OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:23 PM – Monday, August 14, 2023
Hunter Biden’s lawyers are reportedly pushing to maintain a portion of a plea agreement they had negotiated with the prosecutor, whose new role as special counsel has heightened the tax inquiry into the president’s son ahead of the 2024 race.
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As House Republicans conduct their own probing efforts, Biden’s counsel contended in court records that a bargain to keep him out of jail on a felony gun charge remains in effect, despite the fact that the plea deal on minor tax crimes fell apart during a court hearing last month.
One of his attorneys claimed that the Justice Department opted to “renege” on its half of the bargain on tax charges. The bargain on the gun charge includes an immunity clause from federal prosecution for other potential offenses.
Attorney Christopher Clark stated in court documents filed late on Sunday that Hunter intends to follow the terms of the agreement, including not using drugs or alcohol. Prosecutors who “largely dictated” the arrangement after asking them to begin plea discussions in May, he claimed, should be held to it as well.
It is unclear whether prosecutors feel the same regarding the validity of the firearms arrangement. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika gave them until Tuesday to answer.
The two-part agreement on tax and gun charges was intended to bring the long-running investigation supervised by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to a close. However, it stalled after a judge voiced concerns about its provisions, and it seemed to have collapsed altogether when prosecutors announced in court filings on Friday that the case would go to trial instead.
Prosecutors exposed the stalemate when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel, a position that grants him extensive authority to probe and report on his findings.
The government said that plea discussions failed, that they sought to dismiss the tax charges against Hunter Biden in Delaware, and that they may prosecute him in another court, such as Washington, D.C., or California.
Hunter Biden’s background of heavy drug usage and shady foreign business affairs has consistently shadowed his father’s, President Joe Biden’s, political career.
“He loves his son, and he is proud of him overcoming his addiction and how he’s continuing to build his life,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.
House Republicans are also conducting their own legislative investigations into Hunter Biden’s business transactions and the Justice Department’s handling of the matter.
They provided a transcript of an interview with a former FBI agent who worked on the case and stated that he was unable to question Hunter Biden since FBI authorities informed the Secret Service in advance back in 2020.
This echoed previous evidence from IRS agents turned whistleblowers and also contributes to Republicans’ distrust of the Justice Department and Weiss as special counsel, according to Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
The GOP has consistently referred to Hunter Biden’s plea deal as a “sweetheart deal.”
It called for him to plead guilty to failing to pay taxes on over $1.5 million in income in 2017 through 2018 and for him to get probation instead of jail time on the misdemeanor counts.
A separate agreement he had called for Hunter to avoid prosecution in 2018 for the felony offense of being a heavy drug user in possession of a gun if he stayed out of trouble for two years.
Additionally, the unexpected nomination of Weiss as special counsel sparked new concerns about the case. Garland stated that Weiss had specifically requested to be appointed as special counsel.
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