Attorneys for Hunter Biden are expected in court Wednesday in Los Angeles, where he is accused in what prosecutors call a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle.

President Joe Biden’s son has pleaded not guilty to the nine felony and misdemeanor tax offenses. He’s asking the judge to toss out the case, arguing that the prosecution was politically motivated, was tainted by leaks from IRS agents who claimed publicly the case was mishandled and includes some allegations from before he moved to California.

A motions hearing was scheduled for 1 p.m. PT. Biden, of Malibu, is not expected to attend.

He has also been charged in Delaware with lying on a federal form to buy a gun in 2018 by saying he wasn’t using or addicted to illegal drugs, even though he has acknowledged being addicted to crack cocaine at the time. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which also accuses him of possessing the gun illegally.

Both cases are overseen by special counsel David Weiss and now have tentative trials scheduled for June, though defense attorneys are also trying to get the Delaware gun charges tossed out.

The two sets of charges come from a years-long federal investigation that had been expected to wrap up over the summer with a plea deal in which Hunter Biden would have gotten two years of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. The president’s son, who has since repaid the back taxes with a loan, also would have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble.

Defense attorneys argue that immunity provisions in the deal were signed by a prosecutor and are still in effect, though prosecutors disagree.

But the deal that could have spared Hunter Biden the spectacle of a criminal trial during the 2024 presidential campaign unraveled after a federal judge began to question it. Now, the tax and gun cases are moving ahead as part of an unprecedented confluence of political and legal drama: As the November election draws closer, the Justice Department is actively prosecuting both the Democratic president’s son and the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Hunter Biden’s original proposed plea deal with prosecutors had been pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans, including Trump. The former president is facing his own criminal problems — 91 charges across four cases, including that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden’s criminal proceedings are also happening in parallel to so-far unsuccessful efforts by congressional Republicans to link his business dealings to his father. Republicans are pursuing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, claiming he was engaged in an influence-peddling scheme with his son. No evidence has emerged to prove that Joe Biden, as president or previously as vice president, abused his role or accepted bribes, though questions have arisen about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international business dealings.

In launching their Biden impeachment inquiry last year, the House Republicans relied in large part on unverified claims from an FBI informant released by Senate Republicans suggesting that payments totaling $10 million from Ukrainian energy company Burisma to the Bidens were discussed. The now-former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, was arrested last month in a case also overseen by Weiss. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he fabricated the bribery allegations.

If convicted of the tax charges, Hunter Biden, 53, could receive a maximum of 17 years in prison.

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The post Hunter Biden’s attorneys seek dismissal of tax case in LA courtroom – NBC Los Angeles appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden filed several motions in federal court Tuesday to dismiss federal tax charges filed against him in California, arguing they violate a diversion agreement between President Biden’s son and prosecutors last year and are part of a “selective and vindictive prosecution” that has been compromised by politics. 

“This case follows a nearly six-year record of [the Justice Department] changing its charging decisions and upping the ante on Mr. Biden in direct response to political pressure and its own self-interests,” attorneys for Hunter Biden said in legal filings.

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to nine federal tax charges in the Central District of California in January after federal prosecutors alleged he engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in federal taxes and charged the president’s son with failure to file and pay taxes, tax evasion and filing a false tax return.

In the 56-page indictment, prosecutors also alleged Hunter Biden earned more than $7 million in gross income when he failed to pay taxes, funding an “extravagant lifestyle” and evading taxes by classifying some personal expenditures — such as luxury hotel stays, luxury vehicle rentals, and escort services — as business deductions.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden argue in recently filed court documents that “salacious” portions of the indictment characterizing Biden’s personal expenditures should be redacted, are irrelevant to the law and are “meant to depict Mr. Biden as irresponsible, frivolous, and otherwise of questionable character and integrity.”

In their legal filings, attorneys for Biden also asserted that special counsel David Weiss’ appointment was unlawful and funding for the investigation had not been approved by Congress, violating the Appropriations Clause.

A spokesperson for Weiss declined to comment.

The investigation into Hunter Biden, led by Weiss, spanned nearly six years, beginning during the Trump administration and carrying over into the Biden administration.

Republican-led congressional committees probing Hunter Biden’s personal finances and his foreign business dealings have centered most of their investigative focus on whether senior officials in the Biden administration took steps to impede criminal probes into the president’s son, and whether he personally benefited from any foreign business brokered by his family.

