CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge describes this as an “exclusive,” which in media-speak means “no other reporter was in the room at the same time.” In the case of the IRS whistleblowers, however, it seems no other media outlet has much interest in reporting that the Department of Justice corrupted an IRS investigation into the Bidens. David wrote about the “media brownout” in our previous post, which in Teri Hatcher terms is not just real but spectacular.
That’s all the more reason to give credit to CBS News and Herridge and their high-profile interview with the IRS lead agent on the Hunter Biden probe. While other media outlets downplay or ignore the story, at least the Tiffany Network is following it wherever it leads:
More from @CBSNews exclusive interview with IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, telling @CBS_Herridge that he believes the evidence he gathered supported more serious charges than those Hunter Biden is expected to plead guilty to next week. pic.twitter.com/LbCW52jOcg
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) July 20, 2023
Ziegler alleges that evidence he collected showed how Hunter Biden improperly claimed business deductions for a range of personal expenses, such as college tuition for his children, bills for stays at a posh Hollywood hotel, payments to escorts, and no-show employees. In 2021, Ziegler says he drafted a memorandum recommending prosecutors charge Hunter Biden with multiple felonies and misdemeanors.
“In August of 2022, we had a phone call with all of the assigned prosecutors and they had said that all four of them were recommending the approval of felony and misdemeanor tax charges,” Ziegler said. …
Ziegler said Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, told him he agreed with certain felony charges, but there was resistance from other officials inside the Department of Justice who thought a jury may be sympathetic to Hunter Biden’s drug addiction and the death of his brother, Beau Biden.
“David said to us…’I’m getting some concern from the Department of Justice Tax Division, the evidence that might come in related to his substance abuse and the death of his brother, Beau Biden, those might affect the jury’s opinion’,” Ziegler said. …
“At the end of the day, it’s a matter of are we treating everyone the same? Are we treating all taxpayers the same?” Zielger said. “And in this case, no, I don’t think so.”
Neither does anyone else. Ziegler is, of course, only the latest of the whistleblowers from the IRS, which clearly had hoped to enforce the law equally when it came to Hunter Biden. The parade of whistleblowers began a few weeks ago, contradicting claims from both Attorney General Merrick Garland and US Attorney David Weiss that the latter had plenary authority for a full investigation of Hunter Biden and any charges that might follow. Instead, as Gary Shapley and others earlier testified, the DoJ interfered with charging decisions, and now we have more corroboration that the DoJ also obstructed obvious lines of investigation.
To that extent, Ziegler isn’t necessarily blowing the lid off the cover-up, as Shapley initially did. Instead, Ziegler’s confirming that the cover-up exists and the extent to which the Department of Justice went to force a favorable conclusion for Hunter and the rest of the Bidens.
If you watched yesterday’s hearings, you already heard this. But many Americans didn’t have the chance to watch those hearings, and many of America’s media outlets are taking advantage of that by ignoring the story. CBS News is featuring it with some good reporting and actual promotion of their exclusive with Ziegler. Kudos to them, and for keeping Herridge on the story at least thus far. It’s incumbent on us to highlight good reporting as well as bad — and to get the testimony of these whistleblowers and the corruption of the DoJ in relation to the Bidens in front of as many eyes as possible.
Addendum: This is not an anomaly for CBS News. They have allowed Herridge to do a lot of narrative-busting journalism at CBS ever since she came over from Fox. They also have another tough reporter in Jan Crawford, who also does good work on stories that other media outlets tend to avoid.
Had enough of privileged pseudo-dynasties and politicians like Biden who spend their life in Washington and wind up suspiciously wealthy? In the latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast, I talk with Matt Lewis about his new book, Filthy Rich Politicians: The Swamp Creatures, Latte Liberals, and Ruling-Class Elites Cashing in on America. Needless to say, the Bidens come up in the conversation, but they’re hardly alone! Today’s show features:
- “The Bidens do make an appearance, including Hunter,” Matt tells us, but “they constitute a small percentage of of the filthy rich politicians talked about in the book.”
- “Maybe it’s a just fortuitous but my book comes out on Tuesday,” Matt says, “and I’m going everywhere I can, talking about how we have to ban members of Congress from betting on the stock market. And then twenty-four hours later,” he continues, “this news broke that Senators Hawley and Gillibrand are introducing this bill that would essentially do the same thing.”
- What about flat-out corruption of the kind that’s being exposed with the Bidens? “I largely avoid that topic in this book,” Matt explains, “and on the things that are clearly illegal, like taking bribes.” Instead, Matt wants to expose the “banality of corruption” that’s built into the system and away from any real risk of law enforcement.
- As a couple of authors ourselves, we delve into the grift of huge-advance book deals and their absurd economics. “I got all the money I was ever going to get out of that book right up front. Everybody told me that,” I explain, and “they were all very cool about that. I’m fine with it. But,” I continue, “I wasn’t getting thirteen million dollars bonuses either. Do you know how many books publishers would have to sell to recoup thirteen million dollar bonuses?”
- It’s a fun conversation, and stick around for my suggestion to Matt about the topic of his next book!
The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!
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