Hunter Biden plea deal collapses

Hunter Biden walked into a federal courtroom yesterday thinking he had a plea bargain – and the judge rejected it.

Hunter Biden deal goes sour

Hunter Biden, and lawyers for the United States Attorney’s office for Delaware, appeared before Delaware Federal District Judge Maryellen Noreika. What started out as a routine plea bargain acceptance session went sour quickly. Judge Noreika questioned Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise as to:

• Whether young Biden was still under an active investigation, and if so, on suspicion of what charge(s), and
• What, if any, immunity did the plea agreement grant young Biden against prosecution for future charges.

AUSA Wise revealed that the USA’s office was investigating Biden for possible failure to register as a foreign agent. This actually is a new charge that seems never to have come under discussion before. Then when Judge Noreika asked whether young Biden would be immune from such a charge, AUSA Wise said, “No.”

Whereupon attorneys for Hunter Biden announced that they had no deal – because they evidently thought he would enjoy global immunity. Young Biden entered a plea of Not Guilty, and Judge Noreika scheduled another appearance for Biden at a later date.

Details of the agreements

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, struck this deal slightly more than a month ago. Under it, he would plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of not paying taxes on time. Those charges stem from late or nonpayment of $1.2 million in taxes for the tax years 2017 and 2018. The government was also going to charge him with possession of a firearm while using a controlled substance, namely cocaine. All this is a shadow of more serious tax and gun charges he could have faced, from evidence discovered last October.

Biden’s attorneys and the Justice Department negotiated two agreements: the plea deal, and a pretrial diversion agreement. The second agreement provided for twenty-four months’ probation, after which the Justice Department would move to dismiss the gun charge. Pretrial diversion agreements, according to the Shouse California Law Group, are standard practice to avoid trial on relatively minor offenses.

Politico.com, in their coverage, provided links to the plea deal and pretrial diversion agreement, of which they are hosting copies. (Politico also obtained the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.)

Reportage on the abortive plea bargain ratification session came from The Daily Caller, Independent Journal Review, The Patriotic News, American Briefing, and American Action News, in addition to Politico.com.

Note that Exhibit One of the plea agreement contains a statement about Hunter Biden’s business dealings with “a Ukrainian energy company” (presumably Burisma) and “a Chinese private equity fund.” The Daily Caller released their story analyzing this matter.