President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, hired a new criminal defense attorney late last year to defend him in the federal government’s criminal investigation into his business dealings. Then, on the day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, Joe Biden tapped a close colleague of Hunter Biden’s new lawyer to oversee that Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, which is reportedly investigating Hunter Biden.
The news, first reported late last week by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, comes after Hunter Biden admitted late last year that he was under federal criminal investigation over his taxes, although subsequent reporting indicated that the investigation was also into foreign business dealings.
“In one of his very first acts as president, Joe Biden appointed someone called Nicholas McQuaid to run the DOJ’s Criminal Division, the all-important Criminal Division. Turns out that’s the same Criminal Division that’s currently investigating Biden’s son, Hunter. So, who is this Nicholas McQuaid exactly? Well, this show can tell you that he is a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s new criminal defense attorney, a man called Christopher Clark,” Carlson reported last week. “Hunter Biden apparently hired Clark in December to help him with a federal investigation into his business dealings, the criminal investigation that the DOJ is conducting. ”
“Both McQuaid and Clark were law partners together at Latham and Watkins, they worked on the same cases right up until McQuaid took the job at the Department of Justice,” Carlson added. “On January 21st of this year, the same day, Nicholas McQuaid was featured in a Justice Department press release, Latham and Watkins filed a motion in court to withdraw McQuade as an attorney he was working on with Christopher Clark. So that means Joe Biden put as the head of the Criminal Division, the partner of the guy his son had hired to defend him against the Criminal Division.”
Axios confirmed the reporting on Monday evening and added the following details:
- At Latham, Clark worked on multiple cases with Nicholas McQuaid, another partner in the firm’s white-collar defense and investigations practice who is now leading DOJ’s criminal division.
- The two were jointly representing at least one Latham client when McQuaid was tapped for his new Justice Department job on Jan. 20.
- Clark is based out of Latham’s New York office, according to the firm’s website. In December, Hunter Biden was reportedly exploring additional legal representation in Delaware.
- Clark did not respond to inquiries. There’s also no indication McQuaid did any work on the Hunter Biden case.
The report noted that ethics guidelines should bar federal officials from being involved in matters that involve their former employers. Axios also noted that it was unclear how involved the DOJ’s branch in Washington, D.C., was in the investigation because the investigation is being run, at least in part, out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware.
“Potential conflicts between lawyers entering government and their former clients or firms are quite common,” Kedric Payne, the senior director for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told Axios. “This situation is one of the many initial tests of Biden’s ethics pledge, which looks great on paper, but time will tell if it is effective in practice. Enforcement is essential.”
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