Furious Judge Maryellen Noreika ordered the lawyers representing Hunter Biden, who had deceived and lied to a court clerk into removing a legal document by falsely claiming to represent GOP lawyer Ted Kittila, to cease all direct communications with court clerks.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Hunter Biden’s legal team is facing possible sanctions after they lied about their identity to have the testimony of IRS whistleblowers removed from the docket in Hunter’s tax fraud case.
Judge Maryellen Noreika had demanded an explanation from Biden’s lawyers by 9 pm ET Tuesday night. This controversy happened on the eve of Hunter Biden’s plea of guilty to misdemeanor tax charges on Wednesday, while he is expected to avoid jail time on a separate gun charge.
A member of Biden’s legal team misrepresented herself when asking for amicus materials to be removed. According to reports, she called the clerk and requested that the information be sealed due to its sensitive nature, including grand jury, taxpayer, and social security details.
An order from Judge Noreika read, “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.”
The order continued to express concern that the caller might have “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.”
Attorneys for Hunter Biden have responded to allegations of deceiving a court clerk to remove certain documents from a court docket, claiming it was a simple “misunderstanding.”
“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,” Hunter Biden legat team wrote.
Further, they stated, “We have no idea how the misunderstanding occurred, but our understanding is there was no misrepresentation.”
The lawyers also claimed that their Director of Litigation Services, the person who made the call, had properly identified her affiliation with Latham & Watkins LLP to the ECF Clerk.
“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 Friday, Judge Noreika issued an order stating that Hunter Biden’s lawyers are no longer allowed to contact the federal court clerk in Delaware.
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, going forward, any issues or inquiries in the above-captioned cases shall be brought to my attention and not to the Clerk’s Office. Any such issues and inquiries shall be submitted in writing and placed on the docket. To the extent that the rare instance arises in which a writing is not practicable, a phone call may be made to my Chambers by an attorney who represents one of the parties in these cases or an interested third party,” Judge Norieka wrote.