Hunter's lawyers could face sanctions for allegedly impersonating congressional staff

On Tuesday, Delaware Judge Maryellen Noreika who is presiding over Hunter Biden’s criminal case threatened the First Son’s lawyers with sanctions after they were accused of lying to the clerk's office.

According to documents obtained by Fox News, one of Hunter’s attorneys allegedly misrepresented who she was when asking to remove amicus materials about IRS whistleblowers from the docket instead of making a formal request to the court, and asked the clerk to seal the information instead.

The judge gave Biden's legal team until 9 pm to explain their actions.

Earlier in the day, the House Ways and Means Committee filed an amicus brief to the judge arguing that the 53-year-old Biden had benefited from “political interference which calls into question the propriety of the investigation” into alleged crimes including felony tax evasion, money laundering, as well as failure to register as a foreign agent, and included the testimony from two IRS whistleblowers about their investigation into the president's son.
 

According to The New York Post, Theodore Kittila, the committee’s lawyer, sent a letter to the judge which read, “[A]t approximately 1:30 p.m., we received word that our filing was removed from the docket. We promptly contacted the Clerk’s office, and we were advised that someone contacted the Court representing that they worked with my office [emphasis original] and that they were asking the Court to remove this from the docket. We immediately advised that this was inaccurate. The Clerk’s Office responded that we would need to re-file. We have done so now.”

The judge’s order stated, "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.” 

According to The Post, Bengels is the director of litigation services at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where Hunter's attorney Chris Clark was previously a partner.

The judge continued, "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 ordered for the document to be placed under temporary seal “…until close of business on July 26, 2023, to afford Defendant the opportunity to try to make the requisite showing. Should Defendant fail to make that showing, the document will be unsealed in its entirety."

Fox News also obtained a letter from Hunter’s lawyers telling the judge, "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.”

"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.”

On Wednesday, Biden is scheduled to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax after he allegedly failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes on over $1.5 million of earnings in 2017 and 2018.

He is also required to enter a pretrial diversion agreement related to a separate felony charge of lying on a firearm application about his drug use.

The judge has the authority to accept or reject Biden’s plea deal which was negotiated by President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice and called a sweetheart deal by critics.