WASHINGTON (TNND) — Two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigators who looked into Hunter Biden’s taxes suggested in a interview released Tuesday that the federal government treated him differently than in other cases because of the impending 2020 presidential election.

Greg Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who investigated the case related to Biden’s September conviction for tax crimes, told former CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge that the IRS was demanding that investigators get more information. approval for actions in Biden’s case than in investigations of other suspects.

“When it came to Hunter Biden, it required additional approvals for every single thing we did,” Shapley said. “Meanwhile, the local businessman – I don’t need any special permission. I’m just going to investigate.

One of the most notable discoveries from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was an email exchange with a former business partner who suggested assigning “10 H-held to the big guy,” which would mean 10% of ‘a proposed joint venture. Shapley told Herridge that investigators corroborated that the “big guy” was a reference to Joe Biden.

“We corroborated that ‘The Big Guy’ was Joe Biden. Yes,” Shapley said.

Ziegler added that special counsel Jack Smith of the Justice Department, who filed a motion earlier this month in a case against former President Donald Trump, had been given more freedom to investigate than he and Shapley.

“Compared to what happened in our investigation, there are a lot of excessive investigative steps that we were not allowed to take because we had an election coming up,” Ziegler said. “And this concerned the president’s son, so not even the candidate, and we were not authorized to take certain investigative steps.”

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor tax charges in what prosecutors called a scheme that took place from 2016 to 2019. Shapley told Herridge that Smith’s motion would never have been released if the Department of Justice had followed the precedent established in the context of the 2020 elections.

“The Department of Justice has set a precedent regarding the ongoing investigations and elections in the Hunter Biden case,” Shapley said. “And if they don’t declare that priority and they do something much more aggressive, then it’s clear to me that there’s some sort of double standard.”

An IRS supervisor sent an email thanking staff who worked on Biden’s case after his conviction, according to Herridge. Shapley said the office’s language did not match its actions.

“It’s really an example of just covering their behinds like a real bureaucracy,” he said.

Ziegler and Shapley tootestified to Congress in 2023 over their interference allegations. The IRS did not respond to a request for comment from the National News Desk.

Do you have questions, concerns or advice? Send them to Ray at [email protected].