Revenge of the Whistleblowers: IRS Agents Who Exposed Hunter Biden Promoted to Top Roles in Trump Admin

If you needed further proof that things are finally being done differently in Washington, DC, look no further than the announcement by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers who had been targeted by the Biden administration have been promoted to senior roles in the Trump Treasury Department. Even better, the two will now be investigating the IRS.

Secretary Bessent made the announcement Tuesday morning, saying the whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, will make the move to Treasury in part to help drive cultural change at the IRS.

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 service. I appreciate Sen. @ChuckGrassley's efforts in Congress to support whistleblower protections in order to improve transparency, accountability and root out the culture of retaliation.

Joseph Ziegler was a special agent at the IRS back in 2018 when he uncovered payments suggesting Hunter Biden had evaded paying taxes and was possibly tied to a prostitution ring. Attempts by Ziegler to flag this to his superiors for further investigation were rebuffed, with higher up citing "political sensitivities" as a reason to ignore Ziegler's findings. Joe Biden was soon to become the Democrat Party's presidential nominee, so this wasn't going anywhere.

Fast forward to 2020, when Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley became Ziegler's supervisor and the two took their concerns about the Hunter Biden non-investigation to the criminal investigations unit at the IRS. Believing there was clear "abuse of authority" and "gross mismanagement" by the IRS for failing to investigate Hunter Biden, the two got nowhere with their complaints as the Department of Justice (DOJ) slow-walked the case and, after the (very) senior Biden became president, the case stalled out completely due to the political headwinds blowing in from the White House.

AG Garland Basically Calls IRS Whistleblower a Liar, Says Criticism Is 'An Attack on an Institution That's Essential to American Democracy'

Shapley and Ziegler were on their own at this point, having been abandoned by their superiors, who caved to the pressure from the Biden administration. The duo were denied promotions, had their careers threatened and faced retaliation for daring to do their jobs. Eventually, however, the two found support in the form of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who helped bring attention to not only the terrible treatment of the whistleblowers, but also the serious charges against Hunter Biden and the efforts of the federal government to shield him from prosecution.

MORE: Trump Pulls Secret Service Detail From Hunter Biden

And, as it turns out, Grassley also may have had a hand in getting Shapley and Ziegler their new promotions, having reportedly suggested to Secretary Bessent that the two would be ideal for the job of investigating the IRS.

Bessent appeared Tuesday morning on Fox Business's "Mornings with Maria," and told host Maria Bartiromo that he had run into Shapley and Ziegler in Speaker Mike Johnson's office before President Trump's recent address to Congress, and learned the two continued to face harassment for their investigation into Hunter Biden. After that meeting, Bessent decided to bring the two into Treasury for one year, have them investigate wrongdoings at the agency, then return them to IRS to institute much-needed cultural change.

This move comes at a time when the federal workforce as a whole is under intense scrutiny by the American public as Elon Musk and his DOGE team uncover case after case of mismanagement, malfeasance and just plain laziness by government employees. The promotions of Shapley and Ziegler to senior Treasury roles is more than just a win for whistleblowers—it’s a sign that the days of government corruption and political cover-ups may finally be numbered.

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