A team working on combatting potential legal battles brought against Hunter Biden has floated the possibility of bringing defamation suits against prominent GOP figures, according to a new report.
The Washington Post on Saturday published an in-depth report on the growing effort to plan for and potentially counteract the potential investigations into Hunter Biden once Republicans take control of the U.S. House in January. Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has become a figure of intense right-wing scrutiny in recent years over his business dealing and the alleged, but unsubstantiated, claims that his father was involved in them while holding office. The House GOP has repeatedly pledged to launch investigations into Biden’s conduct once in power.
The team assembling to combat these potential investigations, according to the Post, prominently involves Kevin Morris, a lawyer and close friend of Hunter Biden. During a September strategy meeting held in California, Morris discussed numerous possibilities. This included defamation lawsuits that could be leveled against conservative entities and individuals who amplified conspiracies about the president’s son, including Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, and Eric Trump.
Hunter Biden himself was not present at the meeting but called in briefly to offer input. In addition to working with Morris and others, he has also hired two lawyers to handle potential future legal matters. Chris Clark has been brought on to handle matters related to federal criminal investigations into Biden’s business dealings, while Joshua A. Leavy will handle matters relating to House investigations.
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For its part, the White House has maintained the position that Hunter Biden, as a private citizen, is an inappropriate target for congressional investigations and has dismissed GOP efforts against him as conspiracy theories. The administration also plans to take a minimal role into any such investigations, while lending stronger support to other potential investigations with more merit.
“The president loves his son and is proud that he has overcome his addiction and is moving forward with his life,” Ian Sams, the lead White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, told the Post. “Congressional Republicans’ politically motivated partisan attacks on the president and his family are rooted in nonsensical conspiracy theories and do nothing to address the real issues Americans care about.”
Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment.
The president’s son’s past troubles were once again put under the right-wing spotlight when Twitter head Elon Musk released a cache of internal emails last week detailing the company’s botched handling of a 2020 New York Post story relating to materials found on Hunter Biden’s laptop. These messages revealed that Joe Biden’s presidential campaign had reached out to Twitter to encourage the removal of several tweets relating to the then-candidates son.
Further digging by reporters revealed that these tweets included sexually intimate personal photos of Hunter Biden, complicating conservative arguments that their removal constituted government interference in free speech, as “revenge porn” materials violate the policies of most social media platforms.
