How the Hunter Biden plea agreement blew up
It has been a week of scandalous doings on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s watch. Congress seems paralyzed to intervene with more than hearings, and so far, only federal district court Judge Maryellen Noreika has tried. As I explain, it’s questionable whether her conduct will prevent the Justice Department from exonerating Hunter Biden from laundering what may be as much as $50 million in bribes from countries, including China, Ukraine, and Romania, into his family’s pockets. Through Jack Smith, it has corralled President Trump’s valet and the Mar-a-Largo maintenance worker into the ridiculous documents case. Finally, it dropped another case against crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried, who contributed as much as $90 million dollars of ill-gotten funds almost entirely to Democrat candidates and their action committees.
Hunter Biden and the No-good, Dirty Deal
Ferried to the courthouse by a substantial (obviously taxpayer-paid) motorcade, Hunter appeared chipper, obviously believing that his very significant tax avoidance and FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) violations were going to be wiped off the prosecution table if he pled guilty to two misdemeanor charges for unrelated offenses.
The tables quickly turned. It was alleged that counsel for the defense had misled the court clerk into believing she was acting for the government in requesting the amicus brief filed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith be removed from the docket. Upon learning of the impersonation deception, the Judge threatened sanctions against Hunter’s team. It’s not clear whether or not she accepted the explanation offered, ("an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication”), but on Friday, she entered an order that reads in relevant part:
“Any such issues and inquiries shall be submitted in writing and placed on the docket. To the extent that the rare instance arises in which a writing is not practicable, a phone call may be made to my Chambers by an attorney who represents one of the parties in these cases or an interested third party.”
The case went downhill after that when it appeared the government and defense counsel had tried to pull the wool over her eyes about the full extent of the plea deal. The plea on its face seemed to recommend probation after Hunter admitted guilt on two misdemeanor charges that he failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes on income earned in 2017 and 2018 and would avoid consequences for a felony gun charge. The devil was in the details: A side pretrial diversion agreement, the most important portion of which (paragraph 15) had just been handed to the judge before she entered the courtroom. The judge needed clarification of it as it appeared to give Hunter immunity from a firearm offense as well as tax and other tax crimes.
"Have you ever seen a diversion agreement where the agreement not to prosecute is so broad that it encompasses crimes in a different case?” she asked assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise.
Mr. Wise replied that he had not.
Questioning why such promises were made in the diversion agreement -- an agreement she could not rule on [by its very terms] -- the judge said: “It seems to me like you are saying ‘just rubber stamp the agreement, Your Honor.’ …This seems to me to be form over substance.”
Ultimately, the judge deferred action on the plea deal, declaring that she could not accept it as is.
The DoJ has been insisting to congressional investigators that it could not respond to inquiries about the Hunter case in those matters still under investigation, but the diversion agreement, of course, would render that claim and any “investigation” baseless. In any event, when pressed, the prosecution team denied that accepting the plea deal would grant Hunter criminal immunity in perpetuity, at which point the deal fell apart because Hunter’s counsel quite reasonably believed that would be the effect. Hunter responded, “not guilty,” and the hearing ended. I think it is beyond debate that the government backed off what criminal lawyers call a “global agreement” because it stunk of a partisan cover-up, mostly to protect the “big guy,” President Biden.
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I have seen several plea deals during my career as a prosecutor and I have never seen one this bad. It was absurd on its face and there appears to be some evidence that there was an attempted fraud on the court. Fortunately, the judge saw what was attempted and rejected it at this point. Hopefully, she will continue to reject it.
The NY Post reports:
Hunter Biden’s laptop full of secret agreements and contracts with foreign business partners
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