Hunter Biden has denied that his father was financially involved in his business dealings. 

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, case agents previously assigned to the Hunter Biden investigation, told lawmakers they recommended federal charges be brought against the president’s son for tax violations but testified before Congress that Weiss had said he was denied special counsel status and was “not the deciding person” to bring charges in the case. They alleged intentional slow walking and “an undeniable pattern of preferential treatment” in the federal investigation.  

“There were really earth-shaking statements made by David Weiss,” Shapley told CBS News last year. “And the first one was that he is not the deciding person on whether or not charges are filed,” the whistleblower added. “It was just shocking to me.” Weiss, however, told Congress, he was never “blocked or otherwise prevented from pursuing charges” or his investigation. Garland granted Weiss special counsel status last August.

In the court documents, Hunter Biden’s legal counsel alleged IRS whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler, as agents of the government, engaged in a “public media campaign” to “force prosecutors’ hands to bring charges” against Biden, and federal agencies did not prevent the disclosure of Hunter Biden’s confidential tax information violating Biden’s due process of law.

Hunter Biden is expected to appear before the Republican-led House Committees on Oversight and Accountability and on the Judiciary in a closed-door interview next week, as House Republicans continue their impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The GOP-led congressional committees have yet to produce evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden. 

The White House has dismissed the impeachment inquiry as a ” baseless political stunt.”

More from CBS News

Erica Brown

Erica Brown covers investigative stories, often on politics, as a multiplatform reporter and producer at CBS News. She previously worked for BBC News and NBC News.

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The post Hunter Biden files motions to dismiss tax charges against him in California appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

When Hunter Biden moved out early from a lavish Venice Beach, California, property he was leasing for more than $17,000 a month in 2021, he directed the landlord to “just call my friend Kevin Morris,” according to a text message obtained by CBS News. 

President Biden’s son left tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the property, months of unpaid rent — and Morris to clean up the mess, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

In the text message, Hunter Biden assured the landlord, Morris “will work something out with you,” adding that Morris “has been very helpful to me and has assured me he can help to resolve this ASAP.”

Morris is a Hollywood attorney who has become a ubiquitous behind-the-scenes presence in the long-running political saga surrounding the conduct and alleged misconduct of Hunter Biden.

And in recent weeks, Morris has appeared frequently by Hunter Biden’s side. On Wednesday, Morris strode shoulder to shoulder with the president’s son as they made a surprise appearance at a congressional contempt hearing on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, he is expected to be seated behind him in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom as Hunter Biden is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on criminal tax charges, much as he did in a Delaware courtroom. 

Morris isn’t named in the document, but he also makes a cameo in the federal indictment against Hunter Biden, as the “personal friend” federal prosecutors have said provided approximately $200,000 for Hunter Biden’s rent, CBS News has learned. 

An entertainment lawyer and author who brokered lucrative deals for the creators of the animated sitcom “South Park” and the Broadway hit “Book of Mormon,” Morris’ latest project has been helping Hunter Biden.

“I don’t know where I would be if not for Kevin,” Hunter Biden told The Los Angeles Times last week. “And I don’t mean just because he has loaned me money to survive this onslaught, I mean because he has given me back my dignity. He’s been a brother to me.” 

attorney Abbe Lowell, right, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting on Jan, 10, 2024 ” height=”413″ width=”620″ class=” lazyload” srcset=”https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/01/11/515c6b73-ea24-468a-9b2f-24ba8e5c2425/thumbnail/620x413g1/70e158bd754c26f3018873c3aeceee45/gettyimages-1915355305.jpg?v=2194e1912ab0b51d957839e2d5977664 1x, https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/01/11/515c6b73-ea24-468a-9b2f-24ba8e5c2425/thumbnail/1240x826g1/2b2bcdfede14754cf03879a9ea0c5874/gettyimages-1915355305.jpg?v=2194e1912ab0b51d957839e2d5977664 2x”/>

Hunter Biden, center, flanked by Kevin Morris, left, and attorney Abbe Lowell, right, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting on Jan, 10, 2024.

Kent Nishimura / Getty Images

Morris and Hunter Biden first met at a political fundraiser in 2019, as Joe Biden launched his campaign for the presidency, according to The New York Times. In addition to providing Hunter Biden with legal support and friendship, Morris has also been integral in providing the president’s son with financial help. An IRS agent involved in the Hunter Biden tax investigation told Congress in December Morris spent nearly $5 million financially supporting the president’s son. 

