please begin his opening statement. thank you. members of the committee, today i sit here before you not as a hero or a victim but as a whistle-blower compelled to share the truth. in coming forward, i believe i am risking my career, my reputation, and my casework outside of the investigation we are here to discuss. i ultimately made the decision to come forward after what i saw were multiple attempts at blowing the whistle at the internal revenue service. no one should be above the law, regardless of your political affiliation. i humbly view my role here today as providing the facts as i best understood them and to let congress and the administration and the public consider those facts and determine the best path forward. i recognize why i was present at the start of this investigation and was closely involved for roughly five years.
a vicious smear campaign to discredit these whistle-blowers and discourage others from coming forward. and may have even coordinated with the white house on this effort. this is a disgrace. i urge any irs employee watching today, if you know of misconduct, please come to the ways and means committee so that we can hold accountable those who are responsible, and let me be clear, there will be zero tolerance for any retaliation against whistle-blowers by doj and the irs. the american people expect answers about whether the federal government is treating all taxpayers equally or if the wealthy and politically connected get special treatment. our committees are working together to get to the bottom of this abuse of power and will
considering this investigation that did not allow us to follow through the investigation of any other individual to include president biden. we expect the hearing to go about six to seven hours. 7:00, 8:00 tonight. john: it s going to be a big afternoon. sandra. sandra: we are about to get into that hearing, but first, shannon bream, can you set this up for us? we have seen gary shapley. what we are going to see in addition, a longtime irs who is going to his face and name out there and says that he supports what gary shapley says. now to the biggest hearing yet. shannon, thank you. let s head to the hearing room. just six months, we ve obtained thousands of pages of financial records. this includes bank records for biden family associates and suspicious activity reports generated by the bidens and their associates.
man sitting next to me due to my political beliefs. my credibility comes today from my job experience with the irs and my intimate knowledge of the agency standard and procedures. i was raised and have always strived to do what is right. although i do have my supporters, others have said that i m a traitor to the democratic party and that i am causing more division in our society. i implore you to consider that if you were in my position, ask yourself if you would be doing the exact same thing. i hope i am an example to other lgbtq people out there who are questioning doing the right thing at the potential cost to themselves and others. we should always do the right thing, no matter how painful the process may be. i kind of equate this to feelings i encountered coming out. it was honestly one of the hardest things i ever had to go through. i contemplated scenarios that would have been highly regrettable, but i did what was
this is important for the house oversight committee. they believe that they will deliver the goods on the bidens. we believe that it would be the irs. leadership in the criminal division. that s what these two guys are. i am the only one investigating joe biden because what we have seen, the fbi never investigated the bribery allegation. then you say that they were told to stand down. one of the whistle-blowers as gary shapley, a senior investigator for the irs. he gave a deposition to house investigator several weeks ago. he says he faced retaliation for targeting the bidens and face roadblocks in his inquiry. i mean, we were conducting an investigation of hunter biden, and we were trying to follow the normal process, but there were definitely endurance as i have never seen before in my 14 years