President Biden warned his brother Frank during the campaign season to be careful in his business dealings, amid heightened scrutiny into members of the Biden family, Politico reported on Friday.
Hunter Biden’s ties to Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and now-defunct Chinese energy firm CEFC became an issue during the campaign. Hunter and the president’s younger brother James have traded on the family name in their business dealings, former executives of consulting firm Paradigm Global Advisors told Politico in 2019.
The future president reportedly attempted to rein his other brother while running against Donald Trump.
“For Christ’s sake, watch yourself,” the president said to Frank on the campaign trail, a person familiar with the conversation told Politico. “Don’t get sucked into something that would, first of all, hurt you.”
Frank Biden, a senior adviser for the Florida-based Berman Law Group, subsequently touted his brother in an ad for the firm printed on Inauguration Day. (Berman is conducting a lawsuit against against sugar cane companies.)
“My brother is a model for how to go about doing this work,” Biden wrote in the ad, which was placed in the Daily Business Review and reported by CNBC.
Frank Biden denied trading on the family name in a statement to CNBC.
“I have never used my brother to obtain clients for my firm. Our firm has long been involved [with] this lawsuit. Social justice is something I have been involved in for years,” Frank said. “I will never be employed by any lobbyist or lobbying firm.”
Additionally, Frank Morgan, a Democratic donor and lawyer, said that he had spoken with Frank Biden beginning last year about possibly giving him a position at Morgan’s firm.
“We are talking about him doing some things inside the law firm,” Morgan told Politico, adding that any position Frank took would be focused on legal issues and not lobbying. Morgan said that Frank was a “great guy” and “I had my jet take him to the inauguration.”