Judge Wrecks Hunter’s Sweetheart Deal
Posted on | July 28, 2023 | Comments Off on Judge Wrecks Hunter’s Sweetheart Deal
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Hunter Biden pled not guilty on Wednesday to gun and tax charges, refusing to accept a new plea deal laid out by prosecutors.
The original plea deal fell apart after the judge questioned if it covered future potential charges of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation. The prosecution reportedly said the deal did not include any alleged Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations.
MSNBC reported the court took a ten-minute recess to determine if the two parties could quickly come to an agreement. When the deal got back on track, reports indicated it would “be more limited in scope,” only including specific charges related to tax and gun wronging. “The two sides have agreed that this deal does not shield him from potential future charges,” CNN reported.
But the judge said she was not ready to accept the plea deal and asked both the prosecutor and Hunter Biden to submit additional briefs, according to reporters inside the courthouse. The parties will have to return to court in the future.
The hearing ended with Hunter Biden pleading not guilty.
Sen. Josh Hawley told CNN the high court drama shows the plea “sweetheart” deal was flawed, and additional charges could be brought:
It’s very telling that the judge intervened here and said basically, ‘No, I’m not going to approve some sweeping blanket deal.’ … I mean, that tells you the court has serious concerns about other potential charges here, and also the scope of the deal, which has seemed outrageous from the beginning.
“This, I think, signals that they’re [sic] still very much potential for prosecution forward,” he added.
U.S. prosecutor David Weiss admitted in July that the FBI informant form alleging the Biden family bribes is part of an ongoing investigation.
The Hunter Biden plea deal has fallen apart with the parties given 30 days to clarify the judge’s questions.
"This was an extraordinary scene that unfolded in the federal courthouse," @CBS_Herridge reports. The judge also raised constitutional questions. pic.twitter.com/pxd9gLY07q
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) July 26, 2023
Will Scharf at The Federalist has more:
Hunter Biden arrived in a Delaware federal court on Wednesday morning expecting that, in a few short hours, he would walk out a free man with full immunity from prosecution for an exceedingly wide range of alleged criminal conduct, ranging from gun and drug charges to foreign influence peddling. His expectation was that his deal would be insulated from challenges from the presiding judge, or from a prosecutorial change of heart under a future administration. His expectation was that his legal ordeals were coming to a close.
Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika picked apart his plea deal with surgical precision, exposing its legal contradictions, and upbraiding both defense counsel and the Department of Justice for structuring an unprecedented deal that in her view — and mine — was illegal and unconstitutional. . . .
Need a bonus? Guess who appointed the judge?
After all these years, still #winning!
Seeing reports that the federal judge is balking at Hunter Biden's plea deal, I just want to thank Cocaine Mitch again for ramming through all of Trump's judicial appointments. pic.twitter.com/zmocQdbd9h
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) July 26, 2023