An attorney for Morris told CBS News his client’s support for the president’s son has been motivated purely by friendship. “Hunter is not only a client of Kevin’s, he is his friend and there is no prohibition against helping a friend in need, despite the inability of these Republican Chairmen and their allies to imagine such a thing,” Bryan M. Sullivan said in an emailed statement.

Hunter Biden and Morris both live in the Los Angeles area, where the president’s son has been living while painting and selling his artwork. At one time, the law firm Morris founded was representing celebrities that included Matthew McConaughey, Ellen DeGeneres, Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Saldana, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Rock and Laura Linney. Morris also has authored two novels and a book of short stories. 

Prosecutors say Morris’ payments on Hunter Biden’s behalf include housing, media relations, accountants and lawyers, as well as $11,000 in payments on his Porsche. A source familiar with the financial arrangement told CBS News Morris loaned the president’s son more than $2 million to pay off back taxes. And a New York gallery owner told Congress Morris purchased $875,000 worth of Hunter Biden’s art, according to a House Republican aide. 

Morris’s attorney attributed his client’s purchases of Hunter Biden’s paintings to his avid interest in collecting art, saying in a statement that  he “has bought a number of pieces … paying the same amounts that other purchasers would have paid depending on the size and amount of work in the piece and paying the price set by the gallery that handles such sales.”

In September 2022, when federal agents were in the thick of their investigation, they questioned President Biden’s brother James Biden about Morris’ support for Hunter Biden. According to a transcript of the interview made public by House Republicans, James Biden said that “Morris had befriended” his nephew, but he “didn’t know why or when this occurred.”

“Morris was helping [Hunter Biden] a lot, but James B didn’t know why,” the investigators’ notes from the interview say. They say he added that the financial support was “significant enough” that Hunter Biden asked him “to say thank you ‘on behalf of the family.'”

Morris’ vast financial support has since drawn the attention of Republicans running the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. He has been subpoenaed by GOP investigators seeking to question him about whether he has received anything of value from Hunter Biden or his father’s White House as a result of the payments.

Caleb Burns, an expert in campaign finance law, said the payments could present a legal issue for the White House if President Biden were ever to take an official action to benefit Morris.  

“Gifting anything to a government official or a government official’s family can implicate criminal bribery statutes, if the government official is going to take official action as a result of that gift,” Burns said. 

That is something  an attorney for Morris, Bryan M. Sullivan, said has not, and will not happen.

“Kevin Morris has not asked for or expected anything from President Biden or his administration in return for his support of Hunter,” Sullivan said in a statement to CBS News.

Multiple people familiar with the relationship between Morris and Hunter Biden have said Morris is purely motivated by a desire to support someone he sees as the subject of an unfair political smear. 

“He feels this is the right thing to do because he believes Hunter Biden is being wrongly subjected to public attacks and legal consequences that he would not get if he were not the son of the president,” said Glenn Altschuler, a Cornell University professor who is in regular contact with Morris and advised Morris when he was an undergraduate. 

In comments to the Los Angeles Times, Hunter Biden and his attorney characterized the payments as loans that would be repaid. Asked if Morris sought anything in return, Hunter Biden told the publication, “[Y]ou don’t truly know or understand Kevin if that’s your question.”

Republicans are also questioning the timing of Morris’s payments, some of which were made while Joe Biden campaigned for president in 2020. A month before Super Tuesday, Morris sought to expedite the filing of Hunter Biden’s tax returns.

“We are under considerable risk personally and politically to get the returns in,” Morris wrote to Hunter Biden’s accountant, in an email obtained by congressional investigators. In 2021, another accountant for the president’s son told one of the IRS agents in a transcribed interview that unpaid tax could generate “media attention.” 

The IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, previously testified to Congress that they had been hampered by Justice Department prosecutors during their investigation of the president’s son. Shapley turned over contemporaneous notes to Congress that appear to show the prosecutors were not interested in investigating potential campaign finance violations against Hunter. 

A spokesperson for special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the Hunter Biden investigation for the Justice Department, declined to comment for this story. Weiss previously told Congress he had ultimate decision-making authority in the investigation and was not blocked from pursuing any charges against Hunter Biden.

Burns said it’s unlikely the Morris payments would meet the narrow standard to qualify as an illegal campaign contribution. He said the Department of Justice has had little success bringing similar cases, citing the failed prosecution of former presidential candidate John Edwards. 

