The busy bees at Biden Inc. never seem to take a day off. Their golden rule is ‘Thou Shalt Not Do Anything to Inconvenience a Biden.’ Assistant US Attorney Derek Hines may be in the process of learning that lesson the hard way. Hines accepted an assignment to investigate Hunter Biden regarding millions of dollars in foreign income he received during and after his father’s stint as the Vice President. This apparently ruffled the feathers of his boss, Philadelphia US Attorney Jacqueline Romero, a Biden appointee. Shortly after going to work on the case with Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, Hines found that his badge allowing him access to his government office in downtown Philadelphia had been disabled and he could only enter the building by signing in as a guest. (NY Post)
Philadelphia US Attorney Jacqueline Romero allegedly retaliated against a federal prosecutor working in her office after he accepted a temporary detail to investigate and prosecute Hunter Biden, three sources exclusively told The Post in bombshell new allegations of Justice Department misconduct.
Romero allegedly told Assistant US Attorney Derek Hines last year that she was cool to the idea of him joining what was then a pre-indictment criminal investigation of the first son, 54, related to millions of dollars in foreign income.
Romero, who was nominated to her post by President Biden in the spring of 2022, mentioned she had a connection to the Biden family; noted Hunter’s late brother Beau, who died in 2015 of brain cancer, once worked in the office; and left little doubt that she believed Hunter shouldn’t face charges, according to the three sources, who were briefed by people with direct knowledge of the matter.
This clearly isn’t the worst sort of retaliation that a government employee could face. It’s more of an inconvenience than anything else. And yet it could certainly leave a person wondering about their future career prospects. And one source told reporters that the badge termination was a typical sign of Romero being “on a power trip” and sending a message.
As noted above, Romero knew Hunter’s brother Beau Biden from the time he too worked in the Philadelphia office as a prosecutor. She admits that she and Beau were close colleagues, but denies that she has any further connections to the rest of the Biden family. (Except for owing her current position to Joe Biden, of course.) She also denies opposing the investigation into Hunter.
It’s apparently true that Romero didn’t block Hines from taking the assignment and even signed off on the transfer. Of course, attempting to deny the transfer would have looked more than a little suspicious and might have created career problems for her. She claimed to reporters that nobody had ever said that Hines was “banned” from the office while working on the Hunter Biden investigation. But her office offered no explanation as to why his badge access would be discontinued, something that other staffers described as not being the usual procedure that would be followed during such temporary assignments.
Attempting to fire Hines or otherwise derail his career while he’s working on a case like this would have been far too obvious. Romero is claiming that not only has there been no retaliation, but there will be none when he returns. That much may be true, at least now that this story is out in the public eye. If Hines were to suddenly run into significant career problems upon his return, Romero would be back in the spotlight. But this entire situation just smells of favoritism and petty revenge. Mr. Hines may want to begin shopping around for a new assignment elsewhere after his current investigation is wrapped up.
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