Hunter Biden Says IRS Agents Lack Basis to Join Tax Leak Case
Two IRS agents seeking to intervene in a case involving their disclosure of Hunter Biden’s tax returns are making a “classic strawman” argument for their inclusion, Biden told a federal appeals court in Washington.
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler weren’t parties to the case, which found that the IRS is liable for damages if the two agents did illegally leak the confidential tax return information of former President Joe Biden’s son. IRC Section 6103 holds the IRS, not the agents, liable for their actions, the lower court said.
“The district court was clear that neither permissive intervention nor intervention as of right was proper here, and that this litigation is not the appropriate forum for the two agents to contest or ‘defend’ their ‘rights,’” Biden said in a brief filed Thursday with the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “In fact, the agents created such a forum in a separate defamation suit they decided to file.”
The brief responds to the agents’ appeal of the lower court’s decision, backing up Biden’s motion for summary affirmance without additional proceedings.
Shapley and Ziegler, who remain IRS agents, have argued they should be able to intervene in the case to contest the allegation that their disclosures of Biden’s tax information was illegal. They maintain instead that they engaged in protected whistleblowing.
While they wouldn’t be financially responsible for any damages, if they are implicated in violating Section 6103, it would cause “grave consequences with respect to their professional lives, reputations, and respective earning potentials,” the agents said.
The agents’ appeal is a “broad lament about the unfair nature and supposed ‘gravity of this case’ (an action solely between Mr. Biden and the United States),” Biden said in his brief. But they failed “to demonstrate how on the actual requirements for intervention, and in the merits of its decision, the district court abused its discretion,” he said.
Winston & Strawn LLP represents Biden. The Justice Department represents the IRS. Margulis Gelfand LLC and Nixon Peabody LLP represent Shapley, and John Rowley III of Washington represents Ziegler.
