Hunter Biden's Lawyers Use Trump's Legal Arguments Against House Republicans

Republicans in the House of Representatives got a dose of their own medicine this week when lawyers for Hunter Biden used one of Donald Trump's own legal defenses against them. Biden's lawyers claimed that a records request from House Republicans was invalid because it "served no legislative purpose," the same claim that Trump made about keeping his tax returns hidden. Trump ultimately lost that battle after several years, but the argument might actually work in this instance, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have been trying to get their hands on the Hunter Biden files, whatever those entail. But of course they have sent letters to Hunter Biden and his lawyers saying, Hey, give us your stuff. And this week, hunter Biden's lawyers responded and what might be the most ironic and hilarious fashion ever, because they used against the Republicans in Congress, the exact same legal defense that Donald Trump used against Democrats in Congress who were trying to get their hands on his tax returns. Hunter Biden's lawyers told the Republicans looking for his files that you can't have them because you are members of Congress and this serves no meaningful legislative purpose and therefore you are not entitled to them. And again, this is the same legal defense that Donald Trump used four years to block the House committees from getting their hands on his tax returns.

But there is a difference because of course Donald Trump ultimately lost that after years and years of fighting. He only lost it a couple months ago. Um, but he did lose and they got his tax returns. So it's likely that the Hunter Biden situation could end the same way, except it would probably go a little faster cuz we do have a little bit of precedent. Now on the other hand, it is different than what the Democrats were doing with Trump's tax returns because every time Trump and his legal team went to court and said they have no legitimate legislative purpose, the Democrats said, a haha, you are wrong, my friend. In fact, we have legislation right here about the auditing of presidential candidates and sitting presidents with the irs and we would need your tax returns in order to determine if this legislation is even necessary.

So Democrats at the time had that ace up their sleeve. Like you say, there's no legislative purpose. Here's the legislation we just wrote. And the courts had to be like, whoa, technically. Yeah, I mean that's right. So that's why the Democrats were finally able to win. But with the Hunter Biden thing, like Republicans don't have that legislative component like, oh no, we need it because we're gonna draft the, we don't like Hunter Biden bill. Uh, maybe like there is no legislative purpose for this. However, Congress does have the authority to conduct investigations and because of that authority, they likely will be able to get their hands on these documents. So this tactic by Hunter Biden's lawyers, again, I think it's hilarious, but is it legally sound like is it something that is going to protect him in the end? Probably not.

Is it going to delay things 100%. In fact, based on what we've seen from the court systems, if they can keep making these arguments, like they might be able to delay it long enough for Republicans to lose control of the house. So maybe they won't, maybe they're trying to play the Trump delay game, but either way, if Republicans retain control of the house past 2024, then yeah, they're definitely getting their hands on those documents. It also raises the question, and I have to say it because I brought it up with Trump. If you're fighting so desperately to keep these things hidden, it, it usually is because there's a there, there. So if I were you, I would just give them up, get this thing over with.