Former Republican Aides Shepherd Whistle-Blowers Through Congress

Empower Oversight, a group of lawyers including former aides to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, is part of a constellation of groups facilitating G.O.P. investigations in Congress.

When Gary Shapley, a longtime I.R.S. investigator, wanted to air his accusations that the federal government had mishandled the tax investigation into President Biden’s son Hunter, the information he had was so sensitive he couldn’t even provide it to his own lawyer without potentially committing a felony.

So through his attorney, he approached Empower Oversight, a small group mostly composed of Republican lawyers with deep experience in Capitol Hill investigations — including years spent as aides to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa — who coached him on what to do.

Armed with intricate knowledge of Congress’s byzantine procedures and various whistle-blower statutes, some written by Mr. Grassley decades ago, the men developed a strategy for how to get the information to Congress lawfully.

Months later, Mr. Shapley and a fellow I.R.S. investigator, Joseph Ziegler, were testifying in open session before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, detailing their claims that the president’s son had received preferential treatment, which many in the Republican Party eagerly publicized as proof of their frequent accusations that President Biden and the Justice Department are corrupt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/23/us/politics/whistle-blower-biden.html