IRS whistleblower Joe Ziegler appeared visibly confused during the House Oversight Committee hearing regarding Hunter Biden’s alleged crimes. His confusion arose as Democratic Representative from Pennsylvania, Summer Lee, switched the conversation focus to the issue of slavery.
Ziegler, alongside fellow whistleblower Gary Shapley, testified that they had been discouraged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) from pressing felony tax charges against Hunter Biden. According to their earlier testimonies, they claimed that Biden and his associates received more than $3 million from Romanian businesses, in addition to payments from Chinese-linked and Ukrainian companies, notably Burisma.
In spite of the serious nature of these allegations, Rep. Lee chose to steer her remarks towards the topic of slavery, deciding to yield the rest of her time to the committee chair rather than probing further into Ziegler’s claims.
Lee brought up the Republican’s frequent use of the phrase ‘two-tiered system of justice’, stating, “The real two-tier justice system is one in which black and brown individuals are over-policed and over-incarcerated… It is misguided for my Republican colleagues to twist the phrase ‘two-tiered justice system’ to paint Trump and his allies as victims. The term truly refers to the prevalent system in the United States that disproportionately affects black and brown people, not influential former presidents and their political associates.”
Throughout Lee’s discourse on incarceration rates of black men compared to white men, alongside related crime statistics, Ziegler seemed to be uncertain of the relevance of the comments to his testimony.
Lee continued her discourse by stating, “These racial disparities are rooted in a two-tiered perspective on race. The idea that black people were inferior was created to justify black enslavement, and this notion has now morphed into the belief that black people are more inclined to criminal behavior. White people have historically justified the torture and murder of black people, even during the numerous lynchings post-slavery, as a necessity to protect property, families, and a certain way of life from black criminals.”
She closed her statement by indicating that Republican attempts to co-opt the term ‘two-tier justice’ served to detract attention from the actual victims of unequal treatment within our criminal justice system, implicitly referring to black and brown communities.
