President Joe Biden nominated a former legal colleague of his scandal-ridden son, Hunter Biden, to lead the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC), a position designed to investigate the executive branch and protect whistleblowers.
President Biden tapped former Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Policy (OLP) policy head Hampton Dellinger to lead the OSC, the White House announced Wednesday. Dellinger and Hunter Biden overlapped at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP when the younger Biden recruited the firm to represent Ukrainian energy company Burisma in spring 2014, according to emails on the younger Biden’s abandoned laptop archive.
NEW:
Biden taps former Hunter Biden law colleague to lead Office of the Special Counsel.
Congress has called on that office to investigate allegations that IRS/DOJ retaliated against the Hunter whistleblowers. https://t.co/SrH0gblUSp
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 4, 2023
The Washington Free Beacon first reported Dellinger’s nomination and his ties to Hunter Biden. The outlet previously reported on Dellinger’s links to the president’s son when President Biden nominated him for his DOJ position.
Hunter Biden and Dellinger scheduled lunch in February 2014 and both were scheduled to attend a Boies Schiller Flexner dinner party in March 2014, emails show. The dinner party plan appeared to include other members of the law firm’s crisis management and government response team such as former partner Heather King, who took the lead on Boies Schiller Flexner’s work for Burisma, according to subsequent emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Burisma paid Hunter Biden more than $80,000 per month to sit on its board from 2014-19 despite his lack of experience with Ukrainian affairs and the energy sector, bank records released by the House Oversight Committee show. Then-Vice President Joe Biden led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy when his son was on Burisma’s board.
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified to the House Ways and Means Committee in May and June about special treatment Hunter Biden allegedly received from DOJ investigators during the ongoing probe into his taxes and firearms possession. The committee released a trove of documents on Sept. 27 substantiating the whistleblower testimony.
Republican Sens. Grassley and Johnson wrote a July letter to OSC head Harry Kerner demanding he investigate whether Shapley and Ziegler were subject to retaliation for blowing the whistle. Both whistleblowers have accused the agency of retaliating against them for raising concerns internally about the investigation and ultimately coming forward.
“The importance of protecting whistleblowers from unlawful retaliation and informing whistleblowers about their rights under the law cannot be understated. After all, it is the law,” the letter reads. Hunter Biden’s legal team accused the whistleblowers of illegal disclosures in a lawsuit against the IRS.
Two IRS officials testified to the Ways and Means Committee in September alleging Shapley was removed from the Hunter Biden case due to a falling-out with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the lead prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August to continue the Hunter Biden investigation. Weiss denied Shapley’s accusations in a July letter to Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Hunter Biden was indicted Sept. 14 for three federal gun charges, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges at an arraignment Tuesday.
The Oversight Committee is investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings as part of its impeachment inquiry into President Biden. House Oversight Chairman James Comer announced Sept. 28 he was sending subpoenas for personal and business bank records from Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden.
The subpoenas were announced at the end of the first impeachment inquiry hearing held by the Oversight Committee. Prior to the hearing, Comer, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith circulated a memo saying the Biden family and its associates received more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan.
The Oversight Committee said it found more than $20 million sent to the Biden family and its associates when it released additional bank records in August produced by suspicious activity reports sent by banks to the Treasury Department.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment by the time of publication.