A member of Hunter Biden’s legal team may soon find herself in hot water after allegedly pretending to be from the House Ways and Means Committee during a phone call with the court clerk.
Internet sleuths noted earlier this week that Latham and Watkins lawyer Jessica Bengels, who works on Hunter Biden’s legal team, apparently called the clerks for U.S. District Judge Maryellen Norieka, who is currently overseeing the criminal tax evasion case against the president’s son, and asked for the clerk to place the House Ways and Means Committee’s Amicus Brief under seal. Reportedly, Bengels falsely told the clerk that she was doing this at the behest of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is also investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Earlier this week, Judge Noreika threatened sanctions against Bengels for “misrepresenting… who she worked for in an attempt to improperly convince the Clerk’s Office to remove the amicus materials from the docket.”
Notably, before the judge’s order revealing Bengels’ alleged duplicity, Biden’s legal team had falsely claimed that the clerk removed the Amicus Brief from the record on their own accord.
Latham and Watkins responded to the judge’s motion by blaming the affair on an “unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court.”
At least one Senator, Pete Ricketts (R) of Nebraska, isn’t buying it. “I’ve heard from countless Americans who are concerned our justice system is being weaponized against President Biden’s political opponents while his son gets preferential treatment,” Ricketss told Fox News. Ricketts also wrote on Friday to the bar organizations in New York and Washington, D.C., requesting an investigation into possible ethics violations by Biden’s legal team, including Bengels’ supervising attorney Christopher Clark.
“I write to you regarding the apparent unethical conduct of members of the New York State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar… I am asking both the New York Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the First Department and the District of Columbia’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel to take swift action to examine the actions of attorneys Christopher Clark and Jessica L. Bengels,” the letter said.
The letter continued, “Regardless of whether or not it was Ms. Bengels or another staff member at Latham & Watkins who called the clerk, the circumstances surrounding the incident demand an investigation… Therefore, I ask both the New York Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the First Department and the District of Columbia’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel to open investigations into the conduct of both Christopher Clark and Jessica Bengels.”