More from CBS News

Catherine Herridge

Catherine Herridge is a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News covering national security and intelligence based in Washington, D.C.

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The post Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris, who financially backed Hunter Biden, moves closer to the spotlight appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Hunter Biden missed out on his family’s tropical getaway, staying in California over the post-holiday period and sitting down for a meeting with his lawyer amid mounting legal troubles. 

The First Son, 53, is in the Golden State at a time when he is facing a slew of tax-related charges in California, over allegations he failed to pay over $1.4 million to the IRS. 

As Hunter racks up further charges including lying about his crack cocaine addiction when buying a gun, he was spotted visiting the home of his attorney Kevin Morris on Wednesday. 

However, the troubled businessman appeared to find time to unwind, as he also enjoyed a lunch date with his wife, documentary filmmaker and activist Melissa Cohen. 

attorney‘s California home on Wednesday, where he remained for around an hour amid his mounting legal woes” class=”blkBorder img-share” style=”max-width:100%” />

Hunter Biden, 53, seen arriving at his attorney‘s California home on Wednesday, where he remained for around an hour amid his mounting legal woes 

attorney” class=”blkBorder img-share” style=”max-width:100%” />

His wife Melissa Cohen Biden, 36, wore a low-key look as the two enjoyed a lunch together after their meeting with Hunter’s attorney 

While Hunter remained stateside, President Biden led members of the First Family including First Lady Jill Biden and granddaughter Natalie (seen together) from Air Force One as they take a vacation to the Caribbean island of St Croix 

Hunter stepped out in California while other members of the First Family escaped Washington to the Caribbean island of St Croix. 

It is unclear why Hunter remained in the United States as his family departed for the Virgin Islands, with the 53-year-old potentially avoiding leaving the US amid his legal troubles. 

On Wednesday afternon, President Biden was seen departing Air Force One with the First Lady and his 19-year-old granddaughter Natalie, the daughter of their late son Beau. 

The family are also set to stay rent-free at the home of Democrat megadonors Bill and Connie Neville, who made their fortune in the tech industry and attended the White House state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. 

While Biden takes a break ahead of a politically tumultuous year ahead, Hunter and Cohen were spotted sharing a lunch together back home stateside. 

The couple, who met in 2019 and tied the knot after knowing each other for just six days, ate at the Cholada Thai Beach Restaurant for almost an hour. 

Hunter donned shades and a baseball cap for a low-key look while his wife wore a grey sweater, and were seen being escorted away from the restaurant by secret service in a large black SUV. 

The First Son was escorted from the Cholada Thai Beach Restaurant by the secret service after eating there with his wife for over an hour 

Hunter was joined by his wife Melissa Cohen, an activist and documentary filmmaker whom he married in 2019 after knowing him for just six days 

Earlier in the day, Hunter visited his attorney‘s home in California, where Morris was caught in exclusive DailyMail.com images smoking a bong from his balcony while Hunter was in attendance earlier this year. 

Morris is known as Hunter’s ‘sugar brother’, and reportedly paid $2.8 million of the First Son’s tax debts on his behalf. 

Morris, 60, was a Hollywood attorney known for running a prestigious law firm that took on some of the industry’s most high-profile cases and clients. 

He famously negotiated a pair of contracts totaling $1.4billion for the creators of the satirical cartoon South Park, whom he had met at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994. 

Their friendship blossomed and he later won a Tony award as a producer of their blockbuster musical The Book of Mormon.

attorney Kevin Morris, who was caught earlier this year in exclusive DailyMail.com images smoking from a large bong on the balcony of his Los Angeles home” class=”blkBorder img-share” style=”max-width:100%” />

Hunter arrived for a meeting on Wednesday at the home of his attorney Kevin Morris, who was caught earlier this year in exclusive DailyMail.com images smoking from a large bong on the balcony of his Los Angeles home

Throughout his career, Morris has represented various Hollywood elites, including Courtney Cox and Mathew McConaughey, as well as TV executive Doug Herzog and producer Tom Lassally.

‘I don’t have a lot of lawyer needs,’ Cox told Variety during a launch party for one of the attorney‘s book in 2014, ‘But if I do, I turn to Kevin.’

Morris also allegedly dabbled in clandestine tricks to get information out of Hunter’s enemies.

