Two Hunter Biden Whistleblowers Promoted to Top Trump Administration Positions
The individuals who played a pivotal role in exposing Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are now ascending within President Donald Trump’s administration.
Two IRS agents who blew the whistle on the agency’s lenient handling of the president’s son are being rewarded with high-ranking roles at the Treasury Department.
One of their main responsibilities, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, will be to “investigate the wrongdoing at the IRS.”
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, both IRS agents, were deeply involved in probing Hunter Biden’s tax evasion case.
In 2022, they were removed from the investigation, as reported by the Associated Press, after alleging that David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware and later designated as the “special counsel” in the Hunter Biden matter, deliberately delayed the inquiry as the 2020 election approached and later obstructed enforcement for political reasons.
Their assertions of political interference appeared to be validated when former President Joe Biden granted Hunter Biden a controversial pardon for all federal offenses, including tax evasion, dating back to 2014.
Since making their claims public, both agents have stated that they faced retaliation from IRS leadership, which included being passed over for promotions and being threatened with demotions.
However, their disclosures—and the alleged backlash against them—prompted action within the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, as well as in the Senate, where Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, played a key role in investigating the matter.
(Grassley, who chaired the Judiciary Committee from 2015 to 2019, regained his leadership position following the Republican takeover of the Senate in the 2024 election.)
In a statement on Tuesday, Grassley commended the agents’ promotions while also criticizing the Biden administration’s treatment of whistleblowers.
“Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler put their entire careers on the line to stand up for the truth, and instead of being thanked, the Biden administration treated them like skunks at a picnic,” Grassley said.
“Far too many whistleblowers share a similar experience of retaliation. I hope today is the first of many redemption stories for whistleblowers who’ve been mistreated. By taking a stand for whistleblowers, President Trump and his cabinet are ushering in a new era of transparency and accountability.”
Speaking with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday, Bessent emphasized that “the culture of being able to come forward when you see wrongdoing is a central part of our democracy.”
“I saw these two fellows before the president’s address to Congress, in Speaker [Mike] Johnson’s office,” Bessent stated.
“They came over to me and said, ‘You know, sir, we’re still being harassed.’ And I had been in touch with Sen. Grassley about what was happening to them. But seeing them in person really brought it home for me.”
Bessent explained that he made the decision to transfer them from the IRS into the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, giving them a year to “investigate the wrongdoing that’s going on at the IRS.”
According to Bessent, Shapley will take on the role of senior deputy for investigations and enforcement, while Ziegler will be a senior adviser for IRS reform, as reported by the AP.
“We’ll learn what’s been going on at the IRS, what’s been wrong. How could this Hunter Biden nonsense have happened?” Bessent told Bartiromo.
The objective, he noted, is to ensure such situations do not recur.
“Whether you’re related to the president, no matter how powerful you are, the IRS is going to behave fairly, and we will make sure that happens,” he asserted.
“And these two gentlemen are going to form the basis for our investigation.”