Hunter Biden’s Legal Team Denies Lying to Court Officials: Blames Miscommunication

Hunter Biden’s legal team denies lying to court officials in England and Wales

Hunter Biden’s legal team in the United States denied on Tuesday night that they lied to court officials to get filings from a senior Republican lawmaker removed from the public docket. The dispute arose on the eve of Hunter Biden’s plea hearing for federal tax misdemeanors.

The denial came in response to US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who threatened Hunter Biden’s lawyers with sanctions amid accusations that a member of their staff misrepresented who she worked for while requesting the removal of the GOP filing.

The legal team blamed the dispute on an “unintentional miscommunication” between a staff member at their firm and court employees. Hunter Biden is set to plead guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors for failing to pay taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. The plea deal will also resolve a felony gun charge if he abides by court-imposed rules.

The court filing at the center of the dispute came from Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. He sought to weigh in on the case and submitted transcripts of testimony from IRS whistleblowers who claimed the probe into Hunter Biden was tainted by political interference.

Noreika has the power to reject the plea agreement negotiated between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department, though that would be a surprising move. The House committee and Smith are not parties in the case.

The judge’s timeline of events contradicts some of the explanations given by Hunter Biden’s lawyers. The legal team had initially claimed that the clerk took Smith’s filing down on their own accord and that they called to inquire about sealing the material.

The relevant parties, including US attorney David Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland, publicly refuted the whistleblowers’ claims of politicization. Weiss, a Trump appointee, has offered to testify about the matter to Congress this fall.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers argued that sanctions were not warranted as there was no misrepresentation made to the court and that the incident was completely unintentional. The matter is likely to come up at Wednesday’s plea hearing.

The right-wing Heritage Foundation urged Noreika to postpone the plea hearing to obtain additional information directly from the Justice Department regarding any political interference in the probe.