IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler risked everything to expose political interference in the Hunter Biden tax investigation — and now a documentary is finally putting their story on the permanent record. In this episode of The Jenny Beth Show, host Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action, sits down with Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight and the attorney who represented Shapley and Ziegler before Congress, and Chris Dodge, founder and director of Fruition Productions and filmmaker behind the documentary Shielded By Power. Together, they reveal what Gary and Joe personally endured inside the IRS — the deliberate obstruction by the Delaware U.S. Attorney's office, the FBI's advance knowledge that the Hunter Biden laptop was authentic (confirmed by Apple iCloud subpoenas), and the coordinated effort across intelligence agencies, big tech, and legacy media to suppress the story before the 2020 election. They also expose a chilling new development: Facebook, X, and Google are all currently blocking or suspending ad accounts tied to the documentary's Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign — mirroring the same suppression tactics used against the original story. Jenny Beth connects the dots to the IRS targeting of the Tea Party movement, state-level Medicaid fraud in Minnesota and California, and the urgent need for more whistleblowers to come forward. Support the film at shieldedbypower.com. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
GUESTS
Tristan Leavitt is president of Empower Oversight, Whistleblowers and Research, a nonprofit government watchdog. A former congressional investigator who served on the staffs of Sen. Chuck Grassley and the House Oversight Committee, Leavitt represented IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler as their legal counsel during their landmark 2023 congressional testimony.
Chris Dodge is founder and director of Fruition Productions, a Los Angeles-based documentary film company. His previous documentary, Rig From the Start: The SEC's War on Crypto, featured Empower Oversight's investigation into the SEC. His current project, Shielded By Power, tells the full story of the IRS whistleblowers and the institutional suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop.
TOPICS COVERED
- The Hunter Biden IRS investigation and what Shapley and Ziegler discovered inside the case
- Why a documentary tells this story better than congressional testimony ever could
- FBI foreknowledge: iCloud subpoenas confirmed the laptop was authentic before the 2020 election
- The Aspen Institute "war game" that pre-planned suppression of the laptop story
- The "Dirty 51" intelligence letter — and the admission buried inside it
- Facebook, X, and Google blocking ad campaigns for the Shielded By Power documentary right now
- Jenny Beth's personal experience: IRS targeting of the Tea Party movement
- Minnesota: prosecutors say over half of $18 billion in Medicaid spending may have been stolen
- California: Rep. Young Kim demands $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds returned by Gov. Newsom
- Whistleblower protections: federal vs. state-level differences
- Governor Walz's appearance before the House Oversight Committee
- DOGE, Elon Musk's trillion-dollar waste claim, and the case for constitutionally limited government
TIMESTAMPS
01:34 — Introduction: the documentary and guests
03:27 — Why a documentary? The case for Shielded By Power
05:32 — Trailer for Shielded By Power
08:40 — Chris Dodge on making the film and what surprised him
11:19 — Jenny Beth's personal IRS targeting connection
12:21 — Big Tech suppression: Facebook, X, Google blocking documentary ad campaigns
15:46 — What the documentary reveals: FBI knew the laptop was real
19:55 — Chris: this is a First Amendment impediment
21:21 — Tristan on new information never before made public
24:14 — Will the film inspire the next generation of whistleblowers?
28:04 — Status of the film and how to support it
31:12 — Minnesota: more than half of $18 billion in Medicaid may have been stolen
34:05 — California: $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid funds demanded back
36:16 — Whistleblower treatment and state-level protections
40:23 — Congressional oversight and accountability
43:17 — DOGE, Elon Musk, and the trillion-dollar waste question
46:24 — Governor Walz and the House Oversight Committee
49:24 — Where to donate and closing
LINKS
shieldedbypower.com (Indiegogo campaign)
empoweroversight.org
teapartypatriots.org
jennybethshow.com