WASHINGTON (CN) — Lawyers for the embattled Hunter Biden clamored in federal court over the weekend to shield the remnants of a partially collapsed plea agreement that would allow the president’s son to sidestep jail time for a felony firearms charge.
The play to soften Biden’s legal jeopardy comes after federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss their case against him in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, arguing that plea negotiations had fallen apart and that a full trial should take place.
The younger Biden’s plea deal encompassed two separate but related agreements. Under the first, Biden would have agreed to plead guilty to two federal tax-evasion charges, and prosecutors would recommend a sentence of probation rather than the maximum sentence of 24 months in prison for both counts. For a separate charge related to an illegal handgun purchase in 2018, Biden would have agreed to a pretrial intervention known as a diversion program under which he would avoid a maximum 10-year prison sentence for the charge — if he committed to living drug-free and to never again own a firearm.
Prosecutors scuttled the deal related to the tax charges after they balked at terms proposed by the defense that would have given Biden immunity from future criminal charges. Disagreement about which charges the plea deal covered ground negotiations to a halt.
Despite the implosion of negotiations, Biden’s lawyers told U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in a Sunday filing that federal prosecutors should honor the separate diversion program agreement.
The president’s son “intends to abide by the terms of the Diversion Agreement,” his counsel wrote, noting that the prosecution had agreed that the program stands alone from the tax-related plea deal and that “the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement.”
That that the tax-related plea deal is moot is not in question, but Biden’s counsel blame prosecutors for its implosion, writing that the agreement fell apart after their “decision … to renege on the previously agreed-upon Plea Agreement.”
According to court documents, the younger Biden did not pay more than $100,000 in taxes on his more than $1.5 million income during 2017 and 2018, but those unpaid dues have since been settled.
Judge Noreika had yet to issue any reply by late Monday morning, nor have federal prosecutors.
The prosecution has said that, although the plea deal would have restricted the legal jurisdiction to Delaware, its dissolution means that proceedings should be moved to different venues — specifically the Central District of California and the District of Columbia.
As the pretrial agreement faded Friday, the Justice Department announced that David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, had been appointed as special counsel overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation. The move expands Weiss’ jurisdiction and allows him to take a closer look at the younger Biden’s international business dealings.
Although that development would have appeared to be good news for congressional Republicans — some of whom have been pushing for a special counsel to investigate what they say were efforts by President Biden to use his influence to help his son close business deals — GOP lawmakers were incensed by the Justice Department’s decision to give Weiss the job.
“This is a joke,” said Kentucky Congressman Jim Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, during a Sunday night appearance on Fox News. “All that [Attorney General] Merrick Garland did was validate the point that many Republicans have been making: that the Department of Justice is weaponized.”
House Republicans in particular have blasted Weiss’ handling of the Hunter Biden investigation, arguing that the prosecutor spearheaded what they see as a “sweetheart” plea deal with the president’s son.
Comer said that he has been against a special counsel, despite the urging of some of his GOP colleagues, such as Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. “The one reason I would give for not wanting a special counsel is what we’ve seen," he said. "I had no confidence that Merrick Garland would appoint anyone credible.”
Some Democrats have expressed concern about Hunter Biden legal jeopardy, particularly his overseas business dealings, but argue that there is no evidence that President Biden was involved in any of his son’s escapades.
“[Republicans] have not laid a glove on Joe Biden as president,” Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin said Sunday on ABC News. “They haven’t been able to show any criminal corruption on his part — what they’ve got is Hunter Biden, and we all seem clear that this guy was addicted to drugs and did a lot of really unlawful and wrong things.”
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