The Federal Lawyer/Getty Lesley Wolf (l) and Joe and Hunter Biden (r)
Lesley Wolf is an assistant United States attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Wilmington, Delaware, who features prominently in an IRS whistleblower’s testimony to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.
The comments about Wolf came in testimony by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, an Internal Revenue Service Criminal Supervisory Special Agent. His testimony, and that of another IRS whistleblower, was released by the House Ways & Means Committee after Hunter Biden reached a plea agreement with DOJ.
Campaign finance records show that Wolf and her husband are Democratic campaign donors; Federal Election Commission records show her husband donated to Barack Obama’s campaign 14 times, and Lesley Wolf donated to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising operation (her donation was earmarked for Democrat Amy Klobuchar’s presidential primary campaign).
Lesley Wolf, according to Open Secrets.org, also donated to Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania.
Lesley Wolf worked as a coronavirus fraud coordinator for the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a news release. She previously clerked for a federal judge nominated by former President George H.W. Bush, according to The Federal Lawyer.
Wolf, 48, is also mentioned in separate testimony from a second IRS whistleblower who testified that he is a Democrat. He described her in the transcripts as Lesley Wolf, “the assistant United States attorney in Delaware.” According to her Pennsylvania law license, she is Lesley Frieder Wolf and is assigned to the U.S. Department of Justice office in Wilmington, Delaware. She was admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania in 2006. Her husband is Daniel Herman Wolf, a psychiatric professor, according to a wedding announcement for them in The New York Times.
“I am blowing the whistle because the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice Tax, and Department of Justice provided preferential treatment and unchecked conflicts of interest in an important and high-profile investigation of the President’s son, Hunter Biden,” Shapley testified, according to the transcripts.
The House released the transcripts on its website. They can be read in full there.
“Today, the Ways and Means Committee voted to make public the testimony of IRS employees blowing the whistle on misconduct at the IRS and the Biden Department of Justice regarding unequal enforcement of tax law, interference and government abuse in the handling of investigations into criminal activity by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and retaliation against IRS employees blowing the whistle on this abuse,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) said in a written statement that accompanied the transcripts’ release.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. A Wedding Announcement Says Lesley Frieder Wolf’s Husband Daniel Wolf Was Studying Neuroscience at Yale When They Married & She Obtained a Job at a Boston Law Firm
Perelman School of MedicineDaniel Wolf, Lesley Wolf’s husband.
Lesley Frieder married Daniel Wolf in 2000, according to their wedding announcement in the New York Times.
That announcement describes her as “Lesley Paula Frieder, the daughter of Deborah and Kenneth H. Frieder of Abington, Pa.,” and the bridegroom as “Daniel Herman Wolf, a son of Barbara Wolf and Dr. Sheldon M. Wolf of Brentwood, Calif. Rabbi Eliott N. Perlstein is to officiate at the Aldie Mansion in Doylestown, Pa.”
According to the wedding announcement, Lesley Wolf graduated from Yale University, was attending Columbia University School of Law and was poised to become a summer associate for Ropes & Gray, a Boston law firm.
The announcement says that Lesley Wolf’s father “is a vice president for business development, in Exton, Pa., for the Bionetics Corporation, a technical consulting company. Her mother is a psychiatric nurse at Abington Memorial Hospital.”
Wolf’s husband “graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and is to receive a Ph.D. in neuroscience tomorrow from Yale. He will go on to complete a medical degree at Yale, which he expects to receive next year,” the wedding announcement says, adding: “His father is a clinical professor of neurology at the School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles; in December, he retired from Kaiser Hospital in Hollywood, Calif., where he was a neurologist.”
Today Daniel Herman Wolf is listed as an assistant professor of psychiatry at Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1994, while a student at Yale, Lesley Frieder was quoted about meeting former President Jimmy Carter in the Courier News, accessed through Newspapers.com.
