First son Hunter Biden has hired a former attorney for Sen. Bob Menendez who also won an acquittal of an associate of former President Donald Trump of charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
David Kolansky will appear alongside fellow Winston & Strawn partner Abbe Lowell, who has led the first son’s defense against three felony weapons charges brought by special counsel David Weiss, a Tuesday court filing revealed ahead of the June 3 trial start date.
Kolansky departed Menendez’s defense team in November 2023, two months after the New jersey Democrat was indicted on charges including unlawfully acting on behalf of the Egyptian government.
The lawyer also assisted Hunter last year in a $1.5 million defamation lawsuit filed by Delaware computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac.
Mac Isaac sued the Biden scion, CNN and other media outlets over allegations that the so-called “Laptop from Hell,” from which federal prosecutors have obtained critical evidence in the gun case, either was not Hunter’s or had been stolen or hacked.
Kolansky’s resume further touts his trial experience on behalf of Matthew Grimes, an associate of Trump fundraiser Tom Barrack — both of whom were acquitted in November 2022 of unlawfully acting as foreign agents for the United Arab Emirates during the former president’s successful 2016 campaign.
The move comes after Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris reportedly griped that he was “completely tapped out” after funneling at least $4.9 million to the 54-year-old first son, in large part to pay back taxes.
Hunter Biden initially agreed to plead guilty to tax misdemeanors and enter into a diversion agreement for gun violations as part of a probation-only plea deal last June.
But his team shredded the plea agreement in a Delaware federal court the following month after prosecutor Leo Wise mentioned that the deal’s terms did not include immunity from future charges — including potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Weiss indicted Hunter Biden in September 2023 for allegedly lying about his drug abuse on a federal background check form in October 2018 in order to purchase a Colt Cobra revolver while addicted to crack cocaine.
Hunter will head to trial in Delaware, where his sister-in-law-turned-lover Hallie Biden and ex-wife Kathleen Buhle are expected to appear as key witnesses.
The younger Biden was also indicted in Los Angeles last December for evading more than $1.4 million in taxes, with that case scheduled to head to trial Sept. 5.
Hunter has pleaded not guilty to both indictments and sought unsuccessful pre-trial appeals.
House Republicans have deposed Hunter and many of his former business associates as part of an impeachment investigation into President Biden over the millions of dollars first family members raked in from foreign entities during and after his time as vice president under Barack Obama.
One payment flagged by House impeachment investigators in September came from Chinese state-linked investment firm BHR Partners, which wired $260,000 to Hunter Biden at his father’s Delaware home address in July and August 2019.
In his Feb. 28 deposition before the House Oversight Committee, Hunter also confirmed that Joe Biden had met BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li during an official government trip to Beijing in December 2013.
The trip aboard Air Force Two occurred within 12 days of Hunter cofounding the firm — and the first son did not divest his 10% stake in it until after his dad became president in January 2021.
FARA violations have a five-year statute of limitations, and it remains unclear whether Weiss’ ongoing investigation is further probing any of the Biden family’s foreign business entanglements.
Joe Biden, 81, has repeatedly claimed he “never” discussed business with his son — despite evidence of his having done so being found on Hunter’s abandoned laptop and obtained through the testimony of family associates during House impeachment hearings.
Kolansky did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
