(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Republicans have continuously criticized the agreement between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department over his tax crimes as a “sweetheart plea deal.”
Apparently, the federal judge presiding over Biden’s case agreed.
Questions from District Judge Maryellen Noreika during Wednesday’s plea-deal hearing ultimately led to the agreement collapsing and Biden pleading not guilty to two tax crimes.
🚨BREAKING: Hunter Biden's plea deal just fell apart in court due to investigations that are still on going into potential FARA violations. pic.twitter.com/wn6qoXGMSD
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 26, 2023
“It seems to me like you are saying ‘just rubber stamp the agreement, Your Honor.’ … This seems to me to be form over substance,” the judge said.
Noreika gave defense lawyers and prosecutors 30 days to explain why she should accept the deal.
Reporting live from the Delaware courthouse, CNN correspondent Kara Scannell said Noreika began Wednesday’s hearing by asking prosecutors what crimes were outside the scope of the plea deal.
“The judge didn’t understand exactly what this plea agreement was covering, because it seemed to be all-encompassing,” Scannell said.
For example, Noreika wanted to know whether the plea deal would exclude Biden from being charged for his failure to register as a foreign agent when he was lobbying on behalf of foreign companies like Ukrainian energy giant Burisma.
The prosecutor reportedly said the investigation into Biden is still ongoing. When the prosecutor said the plea deal doesn’t afford Biden immunity from this crime, Biden’s attorneys reportedly said the deal was “null and void.”
After a 10-minute recess in proceedings, Biden’s lawyers returned and said the deal was back on, Scannell reported.
“Biden’s team is agreeing to the plea deal, but to a much more limited scope of the deal,” she said.
According to the CNN correspondent, the revised plea deal covers all of Biden’s tax crimes from 2014 to 2019, as well as the gun charge originally included in the agreement.
“One thing we learned is that this investigation is still very much ongoing,” she said.
The congressional GOP investigation into Biden is still ongoing, too.
On Monday, the Justice Department offered to make U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware—the lead prosecutor of the Hunter Biden investigation—available before the House Judiciary Committee for a public hearing after the August break.
The congressional inquiry was opened after testimony from two IRS agents who worked on the Hunter Biden case detailed what they called a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” and delaying enforcement actions in the months before the 2020 presidential election in which his father became president.
The whistleblowers, who testified publicly last week, maintain that their testimony reflects a pattern of interference and preferential treatment in the Hunter Biden case and not just disagreement with their superiors about what investigative steps to take.
It is unclear if House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will accept the offer for a public hearing with Weiss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
