In a highly anticipated court case, Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay federal income tax.
However, Hunter isn’t the only one in hot water. Hunter’s legal team is potentially facing sanctions after one of his attorneys allegedly misrepresented themself.
To investigate the potential misconduct, United States District Judge Maryellen Noreika issued an order granting the legal team a two-day period to explain their side. Biden’s legal team responded with a letter indicating that issues arose due to a misunderstanding between a staff member at their firm and the court’s employees.
“The Court has discussed the matter with the relevant individuals in the Clerk’s Office and has been informed that the caller, Ms. Jessica Bengels, represented that she worked with Mr. Kittila and requested the amicus materials be taken down because they contained sensitive grand jury, taxpayer and social security information,” the order read.
“It appears that the caller misrepresented her identity and who she worked for in an attempt to improperly convince the clerk’s office to remove the amicus materials from the docket,” the judge added.
“The Court will temporarily place the document under seal until close of business on July 26, 2023 to afford Defendant the opportunity to try to make the requisite showing,” the order read. “Should Defendant fail to make that showing, the document will be unsealed in its entirety.”
A letter has been made public from Hunter’s legal team explaining that the person who made the phone call did not misrepresent who they work for.
The letter sounded like something Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would say when the press asks her a hard questions.
“The matter under consideration appears to stem from an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court,” the lawyers’ wrote back to the judge. “We have no idea how the misunderstanding occurred, but our understanding is there was no misrepresentation.”
“We hope this letter and the attached declaration dispels any suggestion that undersigned counsel or our staff would ever intentionally misrepresent or mislead the Court with respect to any matter,” the letter added.
