a special tax-exempt status for non-profit organizations.
Just two months later in October 2010, IRS Exempt Organization chief Lois Lerner met with the DOJ about prosecuting conservative groups. This targeting of conservatives went on for over three years, despite a Congressional investigation into the matter starting in 2012.
Judicial Watch: UNSEALED Testimonies of Former Obama IRS Officials Detail Knowledge of Tea Party Targeting pic.twitter.com/4BS16l1lQJ
— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) September 14, 2022
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George testified to Congress in 2013 that an investigation found that the “IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. Because of ineffective management by IRS officials: 1) inappropriate criteria were developed and stayed in place for a total of more than 18 months, 2) there were substantial delays in processing certain applications, and 3) unnecessary information requests were issued to the organizations.” (ROOKE: Trump Forces Democrats To Make Fatal Mistake)
Conveniently (for Obama’s IRS and Lerner), in June 2014 the IRS said Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011 were lost and hard drives and backups for six other IRS employees involved in the targeting were destroyed.
When Biden took office it seems the targeting of conservative organizations resumed. In 2021, lawmakers raised serious concerns that Biden’s IRS violated a valid consent order by initially denying the application for tax-exempt status submitted by Christians Engaged. This was around the same time that Biden announced an $80 billion expansion of the IRS to hire an army of auditors.
This shows a pattern of decades-long abuse of the tax system against conservatives, but it also highlights the way the left uses the federal government throughout every agency to beat down its opponents.
Gary Shapley & Joseph Ziegler made lawful disclosures, exposing the corrupt Biden Justice Department. They faced unrelenting personal & professional attacks from the Biden Admin.
They embody the highest standards of the federal workforce. I am proud to have stood by them. https://t.co/dm2wRo6JsK
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) March 18, 2025
“This is a win for every whistleblower out there,” said Ziegler. “Gary and I will continue to do everything in our power to promote the truth, promote whistleblowers and to weed out the bad actors who have affected democracy.”
Bessent’s move to bring on Shapley and Zeigler as senior advisors to investigate the corrupt policies of the IRS is a rare moment where whistleblowers see tangible recognition rather than just punishment. It will help undo the burden placed on taxpayers and hopefully restore some integrity to the IRS. After decades of unfair targeting of conservatives, it seems balance is finally being restored.
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