Hunter Biden team leaves White House out of the loop on backup legal strategy
Cami Mondeaux
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Some of President Joe Biden’s top aides are reportedly clashing with members of his son’s legal team over strategies for dealing with investigations and attacks from Republican lawmakers that focus on Hunter Biden specifically.
These differences have prompted Hunter Biden’s team to take on a new approach without informing the president, including a more combative defense strategy and a slew of new hires, according to Axios. The developments come as the president’s 53-year-old son faces a number of investigations from the Department of Justice and House Republicans.
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Hunter Biden’s team initially refrained from responding to GOP attacks on his business history, but now representatives for the president’s son have turned to taking on a more aggressive stance by fighting back publicly. White House officials have also avoided commenting on investigations surrounding the president’s son, but several spokespeople have become more defensive in recent weeks as Republicans seek to tie Hunter Biden’s business dealings to his father’s policy agenda.
Tensions between Hunter Biden and the White House also led the president’s son to hire prominent lawyer Abbe Lowell to help lead this new combative strategy, the outlet reported. That decision was not supported by all members of Hunter Biden’s team and even caused his former lawyer Josh Levy to resign, sources told Axios.
Hunter Biden’s team is also working to create a legal defense fund, according to the outlet, raising concerns from some high-level Democrats who fear it could lead to the president’s son soliciting money to pay for his legal battles.
“For this fund to work, it must be extraordinarily transparent and even restrictive by prohibiting foreign citizens and registered lobbyists from contributing,” Anthony Coley, a former spokesman for the DOJ and senior adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland, told Axios. “Without these type of guardrails, the fund will be a legitimate headache for the White House.”
It’s not yet clear whether Hunter Biden’s team will move forward with the legal fund.
One of Republicans’ top priorities in the new Congress is to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which have long been of interest to the Republican Party. The matter first took prominence during the 2020 election as the GOP sought to determine whether then-candidate Joe Biden benefited financially from his son’s business dealings, pointing to national security concerns.
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Hunter Biden also faces an inquiry from the DOJ into his finances, specifically looking at whether the president’s son violated tax and money laundering laws while conducting business in foreign countries. Hunter Biden has denied wrongdoing in all legal cases, expressing confidence he’ll be cleared of all charges.
The Washington Examiner contacted a spokesperson for the White House.