Former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia – who served as senior technical adviser to the House Select Committee probe the Jan. 6, 2021, Assault on Capitol Hill – works with the legal team advising President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who is coming under increasing scrutiny from House Republicans over his trade relations.
Riggleman’s work with Hunter Biden has focused on assessing data issues, and he’s helped Biden’s attorneys deal with congressional investigations and assess GOP allegations about his conduct, according to three people with knowledge of him. Biden’s legal team.
Riggleman’s work with Hunter Biden was confirmed Tuesday by Kevin Morris, a lawyer and confidant of the president’s son.
“Denver has been helping us with data analysis since late last year,” Morris said in a statement to CBS News. “He’s an invaluable resource and we’ve made tremendous strides in unraveling the huge amount of corruption and misinformation involved in this story. There’s going to be a lot more to come to the public.”
Riggleman said in a statement Tuesday that he and his associates are working with Hunter Biden’s lawyers.
“I and my forensics, data and telephony team conduct investigations and data analysis for Hunter Biden’s legal team,” Riggleman said, focusing on “data across the spectrum.”
Riggleman’s efforts brought him into Hunter Biden’s circle, and he also provided the president’s son with insight into House Republicans and their methods, those who knew Biden’s legal team said.
On Monday, they said, Riggleman was at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC, for a meeting with Hunter Biden’s lawyers. And on Tuesday night, he was at the White House as one of Hunter Biden’s team members invited to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday.
For Hunter Biden, the coming months could be a critical time. Although a court agreement with federal investigators announced last month on charges of tax evasion and possession of firearms, congressional Republicans expressed outrage at the deal, pledging to pursue their own investigations regardless of the Department of Justice investigation.
Riggleman’s work with Hunter Biden’s team has included reviewing Republican claims about a laptop that a Delaware computer repair shop owner’s attorney says was left behind by Hunter Biden. in 2019, which was later provided to the FBI under subpoena.
CBS News last year was provided a copy of this data by the repair shop’s attorney and conducted an independent analysis led by two cyber investigators from Minneapolis-based Computer Forensics Services.
Riggleman spent months, those with knowledge said, providing digital forensic analysis to Biden’s legal team to determine whether data related to Hunter Biden, such as text messages, was distorted or fabricated. . Data from the laptop and bank records left behind remain key parts of the Republican investigation into the Biden family.
Riggleman, a 53-year-old former Air Force intelligence officer — and a former member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus — has become a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump in recent years, and a frequent commentator, where he has argues that far-right extremism and conspiracy theories pose a threat to American democracy. His book, “The Breach,” dealt with these issues and his work for the House Select Committee.
In an appearance last year on “60 Minutes,” Riggleman suggested the Trump White House should be further investigated for any possible communication between officials and the Jan. 6 rioters.
“The point is, the American people need to know that there are crossover connections that need to be explored further,” Riggleman said.
Riggleman joined the Jan. 6 committee months after leaving the House in early 2021, following a single term representing the Charlottesville area. During his two years in Congress, Riggleman clashed with local conservatives over his decision to officiate a same-sex marriage and was defeated by a conservative challenger at a 2020 nominating convention.
Early in his work with the Jan. 6 committee, Riggleman and several committee members developed a connection as he sifted through reams of data and mapped text messages obtained from Trump allies, such as the former chief of staff. of the White House Mark Meadows. But tensions over the committee’s strategy and the scope of its investigation ultimately led Riggleman to quit his post.
Riggleman’s frustrations with the committee became public around the release of “The Breach” last year. At the time, a spokesperson for the committee said any claim that the committee was not aggressive in the Jan. 6 investigation was false and misleading, pointing to its next final report as a complete document.
In the coming months, GOP investigations into Hunter Biden will likely coincide with the presidential campaign as Republican candidates begin to appear at the debates and Mr. Biden steps up his bid for re-election.
In June, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss announced a plea deal had been reached with Hunter Biden, potentially avoiding incarceration or trial for two tax offenses and a felony firearm. A federal judge must first approve the deal and a hearing is scheduled for July 26.
Most House Republicans responded to the reported deal by saying they believe the Justice Department gave Hunter Biden a favorable deal because of his relationship with the president.
“My first reaction is that he continues to show a two-tier system in America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said last month. “If you’re the president’s son, you get a favored deal.”
McCarthy encouraged the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, to continue its investigation into Mr. Biden’s family’s business dealings.
Biden’s lawyers have accused House Republicans of trying to derail the plea agreement.
As they move forward, House Republicans also pointed out comments made by the IRS oversight officer who helped oversee the Hunter Biden investigation — and one of two whistleblowers who raised concerns about the way the DOJ investigation was conducted, saying the IRS whistleblower’s allegations require further investigation.
“We have to make sure as the IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent that we treat every person exactly the same,” Gary Shapley, a 14-year veteran of the agency, told the Correspondent. CBS News Chief Investigator Jim Axelrod last month. “And that just didn’t happen here.”
Hunter Biden’s criminal attorney, Christopher Clark, did not respond to requests for comment on Shapley’s remarks, but in a statement at the time, the plea arrangement said that “as his attorney any Throughout this case, I can say that any suggestion that the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or give my client slack, is absurd and deeply irresponsible.”
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