A top official at the U.S. Justice Department was a law partner with Hunter Biden’s attorney Chris Clark, raising serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest as the years-long federal probe into the president’s son has reportedly reached a critical stage.
Clark, a partner at New York-based firm Latham & Watkins, worked with Nicholas McQuaid on at least four different cases when he was also a partner at the practice, court records indicate.
The cases were high-stakes commercial litigation where the pair regularly defended clients facing multimillion-dollar lawsuits.
McQuaid was named acting head of the Justice Department’s criminal division on Jan 20, 2021 — the day President Biden was inaugurated.
Clark started representing Hunter Biden a month before.
Hunter Biden has been under investigation by the Department of Justice since 2018. A probe initially centered around taxes has reportedly expanded into potential money laundering and violations of foreign lobbying laws.
In July CNN reported the probe has reached a critical stage and that potential charges were imminent — potentially putting McQuaid in the hot seat.
McQuaid’s presence leading the Department of Justice’s criminal division raises questions about the extent of his involvement in the Hunter Biden probe — which both the White House and the DOJ have refused to answer.
“It’s yet another abject failure of accountability in a long list,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Post. “If Republicans retake a majority in the Senate, the department can expect additional pressure and process from me as chairman [of the Judiciary Committee ] and from my colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We’d be seeking information from dozens of individuals, and empowered by a committee majority — we’d no longer just be asking,”
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s office said they had sent no less than five letters on “potential conflicts of interest at the Biden Justice Department. Including McQuaid.”
“Thus far DOJ refuses to provide responses to Sen. Johnson’s questions/requests,” a spokesman said.
Clark and the White House did not respond to request for comment from The Post. A Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment, but said that McQuaid had signed a “Biden Ethics Pledge” when he joined the DOJ, in which he agreed to “not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.”