A federal judge on Tuesday accused Hunter Biden's legal team of pretending to work for a Republican congressman to get a court filing removed from the public docket.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is set to decide whether to approve Biden's plea deal on tax and gun charges on Wednesday, said that a member of his legal team "misrepresented … who she worked for" to get evidence removed from the docket. Noreika threatened to place sanctions on the lawyers.
Noreika said the staffer falsely claimed to work for the lawyers employed by Republican representative Jason Smith (Mo.), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. Smith had submitted an amicus filing in the case, which was removed from the docket after a staffer for Biden's lawyers called the court.
In the filing, Smith urged the judge to "consider" recent testimony by IRS whistleblowers that their investigation of Biden and the resulting prosecution were held back by political considerations.
"The Defendant appears to have benefited from political interference which calls into question the propriety of the investigation of the U.S. Attorney’s Office," Smith’s attorney wrote. '[I]t is critical that the Court consider the Whistleblower Materials before determining whether to accept the Plea Agreement."
Biden's team said the issue "appears to stem from an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court," CNN reported.
The judge said the staffer called to have the item removed, claiming to work for the Republican representative.
"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 said.
Jessica Bengels, a staffer for the Biden law firm, said she called the court but denied pretending to work for Smith's lawyer Ted Kittila.
"I am completely confident that I never indicated that I was calling from Mr. Kittila’s firm or that I worked with him in any way," Bengels said in an affidavit to the judge.
Biden is expected to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes on Wednesday, avoiding jail time, though Noreika could reject the deal he reached with the Justice Department.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said this week that the investigations into the Biden family's foreign business dealings are "rising to the level of impeachment inquiry."