What’s Behind IRS Turning Blind Eye to Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton Cases?

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 23.05.2023
Last week, an IRS whistleblower’s team was abruptly removed from the probe into US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, which prompted a second IRS whistleblower to come forward. However, in response, the IRS leadership resorted to intimidation against the whistleblower’s team. Has blowing a whistle become illegal in the “Land of Free”?
“The FBI and Department of Justice have been weaponized against legitimate whistleblowers and reformers and all Americans are worse off because this has nearly destroyed confidence in the integrity of the US system of governance,” Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik.
How Did the IRS Whistleblower Team Get Sacked?
In April, an IRS whistleblower raised the red flag over apparent violations during the Hunter Biden tax crimes investigation. In particular, the IRS agent alleged that federal prosecutors had engaged in “preferential treatment” of the first son and political meddling. The whistleblower, whose identity has been kept secret, was defined by his attorney, Mark Lytle, as “a career IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent” who has been overseeing the ongoing and sensitive investigation of Hunter Biden since early 2020.
Having examined the case, the House Ways and Means Committee “freed” the IRS agent in question and his lawyers from 6103 tax privacy obligations so that they could provide the collected sensitive information to Congress for further investigation. Generally, the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 6103 prohibits the release of tax information by an IRS employee.
However, last week the whistleblower’s attorneys informed Congress that their client and his entire team of 12 subordinates had been removed from the Hunter Biden probe – allegedly on Justice Department orders – without explanations which promoted suspicions of an act of retaliation.
Who is Second IRS Whistleblower in Hunter Biden Probe?
On May 18, a second IRS whistleblower joined the supervisory special agent, addressing the IRS leadership with the question as to why the team was expelled from the Hunter Biden probe. The second agent also complained about years of improprieties by DoJ officials supervising the investigation. The second whistleblower had worked on the Hunter case since it opened in 2018.
“For the last couple of years, my SSA [Supervisory Special Agent] and I have tried to gain the attention of senior leadership about certain issues prevalent regarding the investigation. I have asked for countless meetings with our chief and deputy chief, often to be left out on an island and not heard from,” the second whistleblower’s complaint reads.
However, IRS officials “responded with accusations of criminal conduct and warnings to other agents in an apparent attempt to intimidate into silence anyone who might raise similar concerns,” according to a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel sent by the whistleblower advocacy group Empower Oversight.
“The IRS has awesome power and substantial resources,” said Ortel. “If it is true that corrupt elements inside the IRS have been tormenting perceived political opponents and protecting political allies, then Americans of all political inclinations should rise up to insist that crooked IRS personnel be aggressively investigated and appropriately punished.”
Why Did IRS Overlook Clinton Foundation Irregularities?
He drew parallels between the IRS’ alleged “preferential” treatment of Hunter Biden, who was accused of failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars he got from foreign associates, and the agency’s handling of the Clinton Foundation audits.
According to Ortel, the Clinton Foundation, in particular, failed to file required IRS reports in 1997; failed to amend its articles of incorporation and bylaws in 2005; raised money for and engaged in activities that never were validly authorized by the IRS as being tax-exempt, to name but a few potential violations.
“When you read the IRS regulations and charity laws carefully, you discover that activities carried out by the ‘Clinton Foundation’ since incorporation on October 23, 1997 are normally punished harshly. Instead, Bill Clinton and his family have been given leave to build substantial wealth while taking credit for their supposed philanthropy,” said Ortel, referring to his private investigation into the charity.
“Working with remaining elements in the FBI that are honest, the IRS criminal division and forensic auditors would easily be able to obtain bank records of donors and of supposed contributions in detail to see what percentage of these amounts actually made it into financial statements reported by the ‘Clinton Foundation’ and what amounts may have, instead, financed political activities (illegally) or personal lifestyles (illegally),” he continued.
Who are Clinton Foundation Whistleblowers?
In August 2017, Clinton Foundation whistleblowers and forensic investigators Lawrence W. Doyle and John F. Moynihan filed whistleblower submissions with the IRS over the charity’s suspected misdeeds. However, the agency appeared unwilling to consider their claim, despite the IRS website encouraging everyone to immediately report tax scams.
In December 2017, Doyle and Moynihan testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, alleging that the Clinton Foundation owes the US government between $400 million and $2.5 billion in taxes. According to them, the charity does not operate as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, but acts as nothing short of a foreign agent. The two forensic investigators told US lawmakers that they had collected approximately 100 exhibits in excess of 6,000 pages. The two whistleblowers sought to attract Congress’ attention to the IRS surprising hesitation to investigate the Clintons’ case, given other instances when the agency was quick to crack down on potential violators.
