Ex-FBI agent ‘upset’ by Hunter probe tipoff to Biden transition team

A former FBI agent instructed the Home Oversight Committee final month that the bureau tipped off President Biden’s transition crew about plans to interview first son Hunter Biden in December 2020, backing key testimony from an IRS whistleblower.

The ex-FBI supervisory particular agent — recognized as Joe Gordon in whistleblower Grant Shapley’s personal testimony — instructed the panel in a July 17 transcribed interview that his higher-ups gave Secret Service brass a heads-up concerning the deliberate questioning, reasonably than solely notifying the native subject workplace of the protecting company.

“I do know I used to be upset once I discovered about it,” the previous investigator stated, based on a transcript launched Monday, including that Shapley’s recollection of the matter was “appropriate.”

“And there was no clarification supplied,” Gordon went on. “It’s simply, that is what’s taking place.”

The Secret Service warning spoiled plans to interview Hunter and different witnesses as a part of a proposed “Day of Motion” set for Dec. 8, 2020, days after the primary son acquired Secret Service safety following Joe Biden’s election to the presidency.

Neither Gordon nor Shapley have been permitted to go close to Hunter’s home — a command that the previous FBI agent stated he had by no means been given in his 20-year profession in federal regulation enforcement — and have been instructed to attend for a telephone name on Dec. 8 from Secret Service granting them authorization to interview Hunter.

However the name by no means got here, Gordon and Shapley each testified.

Oversight Republicans stated the testimony additional corroborated allegations from Shapley and IRS particular agent Joseph Ziegler that Delaware US Lawyer David Weiss mishandled the Hunter probe.

On Friday, Lawyer Common Merrick Garland elevated Weiss to particular counsel standing on the prosecutor’s request — weeks after a plea deal his workplace negotiated with the primary son blew up in federal courtroom.

“We have now no confidence in U.S. Lawyer Weiss as Particular Counsel given his incapacity to forestall the Biden transition crew from being contacted and different misconduct through the Biden prison investigation,” Oversight GOP lawmakers said Monday on X, the positioning previously often known as Twitter.

On Might 26, Shapley instructed the Home Methods and Means Committee in a transcribed interview that FBI headquarters had “basically tipped off” Secret Service concerning the “day of motion” plan.

The telephone name on Dec. 7, 2020, warned “a gaggle of individuals very near President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave this group a chance to hinder the strategy on the witnesses,” he identified.

“Gordon and I waited within the automobile exterior of Hunter Biden’s California residence ready for a telephone name,” Shapley stated. “It was no shock that the telephone name SSA Gordon acquired was from his ASAC Alfred Watson, who knowledgeable us that Hunter Biden would contact us by his attorneys.”

“We acquired a phone name later that morning from Hunter Biden’s attorneys, who stated he would settle for service for any doc requests, however we couldn’t discuss to his consumer,” he added.

Within the occasion, Shapley recalled, investigators have been solely in a position to interview one witness, Biden household affiliate Rob Walker — who helped distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign sources to members of the primary household.

The FBI sent a letter to Gordon earlier than his congressional testimony, cautioning him in opposition to sharing about “deliberations or ongoing investigative exercise.”

The transcript exhibits that the letter precipitated Gordon and his lawyer to request the committee to slim the scope of their questioning to the foiled strategy to Hunter Biden. Makes an attempt to debate deliberations about potential expenses for the primary son have been among the many questions dominated out of bounds.