Gary Shapley, the IRS supervisor who gained national attention for blowing the whistle on alleged interference in the Hunter Biden tax investigation, has been appointed Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, officials confirmed Wednesday.
Shapley's elevation comes as Trump administration officials move to install loyalists across the federal government while continuing to scrutinize President Joe Biden and his family's financial dealings. "Congratulations to my friend Gary Shapley on being named Acting Commissioner of the IRS," wrote Shapley's attorney, Tristan Leavitt, on X. "Couldn't think of a single better person, both as a dedicated leader and as a whistleblower who has seen the agency's weaknesses and had the courage to speak up about them."
The appointment places Shapley at the helm of the agency where he and fellow IRS agent Joseph Ziegler alleged that top officials slow-walked the investigation into the president's son and blocked lines of inquiry related to Joe Biden. Their testimony before Congress in 2023 was instrumental in igniting a House GOP-led impeachment inquiry into the president.
Shapley replaces acting commissioner Melanie Krause, who is stepping down amid controversy over a data-sharing agreement between the IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She is expected to remain at the agency through mid-May.
Prior to his new role, Shapley had been promoted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to serve as a senior adviser for IRS reform. Ziegler also received a similar advisory role at Treasury. Their promotions came after pressure from Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), who praised Shapley's appointment as "GR8 NEWS."
Shapley and Ziegler's allegations were further corroborated by testimony from Special Counsel David Weiss and other officials, according to House investigators. Weiss, initially the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, was promoted to special counsel after a controversial plea deal with Hunter Biden collapsed in 2023.
The IRS agents claim they faced retaliation from the agency, including demotion threats and removal from the case. An independent federal monitor concluded that the IRS had improperly retaliated against the whistleblowers, backing up long-standing complaints from House Republicans and watchdog groups.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges and was convicted on three gun-related felonies in 2024. President Joe Biden issued a sweeping pardon to his son in December 2024, covering federal offenses committed from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024. The unprecedented scope of the pardon has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and former prosecutors.
The younger Biden is now suing the IRS over what he alleges were unlawful disclosures by the whistleblowers. In turn, Shapley and Ziegler have sought to join the case as defendants to defend their conduct and have filed a separate defamation suit against Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell.
