The plea agreement between Hunter Biden and the Department of Justice fell apart during a Wednesday morning court hearing, bringing an end to the First Son’s “sweetheart deal.” Biden was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income taxes and entering a diversion program rather than serve jail time for a separate felony gun charge.
While the plea was expected to go through without issue, things quickly collapsed when additional questioning by United States District Judge Maryellen Noreika revealed a disconnect between the defense and the prosecution regarding Biden’s immunity from further investigations. Noreika specifically pressed on whether the deal protected Biden from charges related to violations of the Federal Agent Registration Act. Further disagreement arose around whether prosecutors would still be continuing any other active investigations into Biden following the plea.
Biden’s defense maintained that the deal offered blanket immunity for his plea dealings, but the prosecution argued that it only covered the tax offenses. Top federal prosecutor Leo Wise declined to comment on the extent of other ongoing investigations but said “there’s no deal” if the defense thought total immunity had been granted.
Both parties then agreed that the deal was null and void, and Noreika called a recess to allow them to negotiate, saying “I think having you guys talk more makes sense.”
Following the recess, a second agreement was reached, this time much narrower in scope. The new deal covers Biden’s tax, drug, and gun offenses between 2014 and 2019, and he will still plead guilty to the two misdemeanor charges—but this time without protection from future charges. Both sides are now in agreement that additional probes into the President’s son are “ongoing.”
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But in a stunning reversal, Noreika rejected the deal on Wednesday afternoon, prompting Biden to enter a plea of “not guilty.”
“These agreements are not straightforward and they contain atypical provisions,” she said. “I’m not in a position where I can decide to accept or reject a plea agreement and I need to defer it.”
Noreika’s primary concern seemed to be the diversion program provisions stemming from the gun charge, which she saw as constitutionally questionable. Were Biden to breach the rules of the program at any point, the prosecution would attempt to bring charges against him, but not until Noreika issued a ruling on the facts of the case. This, she argued, would have been unconstitutional, as charging decisions are a duty of the executive branch.
The judge asked for additional briefings from both sides of the case but has not set a date for follow-up hearings, meaning that the case remains an open criminal investigation.
Further complicating the case is the fact that Biden’s own attorneys almost found themselves sanctioned for alleged misrepresentation to the court. The day before the hearing, Noreika issued the threat of sanctions based on the claim that a member of the defense’s firm lied to the court clerk over the phone. The clerk’s office stated that a member of the defense’s law firm misrepresented her identity, pretending to be a member of the House Republicans’ legal team in an attempt to have IRS whistleblower testimony removed from the docket ahead of the hearing.
Noreika ordered that “on or before 9 pm today on July 25, 2023, counsel for the defendant shall show cause as to why sanctions should not be considered for misrepresentations to the court,” according to the Daily Mail. Biden’s lawyers, Latham & Watkins LLP, stated that they had “no idea how the misunderstanding occurred, but our understanding is there was no misrepresentation,” further claiming that the clerk’s office removed the documents of its own volition. Anything beyond that, they claim, was an “unintentional miscommunication.”
The explanation provided by the defense was evidently enough to persuade the court, as the issue was not raised during Wednesday’s hearing.
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