Hunter Biden’s clash with the White House has emerged after he hired prominent lawyer Abbe Lowell in December without involving the president’s top aides.
Top aides to President Biden have clashed with Hunter Biden’s team over strategies for dealing with the legal battles and Republican attacks that surround the president’s son.
Why it matters: The tensions led Hunter — without involving the president’s top aides — to hire prominent lawyer Abbe Lowell in December, as part of a plan to take a more combative approach than the White House and Hunter’s previous lawyer had taken.
- Hunter’s team also is moving toward creating a legal defense fund, and hiring ethics advisers for it. High-level Democrats and others are worried about the idea of the president’s son soliciting money to pay for his legal troubles.
- “For this fund to work, it must be extraordinarily transparent and even restrictive by prohibiting foreign citizens and registered lobbyists from contributing,” Anthony Coley, the former top spokesman for the Justice Department who was senior adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland, told Axios.
- “Without these type of guardrails, the fund will be a legitimate headache for the White House.”
Zoom in: Lowell’s hiring was abrupt and unwelcome among some involved in Hunter Biden’s legal matters. Hunter, 53, is facing a Justice Department investigation into his taxes and a potential gun charge, probes from House Republicans, and a child-support court case in Arkansas.
Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that all US military vehicles will be electric by 2030.
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