Hunter Biden Sues IRS, Alleges Breach of Tax Information Privacy

President Joe Biden's son has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), claiming the agency breached his right to privacy by airing concerns to Congress and the public about the agency's inquiry into his taxes and business transactions. Hunter Biden's attorneys filed a 27-page lawsuit on Sept. 18, focusing on Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the two IRS agents who claim they were impeded in their investigation of the president's son by Justice Department officials. The Biden legal team said the two agents broke federal law in discussing confidential matters by articulating their concerns about the investigation's management. "This lawsuit is not about the proper workings of the whistleblower statute and process, nor an official using those procedures properly to make disclosures to authorized government officials," wrote Mr. Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell. "Rather, 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 was submitted just days after Mr. Biden, 53, was indicted on gun charges connected to his purchase of a pistol in 2018 and brought before a federal court in Delaware. A few days before that indictment, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made the announcement that an official impeachment inquiry into President Biden would begin, and it would focus on the president's connections to the financial activities of his family, namely Hunter Biden. The three-count indictment filed on Thursday alleges that Mr. Biden lied on a form required for all gun purchases when he procured a .38-caliber Colt Cobra Special from a gun shop in Wilmington, Delaware.