Having received the final denial from the IRS in February 2019, the two independent expert forensic investigators filed a lawsuit with the US Tax Court. In October 2020, Judge of US Tax Court David Gustafson ruled that the IRS Whistleblower Office (WO) had “abused its discretion” in trying to dismiss “specific credible documentation” put forward by Doyle and Moynihan and drew attention to inconsistencies in the IRS’ handling of the whistleblowers’ request. The litigation is still ongoing.
Is FBI Dancing to Clinton and Biden’s Tune?
Special Counsel John Durham’s final report concerning the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation shed light on the FBI’s shutting down a whopping four probes into the Clinton Foundation as Hillary Clinton sought the presidency. Former and present Republican members of Congress have called for renewing investigations into the charity and its alleged “pay-to-play” schemes involving powerful foreign donors.
Similarly, the FBI is also known for suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story and reportedly rejecting a House panel’s request for a document that allegedly details President Joe Biden’s involvement in an illegal scheme with a foreign national.
It appears that federal agencies are acting in cahoots to shield powerful dynastic families. Meanwhile, the first IRS whistleblower in the Hunter Biden case is due to testify behind closed doors before the House Ways and Means Committee on May 26. Time will tell whether no one is really above the law in the US.
RFK Jr Slams ‘Political Weaponization Of The FBI To Destroy A Sitting President’
By Steve Watson | Summit News | May 23, 2023
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has charged that a “matrix of lies” was used by a “weaponised” FBI in an attempt “to destroy a sitting president.”
RFK Jr. was responding to journalist Matt Taibbi’s reporting on the Durham report, which effectively exonerated President Trump once and for all from bogus charges of Russian collusion, concluding that the FBI had no grounds at all to open an investigation.
“This is no partisan skirmish,” Kennedy tweeted, adding “It is about the political weaponization of the FBI to destroy a candidate and then a sitting President. It’s about a matrix of lies so elaborate as to make a mockery of the democratic ideal of an informed citizenry.”
Kennedy also got the knives out for the media for being complicit in perpetuating the Russian collusion nonsense for years.
“Maybe most alarming of all, the Durham investigation reveals the abject complicity of the mainstream press, which has yet to admit they were taken in by the big lie, propagated it, and now continues to permit those lies to stand as truth,” Kennedy stated.
US must make security deal with Russia – Hungary
RT | May 23, 2023
An agreement between the US and Russia is the only thing that can end the conflict in Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated on Monday. Orban has repeatedly accused EU leaders of serving American, rather than European, interests by continuing to bankroll Kiev.
Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday, Orban reiterated his position that Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield, and that Kiev and its Western backers must pursue peace talks with Russia.
“First we should have a ceasefire,” he said. “Then let’s talk about the new security architecture of the European continent.”
“The only peace agreement that could close this whole conflict is if it is between Russia and the United States,” he elaborated. “What is at stake is the future security of Europe. It’s obvious that without the US there is no security architecture for Europe, and now the war can only be stopped if the Russians can make an agreement with the United States.”
“As a European I am not happy with that,” he added. “But this is the only way out.”
Throughout the conflict, Orban has repeatedly spoken out against the West’s twin policies of military aid to Kiev and sanctions on Moscow, arguing that the former risks escalating the conflict to a global war and the latter harms Europe’s economy more than Russia’s.
The Hungarian prime minister has also argued that only Washington has the power to pressure Kiev into peace talks, and that decisions made in Brussels “reflect American interests more often than European ones.”
With the US dragging Europe into a conflict it cannot win, Orban has suggested that “the solution would be a European NATO” without the US as a member.
Hungary is currently blocking a €500 million ($540 million) EU military aid package for Ukraine. Apart from his long-standing opposition to escalating the conflict, Orban cited Ukraine’s sanctioning of a Hungarian bank as a reason for the hold up.
“If a country like Ukraine would like to get our financial support, they can’t put our companies on a blacklist,” he said on Tuesday. “If you need our money, please respect us.”
Who Would Ukraine Supporters Support if the U.S. Invaded Cuba?
By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | May 23, 2023
American statists cannot understand why the Russian people continue to support their president Vladimir Putin and their government’s invasion of Ukraine. For American statists, the issue is very simple: Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia bad. Russians should oppose Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime. End of story.
Fair enough. But let’s engage in a hypothetical.
