1 p.m. Wednesday update
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she was not ready to accept the plea deal in the Hunter Biden case.
She ended Wednesday’s hearing with President Joe BIden’s son pleading not guilty for now.
The judge asked both sides in the case to file additional briefs, explaining the plea deal’s legal structuring.
Noreika admitted her concerns were a “curveball” after she had been expected to accept the arrangement.
“I am concerned you are taking provisions out of the plea agreement,” Noreika said. “You all are telling me to ‘please rubber stamp this agreement, your honor.’ I am not in a position where I can decide on the plea agreement.”
12:40 p.m.
A White House spokesperson was asked to comment on Hunter Biden’s case after it appeared his plea bargain was falling apart.
“Hunter Biden is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter for him. As we have said, the President, the first lady, they love their son, and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during Wednesday’s briefing.
“This case was handled independently, as all of you know, by the Justice Department under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by the former president, President Trump.”
12:30 p.m.
After a three-hour hearing, Hunter Biden entered a plea of not guilty on the tax charges, which he will reverse if the two sides redo their agreement to the judge’s satisfaction.
11 a.m.
The plea bargain for Hunter Biden hit a snag in a Delaware federal court on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden’s son went into court after tentatively accepting a plea deal from the Justice Department. It supposedly would have allowed Biden to avoid jail time on tax and gun charges.
Judge Maryellen Noreika wondered whether the deal offered Hunter Biden blanket immunity from prosecution for his business dealings, or only for tax offenses.
Noreika asked prosecutor Leo Wise if the Biden investigation was “ongoing.” He replied, “yes.” If the Biden team thinks otherwise, “then there’s no deal,” he added.
The judge called for a recess in the hearing after noon Eastern time.
The courtroom appearance came after an investigation into Biden by federal prosecutor David C. Weiss.
At the start of the hearing, Biden told Noreika that he intended to plead guilty.
Noreika, Justice Department attorneys, and Biden’s lawyers agreed that the judge did not have the power to order the prosecutors to “redo” Weiss’ probe if she thought “the investigation was lacking.” Attorneys for the Justice Department said that would need to be addressed “through the political process,” CNN reported.
Noreika asked Biden, 53, if he was making a “voluntary and knowing plea” and asked about his drug use, The New York Times reported. Biden told the judge he has been sober since June 2019.
Biden said he was in inpatient treatment for alcohol addiction originally in 2003. He said he has had treatment at six inpatient facilities and other outpatient programs over 20 years, the newspaper reported. The last time he was in a drug treatment program was 2018, he told the judge.
The conditions of his probation were laid out in the hearing. As part of his agreement, Biden cannot drink alcohol or use illegal drugs. He also can be drug tested at random by court officials.
Prosecutors noted in court that Biden has the resources to pay his 2017 taxes. Instead, he continued to “spend wildly” on personal luxuries and expenses, CNN reported.
He owed between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in federal taxes, prosecutors said in court.
Republicans called the plea agreement a “sweetheart deal” when it was announced last month.
“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said at the time, according to The Associated Press. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
Two IRS whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, accused the Justice Department of slow-walking Hunter Biden’s case.
“There should not be a two-track justice system based on who you are and who you’re connected to,” Shapley, an IRS special agent for 14 years, said, according to The New York Times. “Yet, in this case, there was.”
The contention was dismissed by Weiss, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who led the investigation. Weiss has said he might testify before Congress in September.
Wednesday’s hearing began with the judge asking Biden’s legal team about allegations that one of its staffers misled the court clerk’s office.
The staffer was accused of saying that she was working with lawyers for House Ways and Means chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) when, in fact, she was not. Smith was seeking to file an amicus curiae filing with the judge.