The attorney was accused of lying to get on to the film set of My Son Hunter, a movie designed to show Biden in the worst possible light with tales of his drug use, partying and allegedly corrupt business deals.

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The post Hunter’s lonely holiday: First son meets with his wife and lawyer in California as Biden family heads to St. Croix to ring in the new year appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

U.S. attorney for Central California E. Martin Estrada told Congress that the prosecutor leading the probe into Hunter Biden had full authority to pursue criminal tax charges in California against the president’s son, but declined any partnership with his office, according to records reviewed by CBS News that have not been publicly released.

Estrada’s closed-door testimony partially contradicts claims made by IRS whistleblower and supervisory special agent Gary Shapley that David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware who has since been named special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation, had stated in an October 2022 meeting  that he was “not the deciding person” to bring charges in the case. 

“My understanding was that Mr. Weiss had been doing this investigation for several years, was leading the investigation, and would bring charges if he believed they were appropriate,” Estrada told the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee, according to the transcript of the closed-door interview.  

Two FBI officials assigned to the Hunter Biden investigation also told the committee earlier this year that they did not recall Weiss telling investigators he did not have authority to push the case forward himself. 

Referencing limited resources, Estrada, who was appointed by President Biden to be one of California’s U.S. attorneys, said he declined requests made by Weiss, to partner with his office as co-counsel in the prosecution. But he did offer administrative resources and office space to Weiss’ staff. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney‘s office in Delaware declined to comment. 

As the Republican-led congressional investigations into Hunter Biden’s finances and business ventures have pressed forward, one critical question has centered on whether senior Biden administration officials took any steps to impede or disrupt criminal probes into the president’s son. 

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, a case agent previously assigned to the Hunter Biden investigation told lawmakers that they recommended federal charges be brought against Hunter Biden at the conclusion of their tax investigation but were told prosecutors in Delaware could not pursue charges in other jurisdictions and that Weiss had been denied special counsel status at the time. They alleged intentional slow-walking and “an undeniable pattern of preferential treatment” in the federal probe. 

“There were really earth-shaking statements made by David Weiss,” Shapley said in an exclusive interview with CBS News earlier this year. “And the first one was that he is not the deciding person on whether or not charges are filed,” the whistleblower added. “It was just shocking to me.” 

In a letter to Congress, Weiss refuted claims made by Shapley saying he did not request special counsel status and said he had not been blocked from pursuing charges in jurisdictions outside of Delaware. 

attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss to be special counsel in August, after Weiss had informed him that his investigation had reached a stage where he believed his work should continue as a special counsel, a designation that confers greater autonomy in conducting a probe.

 Former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady, a Trump appointee, also testified before the House Judiciary Committee in the Republican-led probe into Hunter Biden’s business ventures. Brady said that his office initially made little progress in its  investigation. He had been assigned by then-attorney General Bill Barr to look into Ukraine and Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.  

Brady said his office ran into several roadblocks in trying to collaborate with the FBI, including heightened steps of approval and sign-off during the investigative process. 

“I think there was reluctance on the part of the FBI to really do any tasking related to our assignment from [Deputy attorney General] Rosen and looking into allegations of Ukrainian corruption broadly and then specifically anything that intersected with Hunter Biden,” Scott told lawmakers in closed-door testimony. “It was very challenging.”

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The post U.S. attorney for Central California told Congress David Weiss had full authority to charge Hunter Biden in the state appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

CNN
 — 

Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, alleging its agents illegally released his tax information and that the agency failed to protect his private records.

President Joe Biden’s son alleges the IRS unlawfully disclosed his tax return information and did not establish safeguards to ensure the confidentiality of his records. He is seeking, among other things, all documents involving the disclosure of the tax information, $1,000 for each unauthorized disclosure and attorneys fees.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Washington, DC, does not name the two IRS agents turned whistleblowers as defendants. But the lawsuit is centered on disclosures made by the agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, and their lawyers in public statements, congressional testimony and interviews.

Judge Timothy Kelly, a Donald Trump appointee, has been assigned to the case.

It’s being filed amid a swirl of other legal issues facing Hunter Biden, who was indicted by special counsel David Weiss on three felony gun charges last week and is potentially facing additional tax charges by Weiss.

