When we first learned about Hunter Biden’s plea deal last month, many of us were shocked. But it was far worse than we imagined. It wasn’t a mere slap on the wrist, it was a de facto “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
Not only were his tax crimes treated as misdemeanors, not felonies, but he got a rather sweet deal to enter a diversion program over his gun charge. The deal would mean that for crimes that would get regular people ten years in prison, Hunter would walk away a free man.
And he most certainly thought that was going to happen. According to a New York Times account of the scene that day, “As he entered the courtroom, Mr. Biden drew a deep breath and plunged forward to greet the prosecutors who investigated him for five years with handshakes and a smile.”
That doesn’t sound normal, does it?
Had it not been for U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, Hunter Biden would be partying hard right now as a free man, above the law in every respect and laughing at us. Instead, the entitled first son watched his plea deal fall apart in front of him. To say this was devastating for him is an understatement. Why? Because the the DOJ prosecutors who investigated Hunter for five years, and greeted him like an old friend in court, had actually written the pretrial diversion agreement so broadly that it would have protected him from much more than the gun charge.
“That pretrial diversion agreement as written was actually MUCH broader than just the gun charge,” explained former federal prosecutor Will Scharf on Twitter. “If Hunter were to complete probation, the pretrial diversion agreement prevented DOJ from ever bringing charges against Hunter for any crimes relating to the offense conduct discussed in the plea agreement, which was purposely written to include his foreign influence peddling operations in China and elsewhere.”
Related: The Politics of Pardoning Hunter Biden
“Hunter’s upside from this deal was vast immunity from further prosecution if he finished a couple years of probation, and the public wouldn’t be any the wiser because none of this was clearly stated on the face of the plea agreement, as would normally be the case,” Scharf continued.
And, and Scharf noted, Judge Noreika “smelled a rat,” the collusion between the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden’s legal team was exposed, and Hunter Biden was forced to plead “not guilty” to crimes he was previously going to admit to when it meant he would get off scot-free.
“What happened is they got caught,” former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said on Fox News Business. “They got caught trying to run roughshod over a court, and the reason they got caught is because they do that in 99 percent of their cases, they’re able to push through whatever plea agreement because they have so much unbridled power.”
Thanks @Varneyco for having me on. Prosecutors are so accustomed to getting their way they thought they could sneak this garbage plea deal past the judge. pic.twitter.com/6PVLqZCiPR
— Brett L. Tolman (@tolmanbrett) July 28, 2023
They most certainly did. Can anyone be expected to believe the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden’s legal team weren’t in cahoots until Judge Maryellen Noreika blew the whole deal up? The deal didn’t just protect Hunter Biden, it protected Joe Biden.
