IRS Supervisory Special Agents Gary Shapley (l) and Joe Ziegler (r) are sworn-in at a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing about alleged misconduct by the Biden administration. (Credit: Bonnie Cash/UPI)
The two IRS agents who blew the whistle on the Hunter Biden tax investigation and significantly altered the course of the case, on Friday night sued the first son’s lawyer Abbe Lowell for defamation.
The two whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, are suing for libel because of the alleged damage done to their careers, and are requesting a jury trial in Washington, D.C.
Abbe Lowell, right, has represented members of both the Trump and Biden families. (Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The whistleblowers originally brought concerns to the House Ways and Means Committee that the Justice Department had provided preferential treatment to Biden during a probe into his alleged tax violations.
Shapley and Ziegler alleged in Friday’s legal complaint that Lowell acted with malice by sending letters to several different Congressional committees, where the lawyer “falsely accused the Plaintiffs of violating grand jury secrecy rules … and the taxpayer confidentiality statute.”
“It is particularly ironic and damaging that a well-known attorney like Lowell—in his words, ‘one of the country’s foremost white collar defense and trial lawyers’ that is ‘widely viewed as counsel of choice for individuals facing government investigations and potential indictments’—has chosen to falsely accuse these special agents of criminal behavior,” the lawsuit, obtained by Just The News, reads. “Lowell’s stature and credibility in the legal community have amplified the harm caused by his defamatory statements.”
They also accused Lowell of intentionally leaking “malicious and false allegations, including accusations that Shapley and Ziegler ‘committed felonies’ and ‘violated the law,'” to third parties, including the press, that have harmed the pair’s reputations. (JusttheNews, 9/13/2024) (Archive)