“Despite clear warnings from Congress that they were prohibited from disclosing the contents of their testimony to the public in another forum, Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler’s testimony only emboldened their media campaign against Mr. Biden,” the lawsuit states. “And finally, since their public testimony before the House of Representatives on July 19, 2023, the agents have become regular guests on national media outlets and have made new allegations and public statements regarding Mr. Biden’s confidential tax return information that were not previously included in their transcripts before the Committee on Ways and Means.”

Specifically, Hunter Biden’s attorneys point to details Shapley shared in an interview with CBS News that aired in late June. During the interview, Shapley alleged that Biden took certain personal expenses as business expenses, including “prostitutes, sex club memberships, hotel rooms for purported drug dealers,” and that Biden owed $2.2 million in unpaid taxes, the lawsuit alleges.

Shapley’s attorneys called the lawsuit a “frivolous smear” and said the agents only discussed information allowed under the statute. Ziegler’s attorney said the lawsuit is an effort to “distract from the ever-growing evidence that supports the testimony of the two IRS whistleblowers.”

The IRS said it does not comment on pending litigation.

“The lawsuit is about the decision by IRS employees, their representatives, and others to disregard their obligations and repeatedly and intentionally publicly disclose and disseminate Mr. Biden’s protected tax return information outside the exceptions for making disclosures in the law,” the lawsuit alleges.

The suit adds: “These agents’ putative ‘whistleblower’ status cannot and does not shield them from their wrongful conduct in making unauthorized public disclosures that are not permitted by the whistleblower process. In fact, a ‘whistleblower’ is supposed to uncover government misconduct, not the details of that employee’s opinion about the alleged wrongdoing of a private person.”

The lawsuit alleges Shapley and Ziegler went beyond confirming the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and provided specific allegations, the amount of deductions taken and liabilities owed for tax years.

Tensions have been rising in the investigation. On Friday, Shapley’s lawyers issued a statement saying Hunter Biden’s attorneys have tried to get the Justice Department to retaliate against their clients for making disclosures protected under whistleblower rules.

“Taxpayer privacy laws are written by Congress, and it gave itself authority in those laws to hear disclosures about taxpayer information,” Shapley’s attorney said in a statement on Friday.

The IRS agents went public with their allegations concerning the Justice Department’s handling of investigation into Hunter Biden earlier this year.

In June, the Justice Department announced it had reached a deal with Hunter Biden in which he would plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors for failing to pay his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. He had also reached a deal to avoid prosecution on a gun possession charge, but the deal fell apart after a federal judge prodded its structure.

After the judge would not sign off on the deal, talks broke down between Weiss’ office and Hunter Biden’s attorneys. Weiss asked for special counsel status.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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The post Hunter Biden sues the IRS, alleging agents illegally released his tax information appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Hunter Biden sued a former Trump White House aide on Wednesday, alleging he violated state and federal data laws in connection with the online publication of laptop content attributed to the president’s son.

In a lawsuit filed in the Central District of California, Biden’s lawyers said that Garrett Ziegler, his nonprofit Marco Polo and 10 unidentified individuals violated state and federal laws on computer fraud and data access. Marco Polo describes itself as a nonprofit research group that exposes corruption.

“Although the precise manner by which Defendant Ziegler obtained Plaintiff’s data remains unclear, there is no dispute that Defendants have, to at least some extent, accessed, tampered with, manipulated, altered, copied and damaged Plaintiff’s data, and that their actions are illegal, unauthorized, and without Plaintiff’s consent,” they wrote.

Biden’s lawyers alleged that the defendants were in violation of a federal statute that protects against the intentional, unauthorized access to a computer and the acquisition of financial records from a financial institution or card issuer.

den’s lawsuit seeks an injunction that would bar Ziegler and others from accessing or tampering with his data, as well as general and punitive damages to be proven at trial and attorney’s fees and costs.

NBC News was unable to reach Ziegler for comment, and his nonprofit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

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The post Hunter Biden sues former Trump aide over alleged computer fraud related to personal laptop – NBC Los Angeles appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Hunter Biden’s legal team went on the offensive Wednesday, demanding state and federal investigations into the dissemination of his personal material — purported to be from his laptop — and threatening a defamation lawsuit against Fox News’ Tucker Carlson for allegedly failing to correct false statements.  

The flurry of letters to the Delaware attorney general, the Department of Justice, the IRS and attorneys for Fox News and Carlson represent an aggressive new strategy for the president’s son, who is facing long-running federal criminal investigations, as well as new probes promised by congressional Republicans, according to a source familiar with Biden’s approach.