Let’s assume that Russia establishes military bases and installs nuclear weapons in Cuba. The U.S. government declares, “No way, bud! We are just not going to permit you to do that. Remove them or experience the wrath of our all-powerful military machine.”
Suppose Russia takes the same position as Ukraine and says, “We are not budging. We have the right to enter into an alliance with Cuba, just as Ukraine has the right to join NATO. Moreover, Russia has the same right to establish military bases and install nuclear missiles in Cuba that NATO has to establish military bases and install nuclear missiles in Ukraine.”
A far-fetched hypothetical?
Well, not exactly.
In January 2022, Putin stated that he was thinking of sending Russian troops to Cuba. The U.S. reaction was immediate. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan exclaimed, “If Russia were to move in that direction, we would deal with it decisively.”
What Sullivan meant by that statement was that the U.S. would issue an immediate demand that Russia cease and desist. If it refused to do so, a U.S. invasion of Cuba would follow.
In other words, the U.S. government was threatening to do to Cuba what Russia has done to Ukraine.
In fact, if we go back to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, that is what happened then. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The U.S. government demanded that they be removed. If they refused to remove them, the U.S. government declared that it would do exactly what the Russian government has done to Ukraine. It would bomb and invade Cuba.
So, my hypothetical clearly falls within the realm of reasonable possibility.
Given such, the question naturally arises: What would American statists who are exclaiming against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine do if that were to happen? Would they oppose the U.S. invasion of Cuba and come to the support of Cuba and Russia?
I think not. I think they would immediately come to the support of the U.S. government and its invasion of Cuba, just as most Russians have come to the support of their government and its invasion of Ukraine.
Biden Federal Government Goes Full Suicide Bomber Against America
By Francis Menton | Manhattan Contrarian | May 14, 2023
From his first days in office, President Biden has promised — threatened — to activate the administrative state at every level to address and solve the “climate crisis.” In the orthodoxy of the Biden/Democrat climate cult, this is to be accomplished by reducing U.S. carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Now, even if you believe that a little more CO2 in the atmosphere is some kind of a problem (it isn’t), there is nothing that the United States can do to have any meaningful impact on that situation, given that countries with populations a large multiple of ours (China, India, Africa) are building coal-fired power plants as fast as they can. Even if we closed our economy entirely and reduced ourselves to eating grass and bugs, the effect on the climate would be zilch.
Meanwhile we have waited through the first two plus years of Bidenism to find out exactly what punishments the administrative state has in mind for us for our sins of prosperity and enjoyment of life. In the last few weeks, we have learned at least part of the answer, in the form of a series of gigantic new regulatory proposals emanating from EPA and other agencies. The answer is, the federal government will become a suicide bomber seeking to blow up and destroy the American economy and the well-being of the American people.
Here are three major regulatory initiatives from the past few weeks, each one supposedly somehow addressing this “climate crisis” thing:
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On April 12, EPA released its proposed rule titled “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light- Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles.” This rule essentially makes it impossible for automobile manufacturers to produce anything but fully-electric vehicles within a few years.
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On May 5, the Department of Energy released proposed new “efficiency” standards for dishwashers.
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And then on May 8, EPA released the mother of all regulations, with the endless title “New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.” This is the long-awaited regulation that seeks a complete transformation of the electricity-generation sector of the economy, toward something that has never been demonstrated to work and whose cost is without doubt a large multiple of the system we now have.
I previously covered the new vehicle rule, really an EV mandate, in this post on May 5. True to form of regulators who treat their subjects with contempt, the rule never explicitly states that the cars we now use are henceforth to be banned. Rather, it is some 262 pages of impenetrable text, which has buried somewhere deep inside a formula (82 g/mile CO2 emissions) that only an industry professional would know effectively bans internal combustion vehicles. All manufacturers are to be forced to comply, irrespective of whether they can do so profitably.
What is the probability that the new EV mandate will put all large U.S. and European automakers out of business in favor of Chinese competitors who have an advantage in the EV segment? The regulators neither know nor care. From Engineering & Technology, May 9:
According to insurers Allianz Trade, China’s decision to invest heavily in EV production over the last 15 years has made it the global leader in this sector. . . . Chinese brands have seen their global market shares climb from less than 40 per cent in 2020 to close to 50 per cent in 2022. This is heavily bolstered by an 80 per cent market share in their densely-populated home country.
