According to a court petition that was submitted on Tuesday, Hunter Biden has taken the decision to voluntarily surrender his licence to practise law in the District of Columbia.
Bar authorities in the nation’s capital have been working for several months to suspend the legal rights of the former president’s son. This step is the culmination of their efforts.
In the wake of the younger Biden’s numerous federal felony convictions for lying on a gun application, the District of Columbia Bar Office of Disciplinary Counsel and Board on Professional Responsibility initiated the process to seek the suspension of the younger Biden’s legal license. This occurred towards the end of June 2024.
Now, the adult son of former Vice President Joe Biden will be spared the possibility of a protracted and drawn-out judicial battle about the question of whether or not his conviction for gun possession, in addition to his guilty pleas in a case involving tax evasion, required him to be disbarred.
It should be made clear that Hunter Biden has been officially disbarred at this point; nevertheless, the underlying concerns that are associated with those convictions and the following pardons that he received from his father will no longer be discussed.
The consent motion, which was submitted to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, is extremely rudimentary. It does not include the specifics of the “consent to disbarment” that Hunter Biden presented and which the bar authorities approved.
In point of fact, the provisions of the consent agreement prohibit, in essence, the disclosure of the information that is included in the affidavit that Hunter Biden was forced to provide in order to have the license dispute settled.
According to the consent motion, which cites the rules of the Washington, District of Columbia Bar, “[T]he affidavit that is required under [the relevant ethical rule] shall not be publicly disclosed or made available for use in any other proceeding unless by order of the Court or upon written consent of the attorney.”
The contents of the affidavit are mentioned in another document that was submitted to put a stop to the litigation; however, bar authorities urged the judge who is handling the matter to place that motion under seal. This is a request that the court will almost definitely approve without much notice or fuss.
In their case against Hunter Biden, the authorities of the bar used Rule XI, which stipulates that any attorney who is found guilty of a criminal must be suspended from their position.
In the underlying gun case, the once-lucky son was found guilty by a jury of his peers on all three counts against him. This was a swift conclusion to a case that had been going on since 2018. For a few more months, Hunter Biden fought the tax allegations with vigour and determination, but then he surprised the federal prosecutors in court by suddenly changing his plea.
Despite the fact that Hunter Biden has reached an agreement to refrain from practicing law in the federal district, his time spent working in the legal system will not come to an end.
One of the federal libel lawsuits against former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is currently being pursued by the son of the 46th president. The plaintiff asserts that the defendant defamed him during an interview that took place in June 2023, as well as one that took place in October 2023. The Central District of California is where the lawsuit was initially submitted.
Dick Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney who had previously represented Alex Murdaugh, a convicted killer, made the announcement that he would be representing Hunter Biden in the defamation case last week.
Hunter Biden voluntarily gives up law license.
