It’s not just the IRS whistleblower who smells something rotten in the state of Merrick Garland’s DoJ. Late yesterday, NBC News reported that FBI agents that investigated Hunter Biden on tax and weapons charges filed their case with special counsel David Weiss over a year ago.

NBC’s lead focused on the likelihood of charges coming soon, but the real story appears to be that they’re long overdue — and that multiple insiders wonder what’s going on:

Federal prosecutors have considered charging Hunter Biden with three tax crimes and a charge related to a gun purchase, said two sources familiar with the matter.

The possible charges are two misdemeanor counts for failure to file taxes, a single felony count of tax evasion related to a business expense for one year of taxes, and the gun charge, also a potential felony.

Two senior law enforcement sources told NBC News about “growing frustration” inside the FBI because investigators finished the bulk of their work on the case about a year ago. A senior law enforcement source said the IRS finished its investigation more than a year ago.

That makes three insiders raising big red flags about something stalling the Hunter Biden prosecution. These two “senior” LEOs went to the media; the IRS whistleblower went to Congress, a more reliable and legitimate method of dealing with incompetence and/or corruption.

The timing on this offers a couple of intriguing possibilities, too. Did these two sources go to NBC as a way to corroborate and validate the IRS whistleblower? Or did they leak the FBI’s “growing frustration” as a way to shift the focus away from the FBI and perhaps even the Department of Justice once word got out about the IRS whistleblower’s outreach to Congress? A narrative of hey, it’s not our fault, we built the case would be helpful for the latter — and the fact that these “senior”officials went to NBC rather than the House Oversight or Judiciary committees lends itself to viewing this as a PR move.

Nevertheless, it underscores that there seems to be plenty of evidence to charge Hunter Biden with crimes, even if those don’t directly implicate him in corruption. Then again, as NBC also points out, we’ve known that for more than six months:

Federal agents investigating President Biden’s son Hunter have gathered what they believe is sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase, according to people familiar with the case. The next step is for the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump administration holdover, to decide on whether to file such charges, these people said.

The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018, and became a central focus for then-president Donald Trump during his unsuccessful 2020 reelection effort. Initially, the investigation centered around Hunter Biden’s finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work. Over time, investigators with multiple agencies focused closely on whether he did not report all of his income, and whether he lied on gun purchase paperwork in 2018, according to the people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.

Agents determined months ago they had assembled a viable criminal case against the younger Biden. But it is ultimately up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, not agents, to decide whether to file charges in cases where prosecutors believe the evidence is strong enough to lead to a likely conviction at trial.

If NBC’s timeline is correct, this WaPo report shows that investigators were leaking it around six months after investigators wrapped up their case and handed it to prosecutors. The DoJ — and presumably Weiss — had sat on it long enough at that point to make investigators unhappy. Imagine how they feel six months after that.

The only way to get any action on this is to go to Congress, it seems. Investigators have tried leaking to the media, but the media is only interested in this story fitfully at best — at least until Congress gets real testimony about potential corruption. Best guess is that the leakers in the Hunter Biden investigation want to remind everyone that they’ve been trying to move the ball too — which might matter if the whistleblower talks enough.