A retired FBI agent testified that Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential transition team was tipped off to the Bureau’s plan to interview Hunter Biden, according to a transcript released Monday.
The former FBI agent, whose name is redacted in the transcript, worked for the Bureau from 2002-22 and testified to House Oversight in July about the IRS whistleblower revelations surrounding the Hunter Biden investigation. He confirmed the Joe Biden transition team and Secret Service headquarters were tipped off to investigators’ plans to interview Hunter Biden in December 2020, resulting in the Hunter Biden interview getting shut down.
🚨 TRANSCRIPT RELEASE🚨
Today we’re releasing the former FBI supervisory special agent’s transcript. During the transcribed interview, the former FBI SSA corroborated key details in the IRS whistleblowers’ testimony.
During U.S. Attorney Weiss’ investigation, the Biden… pic.twitter.com/AfVZq5wek1
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 14, 2023
“The initial plan was to have the local field office of the Secret Service be notified the morning of to diminish opportunities for anybody else to be notified. I was working with my management on that, as well as headquarter — our FBI headquarters,” the former FBI agent testified, according to the transcript. (RELATED: House Oversight Releases Bank Records Showing Hunter Biden Took Millions From Russian And Ukrainian Oligarchs)
“But suffice it to say I was informed that FBI headquarters had contacted Secret Service headquarters and had made a notification at that time, or somewhere around that time on the evening of the 7th,” the witness added.
He said the “notification” was “of our intent, that we sought to interview Hunter Biden” for the investigation. He recalled being “upset when I learned about it” because he “felt it was people that did not need to know about our intent” to interview the younger Biden.
The former FBI agent described how his supervisors shut down the Hunter Biden interview on the day he was in California to interview the president’s son.
“And as we got together or while we got together on that morning, I was notified by my assistant special agent in charge that we would not even be allowed to approach the house; that the plan, as told to us, was that my information would be given to the Secret Service, to whom I don’t know exactly, and, you know, my name, my contact, you know, my cell phone, for example, with the notification that we would like to talk to Hunter Biden; and that I was not to go near the house and to stand by,” he testified.
They waited a block away from Hunter Biden’s house to see if he would come outside and potentially talk to the investigators, according to the transcript. The former FBI agent later received a phone call from Biden’s attorney, who allegedly said all communication with Hunter Biden would go through him. No interview with Hunter Biden ever took place.
“I believe I was with supervisory special agent No. 2 of the IRS when we were told we just couldn’t make the approach at all and that my information would be passed to — through the Secret Service to the subject, Mr. Biden,” the former agent told House Oversight further into his testimony.
He also remembered a phone call where he was told “Secret Service headquarters was notified and there was notification to the transition team,” according to the transcript.
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 26, 2023. ( RYAN COLLERD / AFP) (RYAN COLLERD/AFP via Getty Images)
The former FBI agent recalled a separate phone call afterwards during which he was not given a reason why the Secret Service headquarters and Biden transition team were notified. He said he did not know who made the decision, nor from whom the transition team had been notified.
The former FBI agent referred to IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley as the IRS supervisor on the Hunter Biden case. Shapley previously testified to the House Ways and Means Committee that FBI headquarters tipped off Secret Service headquarters and the Biden transition team about Hunter’s interview.
“However, the night before, December 7th, 2020, I was informed that FBI headquarters had notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day,” Shapley testified May 26. “This essentially tipped off a group of people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave this group an opportunity to obstruct the approach on the witnesses.”
The failed attempt to interview Hunter Biden happened with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss overseeing the Hunter Biden case. Weiss is now special counsel in the ongoing investigation.
“Tipping off the transition team and not being able to interview Hunter Biden as planned are just a couple of examples that reveal the Justice Department’s misconduct in the Biden criminal investigation that occurred under U.S. Attorney Weiss’ watch,” Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a press release Monday.
“The Oversight Committee has no confidence in U.S. Attorney Weiss as Special Counsel given his inability to prevent the Biden transition team from being contacted and federal agents were not permitted to interview Hunter Biden as planned,” Comer continued.