FIRST ON FOX: George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley warned that if "half" of the IRS whistleblowers’ claims are true, then Hunter Biden’s tax evasion investigation’s "integrity and credibility would be greatly undermined."
Turley told Fox News Digital that Americans "need to keep in mind that allegations are not proof" and that the whistleblowers' claims remain "unverified but clearly worthy of investigation."
However, if even partially accurate, the allegations would hurt the trust in the investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes.
"If half of these allegations are proven to be true, the investigation's integrity and credibility would be greatly undermined," Turley warned. "At a minimum, these are questions that need to be answered."
"Notably, some of this evidence comes from statements given to Congress under the threat of prosecution if false," he said. "The alleged push for felony charges are also matters that the whistleblowers may have direct involvement or knowledge as the basis for the allegations."
"If searches were blocked or questions limited, the account could confirm the worst suspicions about this investigation," Turley added.
Turley’s comments come amid damning allegations from IRS whistleblowers about the younger Biden’s tax evasion investigation.
Justice Department investigators were "trying to limit" questioning related to President Biden as part of the investigation into Hunter Biden, despite objections from FBI and IRS officials, a whistleblower alleged.
The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be "influenced by politics."
One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that "at every stage" of the probe, decisions were made that "had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation." He cited several examples involving apparent references to Hunter Biden’s father.
Shapley pointed to text messages and emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, which Fox News Digital first reported before the 2020 presidential election and before it was known that Hunter Biden was under federal investigation.
In December 2020, Shapley said investigators were preparing to interview Biden business associate Rob Walker.
"Among other things, we wanted to question Walker about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy,’" Shapley said. "We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden."
But Shapley said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley 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.’"
It has been reported that Joe Biden is referred to as "the big guy."
"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," Shapley said. "This upset the FBI, too."
Shapley said that "basically everyone in the room except for the prosecutors had a big problem with" not asking questions about President Biden.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