In the world of dishwashers, we already have dishwashers that don’t work very well. The reason is regulator-imposed restrictions on use of energy and water. Today, due to these restriction, dishwashers run for more than two hours, and still don’t get the dishes very clean unless you pre-wash them by hand. Well, with the new Energy Department rule, it’s about to get a lot worse. From the WSJ, May 12:
The proposal requires manufacturers to slash water use by a third, limiting machines to 3.2 gallons per cycle, down from the current federal limit of five gallons. New appliances must simultaneously cut estimated annual energy usage by nearly 30%.
And then there is the new power plant rule. This one is 682 pages. Again, it never explicitly says that fossil fuel power plants are banned; it’s just that the emissions standards that they set cannot be met by any fossil fuel plant. The WSJ on May 11 calls the rule a “death sentence” for fossil fuel power plants.
Supposedly the fossil fuel plants can continue to operate if they adopt some means to capture the carbon emissions from their exhaust. I have previously described this idea of carbon capture as a “war against the second law of thermodynamics.” Trying to capture CO2 from power plant emissions requires energy, and the higher the percentage of the emissions you want to capture, the more energy it takes. If you insist on capturing all of the emissions and somehow storing them permanently, it’s going to take more energy than the power plant produces. There has been endless talk about carbon capture for more than a decade, and there is almost nothing in the way of functional carbon capture systems, because as they capture enough carbon to be meaningful, their cost soars out of control.
Will there be any functional replacement for the fossil fuel plants by the time they are forced out of business? This rule doesn’t trouble itself with such matters. That’s for the low status people to figure out. Over here at EPA, we are much too important for that. Our job is to save the planet.
So the regulatory onslaught continues. We are told to expect yet more such regulations, notably in the area of home appliances, in the near future.
Put it all together, and the term “war against the economy” no longer does justice to what is going on. This is a full-blown attack by suicide bombers. They are so crazed with the righteousness of their cause that they couldn’t care less about the destruction and devastation they might cause to the innocent people around them, let alone even about their own death. Who ever thought our federal government would get into such a role?
Former Deputy Nat’l Security Adviser: FBI, CIA & DOJ Will Rig 2024 Election
By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | May 22, 2023
Former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland, who served for the first four months of the Trump administration under Michael Flynn, says that the deep state is going to rig the 2024 US election following their success in 2020.
“We now have black-and-white evidence that the FBI interfered in the 2016 election. When they failed to elect Hillary Clinton, they set out to destroy the Trump administration,” she told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
“Go back to 2020. This time, the CIA got involved in the election with those 51 former intel agents who said the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. So they’ve gotten away with it for two elections. They will surely try and get away with it in 2024, right?
Because there are no consequences…
“There is now hard evidence that there was election interference by the U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Justice. Those individuals must be terrified that a Republican president comes in with a Republican Attorney General, investigates them, and charges them with all of the crimes they have committed over the last eight years. Take it to the bank.
They will absolutely interfere in 2024…
These people are selling us out. Not only to foreign leaders, but they are interfering in our elections.
They are tearing up the Constitution… This is just a gut punch to the American people.”
Poll finds disconnect between US public and media

RT | May 22, 2023
Most Americans believe the ‘Russiagate’ investigation of Donald Trump was based on lies and that President Joe Biden’s family engaged in influence-peddling crimes, a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll has shown, suggesting that legacy media outlets have failed to sway public opinion.
The poll, released on Friday, found that 56% of US voters believe the claim that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election was a “false story.” The same percentage believe the Steele dossier, which was the basis for an FBI investigation of Trump’s campaign, was false.
Nearly seven in ten respondents said they weren’t surprised that the Durham Report, released earlier this month, found that the FBI violated its own standards in starting the Trump-Russia investigation and became a funnel for “disinformation” from Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Likewise, 70% of voters are concerned about interference by the FBI and intelligence agencies in US presidential elections, and 71% believe the federal government needs “wide-ranging reform” to prevent such meddling.
CNN and other US media outlets hyped the Trump-Russia collusion allegations for three years and downplayed last week’s release of the Durham Report, calling the special prosecutor’s findings about the FBI a “whole big nothing.” Just before voters went to the polls in 2020, media outlets amplified claims by former US intelligence officials that a bombshell report on alleged influence-peddling by Biden’s family – sourced to a laptop computer that Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had abandoned at a repair shop – was based on “Russian disinformation.”
The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that 63% of voters believe Hunter Biden engaged in illegal influence-peddling and tax evasion, while 53% think Joe Biden was involved in the alleged criminal operation when he was vice president, according to the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll. Most voters (55%) also believe that the FBI and the US Department of Justice aren’t really investigating the Biden family’s alleged corruption, and 59% think the Russian disinformation claim was false.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald said the poll illustrated how “radically out of touch” liberal corporate media was with the views of Americans. He added that major media outlets were not only pushing narratives that Americans didn’t believe, but also didn’t permit the majority’s views to be heard.
