{"id":40325,"date":"2025-11-15T05:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T05:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40325\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T05:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T05:42:17","slug":"hunter-biden-lawyer-abbe-lowell-settles-20m-defamation-case-brought-by-irs-whistleblowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40325\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell settles $20M defamation case brought by IRS whistleblowers\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A settlement was agreed to Friday in a $20 million defamation lawsuit<\/a> brought by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler against Hunter Biden\u2019s attorney, Abbe Lowell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in September 2024,\u00a0accused Lowell<\/a> of acting with \u201cclear malice\u201d and harming the reputations of the IRS employees investigating the former first son when he alleged to the media that they had illegally leaked Hunter\u2019s private tax information.<\/p>\n

The case was dismissed by a federal judge in Washington, DC, last month, but the whistleblowers had been considering an appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shapley and Ziegler argued that Lowell defamed them when he alleged they unlawfully disclosed Hunter Biden\u2019s tax information. Getty Images<\/p>\n

As part of the settlement, all parties agreed to no longer pursue further litigation and Lowell acknowledged that Shapely and Ziegler<\/a> were authorized \u201cto make disclosures of otherwise confidential tax information about the investigation of Hunter Biden to the tax committees in Congress.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hunter\u2019s attorney also acknowledged that Shapley and Ziegler \u201cbelieved they acted in good faith to follow the law and to limit their remarks to information that had already been lawfully disclosed by others, and if so, were not disclosing confidential information.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The whistleblowers, meanwhile, agreed that Lowell \u201cbelieved that he made good faith legal arguments based on the case law and acted at all times appropriately to vigorously defend his client.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lowell will not be required to make a payment to Shapley and Ziegler as part of the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler sued for $20 million and got nothing,\u201d Lowell\u2019s attorney told The Post. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Empower Oversight, the whistleblower protection advocacy group representing the IRS employees, said the lawsuit against Lowelll \u201cwas never about the money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement unequivocally establishes the fact that our clients followed the law and that their whistleblower disclosures were legally protected,\u201d Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case was never about the money for Gary and Joe,\u201d Leavitt added, \u201cbut about restoring their professional reputation and ensuring that other whistleblowers can come forward the way they did \u2014 without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles Michael, Lowell\u2019s attorney, told The Post that his client is \u201cpleased\u201d with the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts and outcome speak for themselves,\u201d Michael said in a statement. \u201cMr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler sued for $20 million and got nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for the whistleblowers said the settlement makes clear their disclosures to Congress \u201cwere legally protected.\u201d The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge agreed that Mr. Lowell had every right to call out the agents\u2019 conduct, that Mr. Lowell did not commit defamation, and that the case should be thrown out with prejudice,\u201d he added. \u201cMr. Lowell is pleased that that the agents have put an end to their pursuit of a case that never should have been brought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter pleaded guilty last year to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor charges<\/a> in the case brought against by the Justice Department and investigated by Shapley and Ziegler. <\/p>\n

Facing 17 years behind bars, Joe Biden issued his son a sweeping pardon<\/a> ahead of his sentencing \u2014 just weeks before leaving office \u2014 absolving Hunter of his crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A settlement was agreed to Friday in a $20 million defamation lawsuit brought by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[419,23409,20817,23410,874,3100,9,11,10,87,58,16734],"class_list":{"0":"post-40325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-defamation","10":"tag-hunter-biden","11":"tag-irs","12":"tag-joe-biden","13":"tag-lawsuit","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-us-news","19":"tag-whistleblowers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}