“This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team,” the source told CBS News. “He is not going to sit quietly by as questionable characters continue to violate his rights and media organizations peddling in lies try to defame him.” 

Attorneys for Hunter Biden called for Delaware attorney General Kathy Jennings and U.S. Assistant attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen to launch investigations into the actions of former computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac, former Trump advisers Rudy Giuliani and Stephen Bannon, their attorney Robert Costello and others “for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various Delaware laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.”

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said in a statement to CBS News that the letters “do not confirm Mac Isaac’s or others’ versions of a so-called laptop.” 

“They address their conduct of seeking, manipulating and disseminating what they allege to be Mr. Biden’s personal data, wherever they claim to have gotten it,” Lowell said.

Brian Della Rocca, an attorney for John Paul Mac Isaac told CBS News, “Having not seen the letters until now, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to review them. After skimming the letters, the only thing I see is a privileged person hiring yet another high-priced attorney to redirect attention away from his own unlawful actions.” Della Rocca said he had no other comments at this time.  

The Delaware attorney General did not reply to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment. CBS News has also reached out for comment to Fox News.

A spokesperson for Giuliani called the laptop “abandoned property under John Mac Isaac’s control.”

“Raising concerns now, after so many years, indicates just how devastating the texts and videos from Hunter’s laptop truly are,” said the spokesperson, Ted Goodman, who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop had evidence of corruption and racketeering. “It’s an obvious attempt to silence America’s Mayor, a man who took down the mafia.”

According to Mac Isaac, Hunter Biden dropped off the computer at a store in Delaware for repairs in April 2019 and never returned to pick it up. He has said he waited the 90 days required by his store’s customer service policy before considering the laptop abandoned. In court filings, Mac Isaac stated that he turned over the computer to the FBI but also provided a copy of its contents to Costello.

Purported copies of the laptop were widely circulated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election, and the New York Post published a series of stories from the computer data.

“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” Lowell wrote in his letters to Jennings and Olsen.

Costello, an attorney for Giuliani and Bannon, has previously defended their efforts to publicize the laptop, and said Giuliani offered to provide its hard drive to FBI agents “on several occasions,  but the agents steadfastly declined.” In October 2020, Giuliani turned the drive over to Delaware authorities, who in turn handed it over to the FBI.

Costello said in an email to CBS News that Lowell’s letters to the Justice Department and Delaware attorney General “constitute a frivolous legal complaint trying to intimidate.”  

“The letters reek of desperation because they realize that Judgment Day is coming for the Bidens,” Costello said, adding that computer was abandoned by Hunter Biden and became Mac Isaac’s property.

The computer data that was turned over to the FBI showed no evidence of tampering or fabrication, according to an independent review commissioned by CBS News.

But Lowell cited media reports indicating “[m]ore recently, downstream recipients of what has been purported to be Mr. Biden’s hard drive have reported anomalies in the data, suggesting manipulation of it.”

Among those Hunter Biden wants investigated are Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump administration aide, who was also the subject of a letter sent by Lowell to Robert Malone, the IRS’ director of tax-exempt organizations. A limited liability corporation associated with Ziegler operates Marco Polo, a self-described nonprofit devoted to “exposing corruption” that has zeroed in on Biden’s laptop.

Lowell wrote that Marco Polo is “little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.”

Ziegler told CBS News in a statement that the “letter to the IRS about Marco Polo is full of speculations and basic misunderstandings about the case law surrounding 501(c)(3) organizations.” He called it a “desperate attempt by “Hunter and his family to get the attention off of their crimes.”

The IRS did not reply to a request for comment. 

In another letter sent Wednesday, Biden attorney Bryan Sullivan demanded that Fox News and Tucker Carlson devote airtime to retracting statements made about Biden paying “rent” to his father, “in what Mr. Carlson implied was essentially a money laundering scheme to finance President Biden’s lifestyle prior to his election … and alluding to Mr. Biden having unauthorized access to classified documents because of his presence at President Biden’s house.” Sullivan writes that the claims were false, and even after others acknowledged as much, Carlson continued to make them.

The letter, which cites California’s defamation statute, notes that the Daily Caller website retracted an article that made similar claims.

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Graham Kates

Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at KatesG@cbsnews.com or grahamkates@protonmail.com

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The post Hunter Biden demands investigations and retractions, opening new front against GOP foes appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.