Hunter Biden Legal Defense Fund in Discussion as Top Benefactor Retreat

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden’s allies are again exploring the possibility of creating a legal defense fund to help pay his legal fees after a similar effort was considered near the end of last year when two people close to President Joe Biden received a briefing on how a defense fund would work, according to multiple sources familiar with current and past efforts.

The current interest in a fund to help pay for Biden’s mounting legal fees comes as the president’s son faces two criminal trials starting next month. and lower support from its main financier.

One approach allies have discussed recently is creating a public small-donations fund, four sources close to Hunter Biden told NBC News. They described such a measure as a last resort if efforts to seek greater financial support fail and stressed that no decision has been made to move forward.

Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, who until recently financed Biden’s legal defense, said his inability to continue as a primary funder comes at a precarious time. “It’s a very difficult situation,” Morris told NBC News. “The timing couldn’t be worse.”

“I have made it clear for many months that I have exhausted my ability to be the only resource to fund legal defense and anything else,” he added.

Biden is estimated to owe more than $10 million in legal fees. Both criminal trials, stemming from special counsel David Weiss’ investigation, are scheduled to begin in June. In Delaware, he faces three charges related to falsely filling out a form when purchasing a gun in 2018, and in California he faces nine charges related to his taxes. Biden will face significant prison time if he is convicted.

The briefing

David Jolly, a lawyer and former Republican congressman from Florida, said that in early December he received an urgent call from someone close to the Biden family. Since early 2023, after being approached by Morris and speaking with members of Biden’s legal team, Jolly has been quietly exploring what a legal defense fund for the president’s son would look like.

During the phone call, he was asked to brief two people close to the president about the plan he had come up with, Jolly told NBC News. His briefing described how a legal defense fund would work – essentially like a blind fund – and estimated the costs of creating it. He also explained how a fund would ensure that the defense fund could raise money for legal expenses and withstand expected scrutiny from the Justice Department, congressional investigators and the media.

“I informed what the legal architecture would look like,” Jolly said.

Jolly is a contributor to MSNBC, a role he also held in early December.

The early December briefing involved detailing past practices and recommended rules for legal defense funds, such as no foreign money, no contributions from registered lobbyists or federal employees, and an assertion by donors that they had no pending business with the government. federal.

Jolly’s proposal included a recommendation that all donations remain completely private to ensure that the president could not be told who had contributed. He also stipulated that any money received by the defense fund could only be used for legal bills and not for any other type of expense.

Jolly said the briefing never included a role or compensation for himself, but said he would be available to serve as an advisor to the defense fund and vet potential donors. The plan also recommended the inclusion of a separate ethics consultant.

“To protect everyone involved, if there was a potential supporter, let them call me,” he said, describing the proposal. He said he recommended this approach “so that [the] The White House didn’t know that, Hunter didn’t know that.”

The president and first lady were later briefed on Jolly’s presentation on how a legal defense fund would work, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Jolly said he never communicated with the White House counsel’s office about the matter. He said he doesn’t know if the president or the first lady were informed about his plan, but that the two people he introduced “have the president’s ear.”

He said his proposed defense fund never got off the ground and that he was not paid for his work on it. Jolly also said he stopped working on the effort this spring when it became clear there was a lack of donor support.

A White House official told NBC News on Friday night that the White House had no involvement in any legal defense fund efforts for the president’s son.

“Since taking office, the President has made a commitment not to be involved in Hunter’s legal proceedings, and accordingly, the White House is not involved in Hunter’s legal strategy or funding. Hunter is an ordinary citizen who has a strong team that handles his legal affairs and all decisions are made by them,” the official said.

Fails to Start

No official legal defense fund has been opened and there is no formal leadership of any such effort, although some close friends have made small private donations toward legal fees, totaling less than $300,000, according to a source familiar with the efforts. .

Biden’s allies have several theories about why this happens. Part of the reason, they say, is that some potential donors were worried that their names would become public if they contributed, and that they would then face harassment from the public or subpoenas from the Justice Department or Congress if there were investigations into the fund. House Republicans have already conducted lengthy investigations related to Biden’s business dealings.

Jolly said he believes the president’s political advisers also tried to block any effort to establish a legal defense fund.

“It’s terrible,” he said.

“I believe they told willing donors to stay away and not do this,” Jolly said, citing patterns of having a conversation with someone willing to consider contributing to a legal defense fund for Biden, only for the leads to later “evaporate.” ”. .”

Jolly said a top Democratic operative once referred to Biden as “expendable.” Two sources said they once heard senior agents describe the president’s son as “collateral” rather than a priority.

Three sources familiar with efforts to raise money to support Biden said they believe pressure from the president’s advisers — directly or indirectly — ended up preventing the creation of a legal defense fund.

Jolly’s effort to help raise money to pay Hunter Biden’s legal fees was not the only one. According to three sources familiar with the matter, there have been other efforts – some of them more informal – over the past year. Democratic operatives who have been involved in Biden’s fundraising efforts and defense said they encountered resistance from the president’s top political advisers.

“There was a dissuasion effort, mainly through communication with Democratic donors,” said one of the agents, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

People close to Hunter Biden have said privately that they would like to see more public support for him from the White House or Democratic surrogates. The president and first lady have rallied around their son and expressed pride in his recovery from addiction, and both have said publicly they do not believe he is guilty of any wrongdoing.

The White House has been actively responding to attacks on the first family, including Hunter Biden, as part of House Republicans’ ongoing impeachment inquiry.

White House aides have been reticent to make the president or other prominent Democrats overly committed to defending him, lest it appear that the commander in chief is interfering in his son’s legal matters, people familiar with the matter said. the subject.

Other allies of the president argue that his support for his son is fundamental to him personally and is part of his appeal to voters as a demonstration of his values.