“Who’d have thought we’d be with him when one minute he’s telling us that eating catfish with a knife and fork is uncouth and then saying, ‘Excuse me, I’ve got to go back a phone call to Haiti or Cuba,” 5he article says. It is headlined, “Majic riders get chance to meet with Jimmy Carter.”
A 1991 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, also accessed via Newspapers.com, described Lesley Frieder as “president of the Red Cross Club of Abington High School and a senior at the Montgomery County School.”
A 1995 article for Rutland Daily Herald, accessed via Newspapers.com, described Lesley Frieder as a goaltender for Yale’s hockey team.
The Perelman School of medicine biography page for Daniel H. Wolf reads, “Dr. Wolf earned an AB in Biology from Harvard University in 1992, and obtained his PhD (Neuroscience) degree in 2000 and MD in 2001 from Yale University. His PhD work, conducted with the guidance of Eric Nestler, MD, PhD and David Russell, MD, PhD, focused on the effect of chronic morphine administration on neurotrophic factor signaling proteins in the dopaminergic reward system in rats.” He is conducting research into schizophrenia, the site reports.
Perelman is located at the University of Pennsylvania.
2. Lesley Wolf & Her Husband Daniel Wolf Are Democratic Campaign Donors, Records Show
FECLesley Wolf campaign donation.
Online records show Wolf lives in Pennsylvania. In 2022, she made a $250 campaign donation to Democrat Josh Shapiro, according to Open Secrets.org. Shapiro is the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania who is the state’s former Attorney General, according to his state biography.
Her husband, Daniel H. Wolf, donated 14 times to Obama for America in 2018 and 2012, totaling $1,175, according to FEC records.
FECDan Wolf donation
FECDan Wolf donation
FECDan Wolf campaign donations.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Lesley Wolf donated $50 in 2020 to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising organization. FEC records say Wolf’s donation was “earmarked for Amy for America.” That was the presidential campaign of Democrat Amy Klobuchar.
FECDaniel Wolf campaign donation.
According to FEC records, Wolf’s husband Daniel Wolf donated $100 to ActBlue in 2019, $50 in 2018 and $100 in 2017, earmarked for “Giffords PAC.”
FEC recordsDaniel Wolf campaign finance donation.
In 2017 and 2016 each, Daniel Wolf donated $50 to ActBlue, according to FEC records, which say the donation was “earmarked for Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC,” the FEC records show. He gave $25 in 2014 to ActBlue, earmarked for the same group. The records also show that Daniel Wolf gave $50 through ActBlue in 2016 that was earmarked for”Zephyr Teachout for Congress.” Teachout is a Democratic law professor who challenged Andrew Cuomo for the New York governorship, according to WSHU.
According to Influence Watch, Americans for Responsible Solutions is the former name of Giffords PAC, the mission of which is “to elect supporters of gun control to public office.”
3. Lesley Wolf Is Accused of Telling Investigators That ‘Optics Were a Driving Factor’ in Whether to Search Joe Biden’s Guest House & Is Accused of Tipping Off Hunter Biden’s Lawyer About a Pending Storage Unit Search
GettyHunter Biden
Shapley testified that investigators obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, a Chinese businessman, where Hunter Biden wrote:
I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.
According to the transcripts, Shapley testified that “communications like these made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time. In a September 3rd, 2023 [2020], pros meeting, the Assistant United States Attorney, Lesley Wolf, told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”
According to Shapley, she “continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant. She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.”
Shapley also accused Wolf of tipping off Hunter Biden’s attorney that investigators were planning to search his storage unit, testifying, “we heard AUSA Wolf had simply reached out to Hunter Biden’s defense counsel and told him about the storage unit, once again ruining our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed.”
The second whistleblower also testified that Wolf told investigators they could not do a “storage unit search warrant.” The second agent testified, “I told her that I completely disagreed with her and that we weren’t following the appropriate investigative steps to get the stuff in the storage locker and that I thought that she might be acting inappropriately.”
