(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is moving to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, against the Internal Revenue Service over its alleged failure to protect his tax information from disclosure by two whistleblowers.
Hunter Biden sued the IRS in September over claims made by a pair of veteran tax investigators, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, whom the younger Biden accused of waging a campaign to “to embarrass and inflict harm” on him by improperly sharing his private taxpayer information in media interviews.
Justice Department argued in a 22-page filing on Tuesday that the alleged wrongdoing described by Hunter Biden pertains to disclosures made by the whistleblowers’ personal attorneys — neither of whom are government employees — and should therefore be dismissed.
Hunter Biden also failed to show that the IRS demonstrated any “intentionality or willfulness” in its alleged failure to protect his taxpayer information, government lawyers argued, quoting the standard for bringing this cause of action.
“Even accepting Plaintiff’s factual allegations as true, they do not support a plausible inference that the agency intentionally or willfully failed to establish adequate technical or procedural safeguards to prevent disclosures from taking place,” DOJ attorneys wrote.
The two whistleblowers accused government prosecutors of mishandling their investigation into the president’s son — a claim that the Justice Department has denied.
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