Federal prosecutor who allegedly interfered in Hunter Biden probe leaves Justice Department

WASHINGTON — A federal prosecutor who allegedly interfered in the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden to protect both President Biden and his son recently left the Justice Department, The Post has learned.

Former Delaware assistant US attorney Lesley Wolf’s quiet departure emerged as she appeared for a deposition with the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning — following the Wednesday night House vote to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over his alleged role in his son and brother’s foreign business dealings.

Wolf’s starring role in the alleged Justice Department coverup of the criminal investigation of alleged tax fraud and foreign-lobbying violations is a significant part of the impeachment inquiry — with whistleblowers saying that she discouraged asking witnesses questions “about the big guy” or “dad,” referring to Joe Biden, claiming there was “no specific criminality to that line of questioning.” 

Two IRS agents who worked on the criminal investigation, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, alleged in prior testimony to House committees that Wolf tipped off Hunter Biden’s lawyers to investigative steps and forbade inquiries into Joe Biden, even when communications mentioned him.

Wolf allegedly instructed FBI agents in August 2020 to remove references to Joe Biden from a search warrant affidavit, writing, “someone needs to redraft [the affidavit]… There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 in here,” according to an email released by the Ways & Means Committee.

“That email, I think, is super important because it’s a one-off example in writing of the constant concern of following investigative leads that might lead to Joe Biden,” Ziegler said Thursday in a Fox News interview.

“The FBI agents who drafted that affidavit, they believed that they had sufficient evidence — probable cause — to support including Political Figure 1 in that affidavit,” said the self-identified Democrat and veteran IRS agent, who worked on the case for five years

“You look at what that related to [Ukrainian energy company] Burisma, access to Joe Biden and access to the administration and there was ample evidence that was included in that affidavit that’s supported including Political Figure 1. That has a waterfall effect on the investigation because those emails that we’re searching for might not come through to the team.”

Wolf also “reached out to Hunter Biden’s defense counsel and told them” about investigators’ plans to search a northern Virginia storage unit that contained business records, Ziegler said in prior congressional testimony —  “once again circumventing our chance to get to evidence from potentially being destroyed, manipulated or concealed.”

Shapley, who supervised the Hunter Biden criminal investigation for three years, testified investigators were barred from searching a guest house at Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Del. home to find supporting evidence and that Wolf objected during a meeting on Dec. 3, 2020, to questioning a key Biden family associate, Rob Walker, about the president.

“Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad’” he said. 

“When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning. This upset the FBI too,” Shapley testified.

The whistleblowers also accused Weiss’ office of giving Hunter Biden’s legal team advance knowledge of a planned interview attempt in late 2020, scuttling a planned approach, and said that prosecutors didn’t inform them about a paid FBI informant’s tip that Joe and Hunter Biden received $10 million in bribes from Burisma, which paid Hunter up to $1 million to serve on its board beginning in 2014 when his vice-president dad led US policy toward the country.

Shapley and Ziegler also said they were not allowed to get cellphone geolocation data that could have proved Joe Biden was with his son in July 2017 when Hunter sent a threatening text message to a Chinese government-linked businessman saying, “I am sitting here with my father,” and warning of retribution. 

Within 10 days of that message, $5.1 million flowed to accounts linked to Hunter and first James Biden from CEFC China Energy — after a tranche of $1 million earlier that year, less than two months after Biden left office as vice president. A May 2017 email penciled in Joe Biden, referred to as the “big guy,” for a 10% cut.

Wolf departed US Attorney David Weiss’ office in recent weeks — months after he was made a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case — though it’s unclear precisely when and on what terms. 

A source confirmed her departure to The Post after it was first reported by Fox News on Thursday morning.

Reps for Weiss’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wolf “deviated from standard investigative procedures” in the criminal investigation, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Jordan last month issued a subpoena to summon Wolf for a transcribed interview after the Justice Department evaded requests that she give voluntary testimony.

“When you get into Burisma, you get to the White House,” Jordan said Thursday on Fox News.

Other officials who have dodged requests for interviews include DOJ Tax Division officials Jack Morgan and Mark Daly, whose team pushed back on charging Hunter Biden during a June 2022 meeting, according to IRS tax investigators.

“Given your critical role you played in the investigation of Hunter Biden, you are uniquely situated to shed light on whether President Biden played any role in the Department’s investigation and whether he attempted, in any way, to directly or indirectly obstruct either that investigation or our investigation,” Jordan wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to Wolf.

The Judiciary chairman said the prosecutor had “first-hand knowledge” of the first son’s case, having attended “a substantial majority, if not all” of the meetings held in Weiss’ office over the course of the probe.

One of those meetings Wolf “obstructed,” Jordan said, which involved a briefing that former Pittsburgh US Attorney Scott Brady eventually gave Weiss’ office about an FBI informant file that alleged Hunter and Joe Biden took a $10 million bribe from the owner of Burisma Holdings.

Other IRS documents show Wolf requested that references to Biden, who was then a Democratic presidential candidate, be removed since he was outside the “scope” of their probe, the whistleblowers recounted.

In a Jan. 12, 2022, meeting, Shapley took notes that he later disclosed to GOP lawmakers revealing Wolf had discouraged digging into allegations that Hunter’s “sugar brother,” the Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, who paid off the first son’s $2 million tax liabilities, had committed “campaign finance criminal violations.”

Weiss’ office reportedly considered letting Hunter Biden off the hook for $2 million in tax evasion without charges, before announcing a probation-only plea deal on tax and gun charges in June after the IRS whistleblowers alleged a coverup.

Hunter Biden walked away from the plea deal in July over courtroom demands for assurances that he would not later face other charges, such as for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which would implicate his father. 

The first son, who theatrically refused to comply with a subpoena for his own testimony Wednesday, has been re-charged with tax and gun charges in Los Angeles and Delaware, but critics note the continued lack of FARA charges for linking clients to his father and other US officials.