Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee penned a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday demanding he withdraw the nomination of Hunter Biden’s former coworker to the administration’s top whistleblower oversight post.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn and her GOP Senate Judiciary colleagues Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton expressed “deep concern” about Biden’s decision to task Hampton Dellinger with protecting “whistleblowers—including the IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden matter” from retaliation, due to Dellinger’s closeness with the Biden family and their influence-peddling schemes.
The Republicans say Biden’s reluctance to “find a nominee that is free from even the appearance of a conflict of interest” proves the Biden administration’s “continued pursuit of a two-tiered system of justice.”
“In light of Mr. Dellinger’s reported connections to Mr. Biden, and the appearance of a conflict that it creates, we have serious doubts as to whether he could act impartially in fulfilling OSC’s obligations,” the Republicans wrote.
President Joe Biden tapped Dellinger in October to lead the Office of Special Counsel, a position “crucial to protect thousands of federal civil servants—particularly whistleblowers.” In its announcement, the White House lauded Dellinger for his success as a DOJ assistant attorney general overseeing the Office of Legal Policy.
Emails from Hunter’s laptop, however, show Dellinger worked on the crisis management and government response team for the Washington D.C. law firm that not only employed Hunter but began aiding the younger Biden in “various Burisma-related matters” shortly after Hunter and Dellinger dined together.
While Hunter raked in $83,000 a month to sit on the Ukrainian energy company’s board — a decision Biden family associate Devon Archer admitted was designed to build the firm’s “brand” — his father served as the lead for the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
In 2018, Joe Biden openly bragged about getting the Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating Burisma fired. A “highly credible” informant confirmed that Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky told him the company had paid the Bidens millions of dollars in return.
Zlochevsky also said he felt “coerced” to pay the Bidens in exchange for political favors, explaining to the informant that he wired the Biden patriarch and his son payments through a series of accounts. Zlochevsky further claimed to possess 15 audio recordings of calls with Hunter and two audio recordings of phone conversations he had with the VP as proof.
Dellinger’s proximity to the Bidens and their pay-to-play scheme, the senators argue, suggests he is unqualified to uphold the Office of Special Counsel’s (OSC) pledge to “safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially whistleblower retaliation.”
“It is critical for the American people to know that the Special Counsel is fair and impartial,” the Republicans wrote.
If Dellinger becomes the head of the OSC, he could determine the treatment of whistleblowers such as the IRS’s Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler who uncovered new evidence of Biden family corruption but were repeatedly stonewalled by the DOJ.
“The Office of Special Counsel’s core mission is to protect whistleblowers, who are essential to ensuring accountability in our system of government,” the Republicans concluded. “Mr. Dellinger’s reported connection with Hunter Biden and the Burisma matter creates significant doubt that he can carry out his duty to safeguard the IRS whistleblowers, who are critical in shedding light on the two-tiered system of justice perpetrated under your watch.”
