Yikes, So That's How the Hunter Biden Tax Probe Began

The Hunter Biden tax-evasion probe, codenamed "Sportsman," was first opened in November 2018 as an offshoot of an investigation that the Internal Revenue Service was conducting into "a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform," an IRS whistleblower told the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee in closed-door testimony released Thursday.

BREAKING: The Hunter Biden case -- code named SPORTSMAN -- was opened in 2018 "as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform." pic.twitter.com/aUy6OXLHbd
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 22, 2023

However, the damning testimony didn't disclose further details explaining how the porn outlet and Hunter Biden were connected.

In a bombshell report published three years ago, Senate Republicans had unearthed allegations that Hunter Biden was involved in a foreign human-trafficking ring. The September 2020 document, revealing findings from a years-long investigation, claimed that Hunter Biden had made multiple payments to Eastern European prostitutes in Russia and Ukraine, paying foreign nationals with "questionable backgrounds" indicative of "organized prostitution and/or human trafficking." Per the joint Senate report:

There is extensive public reporting concerning Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement with prostitution services. Records on file with the Committees do not directly confirm or refute these individual reports. However, they do confirm that Hunter Biden sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution. Some recipients of those funds are Ukrainian and Russian citizens. The records note that it is a documented fact that Hunter Biden has sent funds to nonresident alien women in the United States who are citizens of Russia and Ukraine and who have subsequently wired funds they have received from Hunter Biden to individuals located in Russia and Ukraine. The records also note that some of these transactions are linked to what “appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.

Shapley's congressional testimony—unsealed on the heels of Hunter's no-jail "sweetheart deal" struck earlier this week with federal prosecutors—detailed the investigation's murky origins and alleged interference, in which he claimed the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware was "slow-walking" the five-year-old case that resulted in "a slap-on-the-wrist" plea agreement.

"Some of the decisions seem to be influenced by politics. But whatever the motivations, at every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation," said Shapley, who had supervised the tax-fraud probe of Hunter Biden since January 2020 until he was removed from the case as part of a "retaliatory" purge that expelled his 13-person investigative team, allegedly on the orders of the Biden administration's Justice Department. For years, Shapley raised internal concerns pertaining to the "irregularities" he witnessed, and in April, contacted U.S. lawmakers to offer evidence in support.

BREAKING: According to IRS whistleblowers, DOJ tipped off Hunter Biden about a search of his storage unit, prohibited investigators from executing a warrant on Joe Biden's guest house, and repeatedly prohibited charges from being brought against Hunter Biden.… pic.twitter.com/9j7H8BkqEe
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 22, 2023

In a press statement, Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) remarked Thursday: "The American people deserve to know that when it comes to criminal enforcement, they are not on the same playing field as the wealthy and politically connected class. The preferential treatment Hunter Biden received would never have been granted to ordinary Americans."