Joe Biden has nominated a former colleague and law partner of his son, Hunter Biden, to lead the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the federal watchdog tasked with protecting whistleblowers from political retaliation.
Hampton Dellinger, who was nominated for the post on Wednesday, worked alongside Hunter Biden at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner in 2014. That same year, Hunter joined the board of the now defunct Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and Boies Schiller Flexner advised Burisma on its “corporate reform initiatives.” The law firm put out a statement on behalf of Hunter Biden on October 13, 2019, reading in part:
At Hunter’s urging, Boies Schiller engaged Nardello & Co., a leading global investigative firm, to assess, among other things, Burisma’s corporate structure and governance practices. Burisma agreed to pay the legal expenses of Boies Schiller to support Hunter in developing corporate reform initiatives.
Dellinger reportedly worked on the Crisis Management and Government Response team at Boies Schiller Flexner in 2014. Hunter served on the board of Burisma from 2014 to 2019.
Joe Biden had previously stirred controversy in June 2021 when he appointed Dellinger to be assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy.
The Washington Free Beacon reported at the time that emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop “show Boies Schiller Flexner partner William Isaacson arranged a dinner at his home for members of the Crisis Management and Government Response team in March 2014. Isaacson wrote in one email that Biden, Dellinger, and several others had confirmed their attendance at the party. … The next day, Heather King, a partner at the firm, asked Biden whether he would be available to meet with the Crisis Management and Government Response team. Biden introduced Burisma Holdings as a possible client for Boies Schiller Flexner the following month.”
The appointment comes just weeks after House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden to examine whether he benefited from his son’s business activities.
Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have called on the OSC to investigate the Biden regime’s retaliation against the IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden probe.
In testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley stated that he and his entire team were removed from the Biden case, he was passed over for a promotion and saw a major tax project he had worked on paused and then canceled.
Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, a gay Democrat and 13-year veteran of the IRS criminal investigative division, testified before the House Oversight Committee in July that the agency threatened to investigate him for criminal conduct in response to an internal email he sent to IRS leadership.
“I believe that the Delaware USAO and DOJ-Tax have a clear target on me and my supervisors back and I believe that they are just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on us,” Ziegler said. “It is not my desire to become a martyr for this case – and I fear effectively ending my career. I did not ask to be in this position, nor did I want to be.”
🚨IRS RETALIATION 🚨
The Head of the IRS promised there would be NO RETALIATION for whistleblowers. This was a lie.
The two IRS whistleblowers detail the PAIN OF BEING RETALIATED AGAINST by the IRS after decades-long, successful careers that they are deeply proud of. pic.twitter.com/CjTHwj0nwS
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 19, 2023
In a letter to the current Special Counsel Henry Kerner in July, Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), cofounder of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Ranking Member Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), along with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.), House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), accused Biden officials of attempting “to chill legally protected disclosures to Congress.”
“The importance of protecting whistleblowers from unlawful retaliation and informing whistleblowers about their rights under the law cannot be understated. After all, it is the law,” the lawmakers wrote.
Heads of the OSC serve five-year terms, and Kerner’s term is about to expire.
“The president thumbed his nose at SSA Shapley and SA Zeigler with the nomination of his son’s former law partner to an agency overseeing their whistleblower cases,” Shapley’s legal team said in a statement.
“Dellinger should immediately let Congress and the American people know that if he is confirmed, he will recuse himself from any involvement in the whistleblowers’ cases who have risked their careers to expose preferential treatment for the president’s son and the nominee’s former law partner.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said the potential appointment of Hunter Biden’s former colleague sends “a chilling message to civil servants” and that Dellinger should withdraw.
“While Joe Biden tries to convince America that there was zero influence between him and Hunter’s business deals, he appoints a close friend of Hunter to protect the Biden Crime Family from accountability,” Gaetz wrote on X.
“If confirmed by the Senate, Dellinger’s appointment would send a chilling message to civil servants everywhere: you are not protected, and you will continue to be targeted by the Bidens if you look into the real crimes committed by the President’s family,” he added.
The White House defended Dellinger’s appointment in a statement: “[Dellinger] work has led to taxpayer savings by overturning unnecessarily costly bid awards. His writings on a range of topics include criticism of government actions and proposals for public sector improvements.”