A federal judge on Tuesday accused Hunter Biden's legal team of pretending to work for a Republican congressman to get a court filing removed from the public docket.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is set to decide whether to approve Biden's plea deal on tax and gun charges on Wednesday, said that a member of his legal team "misrepresented … who she worked for" to get evidence removed from the docket. Noreika threatened to place sanctions on the lawyers.
Noreika said the staffer falsely claimed to work for the lawyers employed by Republican representative Jason Smith (Mo.), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. Smith had submitted an amicus filing in the case, which was removed from the docket after a staffer for Biden's lawyers called the court.
In the filing, Smith urged the judge to "consider" recent testimony by IRS whistleblowers that their investigation of Biden and the resulting prosecution were held back by political considerations