Neither of those 2 guys were particularly high ranking (despite their fancy titles). This is another example of the MAGA Committee manipulating the perception, because they had closed door testimony from actual supervisory personnel contradicitng much of the testimony given by the two (particularly Shapely).
Yet it was those two lower level agents who they brought in to parade before the cameras, and in some ways give them much more impact as a witness than warranted... Multiple other agents, including the direct supervisors of those two gave testimony which disputed their account of the situation.
"And IIRC the denials came from political appointees, not career people." Well you are wrong (what a shock)
For example in Sept, 22 yr veteran IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf told the Committee that he had made the decision to remove Shapley from the case in Dec 22. But they didn't feel the need to inform him at the time, because the case was dormant and they weren't sure how the DOJ intended to proceed. So Shapley assumed and claimed that he was removed in May due to his whistleblower status, a claim Batdorf disputed in his direct testimony...
From Batdorf's closed door testimony which (shockingly) Comer has never released to the public...
“I just want to go on the record. In my 22.5 years, I have never made a decision or restricted anyone out of spite, out of retaliation, out of anything,” Batdorf stated. “That is not who I am.”
Batdorf testified that he removed Shapley from the Hunter Biden probe due to Shapley’s deteriorating relationship with US Attorney David Weiss, over what Batdorf said were “investigative differences, prosecutorial differences.”
According to Batdorf, by November 2022, Weiss had decided to stop talking to Shapley. “It was David Weiss’ moment of: I’m not talking to him anymore. He’s harassing me,” Batdorf said in describing an email from Weiss.
In his interview,
Batdorf complimented Shapley for his work ethic, calling him a “fantastic agent” and “passionate” but also said there had been concerns over Shapley’s behavior for months.
“Gary has a tendency to go to level like grade seven, five-alarm alarm fire on everything” Batdorf testified.
“He has a mindset that if you don’t agree with him, I mean, you’re just incompetent,” Batdorf said."
Other co-workers also contradicted the whistleblowers in testimony before the Committee. But Batdorf was the man in charge and the highest ranking official to do so...
So it's very accurate to say that what the whistleblowers testified to was their opinion, and there's certainly no objective reason to assign them any more credibility than the larger number of both IRS and DOJ personnel that disagreed with their opinions...I'm guessing had their been any other witnesses who testfied and corraborated Shapley and Ziegler's opinion, then Comer would have made sure he paraded those witnesses in front of the public as well...