On Wednesday, a judge rejected the plea deal in the Hunter Biden tax crime case, expressing concerns over the terms of the proposed plea deal and the defense’s apparent “misrepresentations to the court.”
The initial plea deal, involving failure to pay more than $100,000 on $1.5 million of income, was tied to a separate charge of gun possession by a known drug user – and would have let Biden off the hook for the gun charge and expunged it from his record.
Without the proposed plea deal, Biden would have faced up to 10 years in prison, if convicted of the gun charge.
The deal also would have given Biden immunity from future prosecution.
But, on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the plea deal, citing the unusually soft terms of the plea deal, especially the immunity. Noreika also questioned the constitutionality of providing Biden immunity from all future prosecution through the diversion agreement portion of the plea deal.
Another concern for the judge is the allegation by a court clerk that a member of Biden’s defense team claimed she tried to get him to do her bidding by falsely claiming to be working with an attorney from the Ways and Means Committee.
Judge Noreika told Biden’s defense attorneys to report back to her with an argument explaining why she shouldn’t sanction them for “misrepresentations to the court.”
Since the deal was rejected, Biden changed his expected guilty plea to not guilty, which could sent the case to trial.
The Hunter Biden case has attracted national attention, not just because it involves the president’s son, but also because of the apparent double-standard of justice, given liberal prosecutors’ unrelenting zeal to jail conservatives, such as former President Donald Trump.