WASHINGTON — IRS whistleblowers who alleged interference by the Justice Department in a criminal probe of former first son Hunter Biden are appealing their case to a federal review board that handles workplace misconduct, according to a legal complaint obtained by The Post.

IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and special agent Joseph Ziegler went before the US Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) on Thursday, demanding that their agency restore career promotions they were unlawfully denied.

Shapley and Ziegler also want consequences for those who they say “marginalized and isolated” them before throwing them off the tax fraud case against former President Joe Biden’s son.

Among those subject to the complaint are Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, other federal prosecutors and members of the DOJ’s Tax Division who were presiding over the Hunter probe codenamed “Sportsman.”

“When [Shapley] became [Ziegler]’s manager in January 2020, [Ziegler] disclosed to [Shapley] that he believed DOJ’s handling of the Sportsman investigation was an abuse of authority,” lawyers for the whistleblower protection legal nonprofit Empower Oversight wrote in the MSPB filing.

“When Joe Biden became the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee in the spring of 2020, DOJ’s preferential treatment of Hunter Biden began to look like gross mismanagement,” they added.

That mismanagement included contradictory testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland about Weiss’ authority to make charging decisions for the case, as well as an October 2022 meeting in which Shapley charged that the Delaware prosecutor was mishandling the investigation.

Shapley and Ziegler testified to Congress that an assistant prosecutor in Weiss’ office, Lesley Wolf, had shielded Joe Biden from scrutiny in the case — and even tipped off Hunter’s legal team about a planned search for evidence at a storage unit in Northern Virginia.

In a December 2020 meeting of IRS investigators and Weiss’ team, Wolf had also batted down questions about an email — first reported by The Post — in which the president-elect was referred to as “the big guy” owed a 10% stake in a $5 million business deal with a Chinese energy firm.

“[I]nvestigators had questions on their outline about the identities of H and the ‘big guy’ as well as the clearly tax-related question of why this percentage was to be held separately, with the association hidden,” the Empower Oversight appeal stated.

“Yet AUSA Wolf interrupted and informed investigators they were not allowed to ask questions about President-Elect Biden. When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that these questions were critical to the IRS and FBI investigations, AUSA Wolf replied that there was no ‘specific criminality’ to that line of questioning.”

The appeal also notes that Weiss’ inability to bring charges without partnering on the case with Biden-appointed DC US Attorney Matthew Graves — who declined to pursue the matter — created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Both whistleblowers informed their chain of command about the improper handling of the Hunter Biden investigation before turning to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal watchdog, other inspectors general and Republicans in Congress to make protected disclosures about the cover-up.

“Not only did the IRS agree to remove the Appellants, but it also commenced a cascading series of retaliatory actions against the Appellants — especially after they blew the whistle to multiple
inspectors general, to Congress, and to OSC,” the Empower Oversight lawyers alleged.

“Taken together, these actions add up to a significant change in duties, responsibilities, and working conditions.”

In December, Empower Oversight wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to reveal that OSC concluded the IRS had put unlawful gag orders on Shapley and Ziegler — and improperly removed them from the Hunter case in retaliation for their disclosures to Congress.

That finding resulted in a prohibited personnel practice report that has since been transmitted to the IRS, though the agency has yet to act upon it, according to the whistleblowers’ lawyers.

Shapley and Ziegler are still working at the IRS — beneath those who retaliated against them — while Hunter Biden was pardoned in late 2024 by his father for both tax and gun charges brought by Weiss, in addition to any crimes Hunter may have committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.

The whistleblowers have approximately three decades of experience at the IRS between them.

Empower Oversight president Tristan Leavitt, who is the lead lawyer repping the whistleblowers, has asked for the MSPB to “order all appropriate corrective action from the IRS and DOJ,” as well as hold a hearing on the many improper actions outlined in the 84-page filing.