Looks Like At Least Two Attorneys Have Washed Their Hands Of Biden

I've been following up on the question of Biden's personal attorneys for a while, and the most I can say is we don't know very much. CBS News has done some good research on this, and I linked to a January 12 story earlier here that gives the most comprehensive list so far:

Longtime Democratic lawyer Bob Bauer is serving as the personal attorney for President Biden in the classified documents matter now before a Justice Department special counsel, the White House confirmed Friday.

Bauer has been the primary point of contact between the Biden camp and the Justice Department during the initial investigation, which began in November, CBS News has learned.

. . . Recent filings with the National Archives name three partners at D.C. law firm Covington and Burling as Biden's representatives to the Archives for his vice presidential records: Dana Remus, former Biden White House counsel, Biden campaign attorney Robert Lenhard and James Garland, a former Obama-era Justice Department official.

Their roles in the documents matter is [sic] unclear. Multiple calls and emails to Remus, Lenhard and Garland since Monday have gone unanswered.

Several sources added an additional name in mid-January, M Patrick Moore, who was reported as the individual who discovered and reported the first tranche of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center on November 2. Accordimg to the UK Daily Mail:

Joe Biden's personal attorney - who found classified material inside Biden's Washington DC think tank - has already spoken to federal prosecutors, according to a report.

Patrick Moore was asked to clear out Biden's office in November and found the documents, CNN reported.

Moore then informed the National Archives and Justice Department.

. . . On Tuesday [January 17] it emerged that Moore has already spoken to John Lausch, the U.S. Attorney for the northern district of Illinois.

Lausch was initially tasked with investigating the classified material; his job has now been taken over by the special counsel, Robert Hur, who was appointed on January 12.

According to The Hill,

Reacting to the November discovery of the Biden classified materials, Attorney General Merrick Garland at the time quietly assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review a “small number” of documents with classified marking, which were removed from the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in the nation’s capital and turned over to national archivists by Biden’s personal lawyers, CBS reported.

Time provides more detail:

On November 9, the FBI began an inquiry into whether any laws were broken and if classified information was mishandled. Several days later on November 14, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned John Lausch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to the case to determine if a special counsel was needed.

However there appears to have been some agreement to keep the discovery quiet. Time continues,

The following month, Biden’s personal counsel found additional classified documents in the president’s private library attached to his garage during an inspection of his home in Wilmington, Delaware on December 20. The attorneys informed Lausch about the findings and handed the documents over the following day.

A few days into the new year, Lausch filled Garland in on the investigation on January 5 and recommended that the DOJ appoint a special counsel, who would extensively investigate and potentially prosecute any wrongdoing.

On January 9, CBS News was the first to report on November’s discovery of classified documents, bringing the case to public attention. The White House then publicly confirmed the inquiry, saying that the administration was cooperating with the DOJ and NARA, but didn’t mention the additional classified documents found in December.

A January 24 CBS News story adds another data point, the current status of the Biden personal attorney who discovered and reported the first three document tranches:

Two sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News that Massachusetts-based attorney M. Patrick Moore had been part of the president's personal legal team dealing with the documents matter. Moore recently took a senior role in the Massachusetts attorney general's office and is no longer listed on his law firm's website.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts attorney general said Moore's start date was Jan. 18 and directed further questions about Moore's private representations to [Bob Bauer's spokesperson Molly] Levinson.

Levinson confirmed he is no longer representing the president.

The account above implies that Moore had been performing as Biden's personal attorney in his capacity as a counsel at a Boston law firm, but has recently left that firm and also no longer represents Biden. The firm, Hemenway & Barnes LLP, announced in February 2017, just as the Obama administration ended,

Hemenway & Barnes LLP, one of Boston’s leading legal and fiduciary firms, today announced that M. Patrick Moore Jr. has joined its business and non-profit law practices as Counsel.

Pat is a litigator with a unique perspective on the mechanics of federal and state government. He brings to clients a background in business and appellate litigation, and an understanding of legislative and regulatory initiatives at all levels of government.

Before joining Hemenway & Barnes, Pat was an Associate Counsel and Advisor for Presidential Personnel at the White House, in the administration of President Barack Obama. There, he vetted prospective nominees for executive, judicial, and independent agency positions; evaluated clemency petitions; and analyzed legal issues on behalf of the President. In 2020, he had also been a deputy general counsel to the Biden 2020 presidential campaign.

This set of circumstances strikes me as remarkable for what it doesn't say. As best we can determine, Moore had been working for Biden personally in an effort to review and potentially scrub old files at the Penn Biden Center, as well as potentially also at the Biden residence. On November 2, he found files whose existence he felt compelled to disclose, although from current accounts, it isn't clear to whom he disclosed them, whether the White House Counsel's office or the Department of Justice.

However, Attorney General Garland within days "quietly" assigned a US attorney, John Lausch, to review the situation, and Moore then met with Lausch. A few days later, the situation was deemed important enough to bring in the FBI on November 9. Moore, apparently still on the case, went to the Biden Wilmington home and found additional documents on December 20 and reported them to Lausch as well. After the holiday, at least according to this verison, Lausch went to Merrick Garland on January 5 and recommended a special counsel.

However, no move was made to appoint the special counsel until CBS reported on the previously hidden story on January 9 and another set of documents was found at the Biden home on January 11. As far as I can tell, this was Moore again reporting to Lausch. Lausch apparently went to Garland on January 12, and that afternoon, Garland announced the appointment of a special counsel.

But wait: there's more. That same day, January 12, according to WTTW,

Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, who recently has been tasked with probing classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home and office, will be leaving his post sometime this year.

John Lausch, who has served as U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois since 2017, is planning to leave the office in “early 2023,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced during an unrelated press conference Thursday.

And as of January 17-18, the days the story about his role broke, M Patrick Moore, who apparently had been tasked with cleaning up the files at Penn Biden Center and the Biden home and weeks earlier had discovered the classified documents in both places, no longer represented Biden as a personal attorney, had left his former law firm, and had taken a job with the Massachusetts Attorney General, where he would presumably be hundreds of miles from either Washington or Wilmington. (I would bet he's taken a big pay cut, too,)

Something's hinky. I get the feeling that two important lawyers decided they no longer wanted to be involved in the case and skedaddled. (My wife suggests that both Moore and Lausch may wish to preserve their roles as witnesses in the matter rather than as potential co-conspirators.)