
Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, sued the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Monday (September 18) saying that disclosures about his taxes and details of investigation into his conduct has violated his privacy rights.
IRS is responsible for collecting federal taxes in the US.
Hunter Biden's lawsuit has come just days after the Justice Department indicted him on charges related to his purchase of a handgun in 2018.
Biden's lawyers have filed the lawsuit in Federal District Court in Washington. They accuse that the IRS “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters.,” as reported by The New York Times.
To support the allegations by pointing to the public testimonies and statements from two investigators from the IRS.
Gary Shapley and Josepj Ziegler, the IRS investigators have been providing information to US House committees. The investigators have told House Republicans that they think the Justice Department enquiry into Hunter Biden's taxes has been influenced by politics.
The claim from the investigators has been disputed by Attorney General Merrick Garland and also by US attorney for Delaware David C Weiss who has overseen the case. Weiss was recently given a status of special counsel by Attorney General Garland.
The lawsuit says Hunter Biden "has all the same responsibilities as any other American citizen, and the I.R.S. can and should make certain that he abides by those responsibilities,” the suit says.
“Similarly, Mr. Biden has no fewer or lesser rights than any other American citizen, and no government agency or government agent has free reign to violate his rights simply because of who he is,” it says. “Yet the I.R.S. and its agents have conducted themselves under a presumption that the rights that apply to every other American citizen do not apply to Mr. Biden.”
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