He continued: “At the time AUSA Wolf asked me if we had problems working together now and if I had issues with her moving forward. I responded at the time that I didn’t and that we could move forward.” The agent also testified that he and others developed a plan to see if Hunter Biden would inform the government of the storage unit but Wolf alerted his attorney.
GettyVice-President Joe Biden and sons Hunter Biden, left, and Beau Biden walk in the Inaugural Parade January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC.
In another meeting, according to Shapley, investigators “shared with prosecutors our outline to interview Hunter Biden’s associate, Rob Walker. Among other things, we wanted to question Walker about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy.’ We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden.”
Shapley testified that “AUSA Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad.’ When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning.”
Shapley also testified that, on another occasion, “AUSA Wolf told us it will get us into hot water if we interview the President’s grandchildren.”
Wolf is also accused of blocking a search warrant attempt. “Also on an October 22nd, 2020, pros team call, AUSA Wolf stated that United States Attorney David Weiss had reviewed the affidavit for search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause had been achieved,” Shapley testified. “Even though the legal requirements were met and the investigative team knew evidence would be in these locations, AUSA Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden.”
In another instance, Shapley testified,
On September 3rd, 2020, the slow-walking of process continued when AUSA Wolf stated that a search warrant for the emails for Blue Star Strategies was being sat on by OEO. That’s the Department of Justice Office — actually, I’m sorry. I don’t know what it means, the acronym.
She indicated it would likely not get approved. This was a significant blow to the Foreign Agents Registration Act piece of the investigation.
4. Lesley Frieder Wolf Has Prosecuted Fraud Cases for the Delaware DOJ Office
Federal Bar AssociationLesley Wolf.
According to Lawyer.com, Lesley Wolf has been licensed to practice law in Delaware for 21 years and is in “good standing.”
According to Delaware Public Media, she prosecuted a case of two former Wilmington Trust executives who were accused of federal fraud. They were accused of hiding “hundreds of millions of dollars of past-due commercial real estate loans in reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve in 2009 and 2010,” the site reported.
Wolf is quoted in that story as saying one of the men was “not a cooperator.”
Wolf also prosecuted the son of the New Castle County Courthouse shooter, accusing him of violating terms of his probation, according to WHYY.
She also prosecuted a woman accused of fraud in relation to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, according to an IRS news release.
According to CBS News, she traveled to Arkansas to ask questions relating to a paternity lawsuit against Hunter Biden.
Delaware Business Now reported that Wolf also prosecuted two men in an identity theft scheme.
5. Lesley Wolf Clerked for a Judge Appointed by Former President George H.W. Bush
GettyGeorge H.W. Bush, known as “Poppy Bush.”
Wolf wrote an article for The Federal Lawyer on federal Judge Anita B. Brody. That article describes Wolf as an “assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware. Like Judge Brody, she is a graduate of Columbia Law School. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2007, Wolf worked for national law firms in Boston and Philadelphia. She clerked for Judge Brody from 2001-02.”
According to Ballotpedia, Brody was nominated to the federal bench by former President George H.W. Bush. In the Federal Lawyer article, Wolf referred to Brody, who handled the National Football League concussion lawsuit, as a “trailblazer.”
Wolf also wrote an article in 2000 for Columbia Law Review called, “Evading Friendly Fire: Achieving Class Certification after the Civil Rights Act of 1991.”
The abstract reads:
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 provided victims of intentional discrimination with the right to seek compensatory and punitive damages and the right for either party in such actions to demand a jury trial. Congress intended the Act to be a pro-plaintiff measure, but may have inadvertently created a conflict with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, leaving plaintiffs without the option of pursuing their claims as a class action. Because of concerns about predominance and a potential violation of the Reexamination Clause of the Seventh Amendment, some courts have refused to certify classes under any provision of Rule 23. This course of action, however, is not inevitable. By reconceptualizing the meaning of predominance or aggressively applying principals of collateral estoppel, the federal courts can comply with the certification rules and the Constitution and fulfill the intentions of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
She is a 2020 donor to Columbia Law School.
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