Hunter Biden’s advisers are clashing with Joe Biden’s White House over the first son’s legal defense strategy amid ongoing congressional and federal investigations into his financial affairs.
The latest flashpoint is Hunter’s proposed creation of a legal defense fund that would help pay for the 53-year-old’s high-priced lawyers, among them longtime Democratic fixer Abbe Lowell.
Axios reports that the fund could complicate Hunter’s efforts to ward off House Oversight Committee Republicans investigating the Biden family’s influence-peddling abroad — especially if contributions come from foreign entities.
“For this fund to work, it must be extraordinarily transparent and even restrictive by prohibiting foreign citizens and registered lobbyists from contributing,” a former senior adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland told the outlet.
“Without these type of guardrails, the fund will be a legitimate headache for the White House.”
Axios also reported that roles at the fund have already been floated to some — including Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush. Painter declined to comment when asked by Axios if he had been approached for a role, saying: “I get lots of calls from lots of people.”
Hunter reportedly hired Lowell for his legal team in December without the input of top aides to President Biden — though the seasoned attorney later met privately with Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney; his wife Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the president; and White House special counsel Dick Sauber.
Lowell was the chief House minority counsel during impeachment proceedings for President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and saved Democrats John Edwards and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) from being convicted on federal corruption charges in 2012 and 2017, respectively.
Lowell also represented Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the daughter and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, in 2017.
White House press liaisons have largely dodged questions about the troubled first son.
But an IRS whistleblower recently expressed concern about the handling of the Hunter criminal probe, adding pressure to Biden administration officials.
Hunter appeared in Arkansas court Monday amid a child support case that may reveal more about his finances, as he has claimed to be in debt millions of dollars and unable to make payments to Lunden Roberts, by whom he sired 4-year-old daughter Navy Joan Roberts
Lowell told the court in Batesville, Ark., that the president’s son has already forked over $750,000 in child support payments to Roberts.
Another Hunter attorney, Chris Clark, met last week with prosecutors overseeing the Delaware US attorney’s inquiry into potential tax and gun offenses by the first son, though an indictment has yet to be announced.
