Republican Senators Urge President Biden to Withdraw Special Counsel Nominee

A group of Senate Republicans, led by Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, sent a letter on Tuesday to President Joe Biden requesting that he withdraw Hampton Dellinger’s nomination to lead the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) due to his connection to Hunter Biden.

Dellinger, who will need to get confirmed by the Senate, was nominated by Biden last month.

“It is critical for the American people to know that the Special Counsel is fair and impartial,” the senators wrote. “Mr. Dellinger’s connection to the Hunter Biden Burisma matter gives us serious pause.”

Dellinger worked on the Crisis Management and Government Response team at Boies Schiller Flexner in 2014, the same year Hunter Biden asked that firm to help Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, where Hunter was serving on the board at the time, according to the New York Post.

Joining Blackburn in the letter to the president were Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who are all members of the Judiciary Committee.

“It is important to note that Mr. Dellinger, as Special Counsel, would be charged with ensuring that whistleblowers — including the IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden matter — would not be subject to reprisal,” the senators wrote. “In light of Mr. Dellinger’s significant connections to Mr. Biden, we have serious doubts as to whether he could act impartially in fulfilling OSC’s obligations.”

The senators insisted in the letter that “we do not believe that Mr. Dellinger, with his extensive involvement with Hunter Biden and the Burisma matter, could fairly and impartially carry out his duty to safeguard whistleblowers from retaliation — particularly the IRS whistleblowers, who were critical in shedding light on the two-tiered system of justice perpetrated under your watch. For all of these reasons, we urge you to withdraw Mr. Dellinger’s nomination to be Special Counsel.”