Hunter Biden Pleads Not-Guilty after Judge Rejects Plea Deal

SCANNELL: “The hearing had just begun. Again, the judge was back on the bench. And she was pressing the prosecution on this investigation and the four corners of this plea agreement. One of the prosecutors said that the investigation was very much ongoing, and that she asked him well, what is not covered in this plea agreement if you are leaving the possibility for bringing other future charges? So then the judge said, would this include a possible FARA charge? That’s not registering as a foreign agent? The prosecutor said no, the deal would not include that. It was at that point that she had said to the prosecution, you know, if you were not good, if you can’t charge that, then what does this mean? And the prosecutors — actually she asked Hunter Biden’s attorneys about that. And he said, well, then there’s no deal. And the prosecutor said, then there is no deal. So, Biden’s team said that the plea agreement, as far as they understood, it was now null and void. They were moving ahead to talk about what the next steps would be in this case. So as of right now, the deal appears to be dead and off the table. And it remains to be seen how they’re going to move forward. But he has been charged with those two misdemeanor tax evasion charges. But one thing we learned is that this investigation is very much still ongoing.”Show more

MORAN: “There was a huddle between the parties and they are trying to forge some kind of deal that the judge will like and that both parties can agree to. It may not be the same deal exactly that they came into court with, to try to salvage what the judge feels it seems was a deal that was just a little bit too subtle for her and one that mixed apples and oranges in a way that she believes was not fair to Hunter Biden. Because at one point, the judge asked the prosecutors, is there still an ongoing investigation? They said yes. She said, well how can he plead guilty to part of an investigation when it still ongoing? All of that, as you can tell a lot illegal back and forth, it does look like things are back on track, but the bottom line, this Hunter Biden plea deal which was expected to be a routine matter, wasn’t and may still be in jeopardy.”

JENKINS: “Well, here we are, John. We now know that Judge Noreika is not going to accept the plea agreement. And as we were talking about just a moment ago, it’s got to do — Judge Noreika does not believe that — she has questions over the constitutionality of that diversion clause of the immunity that Hunter Biden would receive in this deal to not prosecute on the gun charge. She is not okay with that, so the headline here is she has not accepted the plea deal. That would likely indicate we could be headed for a trial. We have not heard from the prosecution or the defense, maybe they’ll be coming out and talking to us, but a major headline here, what we thought that was starting some three hours ago was going to be a routine plea deal, Hunter Biden in the early part of today’s court hearing said he was prepared to plead guilty to the two misdemeanor tax evasion charges, not going to happen. Judge Mary Ellen Noreika not accepting the plea deal, questioning the constitutionality of the diversion clause that kept him from being prosecuted for the felony gun charge. And she also noted, to great extent, almost as if, John, we were sitting in a law classroom, the fact that she did not like the way it was structured and she had never seen one like this and was really questioning how it was that the prosecution and the defense came to this agreement, challenging specific parts, portions, paragraphs, of the agreement and the language therein, and that will certainly lead some to comment, particularly perhaps the House Republicans that have been saying from the beginning that this was a sweetheart deal. The judge saying that she was not okay with the diversion clause portion of this plea deal. That is why she is not accepting the plea today. And of course, it comes after we have seen, in the last 24 hours, quite dramatic developments, namely the House Ways and Means chairman Jason Smith issuing that amicus brief yesterday asking the court and the judge to take a look at the testimony we have seen in recent days, the two IRS whistleblowers and things of that nature. We really did not even get to that. But now we know the outcome, and that is, there is no agreement to the plea deal, the judge saying she cannot accept it.”

HERRIDGE: “A member of the U.S. attorney’s team told the court that there was no deal, and one of the lead attorneys for Hunter Biden. Chris Clark said, as far as he was concerned, quote, ‘the plea deal was null and void.’ It was an extremely complex legal discussion over the last couple of hours, but I would boil it down to this. It does appear that the two parties have been talking past each other for months. In this respect, the U.S. attorney’s office says, there’s an ongoing investigation and there could be criminal charges in the future.”