The poll found other troubling opinions on Biden’s 2024 election prospects. Nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) believe Biden is showing signs that he’s too old to be president, while 57% have doubts about his mental fitness, and 61% think he wouldn’t make it through a second term.
Trump is the current frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination and is widening his lead over Biden in a hypothetical rematch. Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that voters favor the former president over his successor by a 47%-40% margin, up from a five-point lead last month. If Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic Party’s nominee, Trump is favored by a 50%-39% margin.
Beijing Banning Micron Means China Has Mastered Chip-Making
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 22.05.2023
China has slapped a ban on US chipmaker Micron, prohibiting it from selling to Chinese companies involved in key infrastructure projects. Beijing has mirrored Washington’s sanctions on the People’s Republic’s hi-tech technology, Asia-Pacific consultant Thomas W. Pauken told Sputnik, adding that there’s more to the development than meets the eye.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced on May 21, that a cybersecurity review indicated Micron Technology’s products “have relatively serious cybersecurity risks, which pose significant security risks to the country’s critical information infrastructure supply chain and would affect national security.” Thus, the CAC banned the US chipmaker from participating in the People’s Republic’s domestic critical infrastructural projects. In response, the US Commerce Department expressed its opposition to the restrictions, insisting that they “have no basis in fact.” Micron’s shares plummeted roughly 6% on Monday, given that the American company used to derive over 10% of its revenue from the People’s Republic.
“It’s rather interesting that the Washington side may be shocked or surprised by this news,” said Thomas W. Pauken II, the author of US vs China: From Trade War to Reciprocal Deal, consultant on Asia-Pacific affairs, and geopolitical commentator. “However, they have taken similar measures themselves to stop Chinese semiconductors and Chinese chips manufacturers or companies that are connected with the chips manufacturing and semiconductor manufacturing to be more involved with the supply chains in the United States as well. So this is not a case where there’s a shock or a surprise announcement. It’s actually basically China doing the same thing that the US has been doing to China.”
US President Joe Biden speaks about how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will rebuild the US and the progress made since he signed the bill into law, in the South Court
Since October 2022, Washington has imposed sweeping export curbs on advanced chips and chip-making equipment to China, trying to cut off the nation’s access to critical technology. Prior to that, under the Trump administration, the US and its Western allies kicked off nothing short of a crusade against the People’s Republic’s telecom giants, including its flagship Huawei, citing “security” concerns.
“This is a very simple response for Beijing to make and say, ‘Well, has the US not acted similarly to what we’ve been doing?'” noted Pauken. “So it would be hypocritical on the US side to criticize Beijing for taking actions that are similar to Washington’s actions. This is hypocrisy at its finest, in regards to Washington and how they’re complaining and criticizing China when they’re doing the exact same thing that they’re criticizing China for. It’s laughable. It’s just absurd for them to make such an argument when they’re doing the same thing.”
The Asia-Pacific consultant suggested that Micron had not been caught off guard: Pauken revealed that when he visited Taiwan last month, he learned from his source that the Micron senior executive in the Kaohsiung office had started laying off employees in April.
As per Pauken, plausibly, the Taiwanese Micron branch had anticipated these instructions, so it could have been the case that they were alerted by Beijing that there was an investigation and they likely realized that the chances of continuing to sell their chip technologies to the mainland were slim.
They had already started to do layoffs even before this announcement happened, the commentator noted. Nonetheless, even if they were prepared for the CAC announcement, it had a devastating impact: “From what I heard, the layoffs in the Taiwan offices were very massive,” Pauken emphasized. “Definitely it’s a major problem for Micron.”
However, there is more to the development than meets the eye, continued Pauken: according to him, it clearly indicates that Beijing has made considerable advancements in chip-making despite the US trying to contain the country’s technological rise.
“You also have to think about this from a strategic level,” the author said. “There’s no way China would have blocked any chips from Micron if it would cause extreme damage to the Chinese economy. Obviously, they have probably set up supply chains in place and have chips made in China that are maybe not equal in quality to Micron, but close enough so that they could handle the impact of no more Micron chips coming to China.”
“So what I’m getting at is that there’s no way Beijing took this announcement all of a sudden. They have prepared for it well in advance in anticipation that, of course, the US and Micron would complain. But they, of course, also took the right steps to protect their economy from being severely damaged by this announcement,” Pauken concluded.

