explain that the u.s. attorney for d.c. declined to partner with mr. weiss to bring the 2014 and 2015 charges. after the decision by the u.s. attorney, mr. weiss continue to discuss those charges with all of you. in fact, mr. ziegler, you describe how you had a meeting in which u.s. attorney weiss expressed some concerns about those charges, including that hunter biden was in the throes of his drug addiction after the death of his brother. and mr. weiss tells you, and i quote i m still weighing it. mr. weiss was telling you that he was the one weighing whether to bring the 2014 and 2015 charges. isn t that correct? that is correct. coming back to you this meeting, according to you, he said that he decided not to
not yet approved, provided discretion, or decline charges. so u.s. attorney weiss had no authority to charge any of those charges without the tax division s approval beforehand. and i would like to say something about this real quick. let me get back to you. i only have a limited amount of time. mr. ziegler, you say that hunter biden s unpaid taxes were around $2 million, and he is now made those back taxes, and he is been criminally charged for not paying taxes. will you just explain how people can be charged for not paying taxes even after they ve made amends and gone forward to pay them? under the statute, when someone fails to timely pay their taxes, usually due april 15th, once that date occurs, they have a known tax liability and have failed to pay
ziegler spoke with prosecutors and worked hand-in-hand and they clearly agreed that the elements of these violations were met, and they supported this document. and when that was sent to the tax division for approval in 2022. mr. shapley, what level of confidence does the irs need to have to recommend charges like the felony counts listed in this document? each violation has each element listed in the report, and the evidence is shown. this report goes through internal departments. and in addition to the prosecutor is agreeing that the evidence supported charging felony counts of senior leadership of the director of field operations, also personally reviewed this and approved it to be sent to the department of justice tax
we have got documentation that there were some attorneys and superiors and other people who agreed with what we have come to conclude as investigators, so at some point, we are baffled by how this came together. you heard ziegler say i cannot explain how this came together based on what we discussed and what i thought was an agreement. yes they are going to butt heads over how to move forward, but he seems to say that he thought there was more agreement about what they were going to pursue. john: jonathan, you and i noticed exactly the same thing which i thought was curious. that is when jamie raskin he almost threw it away as a bit of an aside. tried to blow this whole thing out of the water that by saying what he believes this is all about is a disagreement between investigators and prosecutors. you tweeted out about this idea, jamie raskin tries to school these two whistle-blowers on
as you see the light. fair enough? yes. mr. ziegler. i am doing my duty. can you imagine how the district attorney in fulton county, georgia, must feel are the district attorney in manhattan must feel or the special counsel of the department of justice, mr. smith, must feel, when the very subject of an indictment or pending indictment takes to public rally and ridicules them by name, disparages them by name, characterizes them by name, putting them and their families at the same risk you re experiencing. it is said it s wrong for these anonymous people to criticize you, it must certainly be wrong that the former president of the united states would demonize people doing their jobs just like you tried to do yours.