President Joe Biden‘s son has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses and to enter a pretrial diversion program to avoid prison time on a felony gun charge, though questions linger about whether the first son’s legal woes are over.
Hunter Biden, 55, will make an appearance in Wilmington, Delaware, federal court Wednesday morning, where U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika will decide whether to accept a plea deal amid a whirlwind of new Internal Revenue Service whistleblower allegations about so-called preferential treatment Biden allegedly received from prosecutors.
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The plea agreement was announced by U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, after five years of investigation.
But Wednesday’s court date does not necessarily mean the end to his legal troubles, as House Republicans will continue their congressional investigation. The House Oversight Committee, which has taken the lead on exposing Biden family financial records, is expected to hear from Hunter’s ex-business partner Devon Archer on Monday as part of its investigation.
While the House Oversight Committee could not make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice for the same crime, such as taxes, the DOJ could prosecute Hunter Biden for criminal referrals from Congress based on other crimes, according to background information provided to the Washington Examiner by the committee.
Conversely, attorneys for the younger Biden have said publicly that they expect the deal to conclude all of their client’s outstanding legal troubles.
Noreika, who was appointed by Trump with the approval of two Democratic senators, also has the option of delaying the certification of the agreement if she chooses to review more information related to the so-called preferential treatment the younger Biden received.
“The court is free to do what the court chooses to do, and that includes accept, reject, modify, do whatever to the plea agreement,” Michael Benza, a professor and expert in criminal law at Case Western Reserve University, told the Washington Examiner.
But Benza said the reality of the criminal justice system is that judges “almost always” accept plea agreements.
“This is not an unusual resolution of this type of a case, nor is the outcome of the case, the recommendations regarding sentencing, and probation and diversion,” Benza added.
For the first son’s charge for purchasing a handgun at a time while he was addicted to drugs, he will agree to a pretrial diversion, with the charge being dropped if he fulfills certain terms.
Benza said the younger Biden’s terms will be set out when the court does the sentencing. Because the arrangements for the younger Biden’s plea deal were made in advance, the judge can impose his sentence at the hearing.
If the younger Biden fails to complete the terms of the diversion, the judge has the option of terminating it and “setting the case now for criminal process,” Benza said, adding that the judge could also give a first warning to the younger Biden if there “was one slip up.”
In the backdrop, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project has filed a long-shot lawsuit in federal court against the DOJ for allegedly failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request that would have given the public a chance to witness communications that mention the possibility of Weiss being appointed special counsel.
On Wednesday, two IRS whistleblowers, supervisory agent Gary Shapley and special agent Joe Ziegler, testified before the Oversight Committee on their past testimony, which alleged the DOJ significantly interfered with their criminal investigation into Hunter Biden. They alleged the DOJ blocked Weiss’s request for special counsel status, prevented them from interviewing the younger Biden, blocked access to his infamous laptop, and allowed the statute of limitations to run out on more tax charges than what he plans to plead guilty to.
Attorneys for the Heritage Foundation also plan to submit an amicus brief in the Delaware court ahead of the Wednesday hearing which will ask Noreika to pump the brakes on accepting the plea deal forthright.
“We’re concentrating on the task in front of us, which is getting the plea deal not accepted on Wednesday,” Mike Howell, director of the Oversight Project, told the Washington Examiner.
Republicans in Congress have clung to two IRS whistleblower claims that they say raise concerns about whether the DOJ blocked Weiss in any way from building evidence on what is, according to the whistleblowers, strong evidence of financial crimes.
And after the disclosure of an FD-1023 document that contained a witness account alleging then-vice president Biden took part in a $5 million bribery scheme involving his son, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the younger Biden could be facing “between six and 10 criminal referrals” to the Justice Department.
House GOP lawmakers could make referrals that may include evidence the president’s son violated the Mann Act, a federal law making it illegal to transport women across state lines for prostitution, as well as allegations that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
“He was money laundering. He was racketeering. He committed wire fraud. He violated the Mann Act. The list goes on and on and on,” Comer said last week.
The younger Biden’s legal troubles were further minimized late last month when he settled a child support dispute with Lunden Roberts, the mother of his fourth child, agreeing to pay an undisclosed monthly sum. A trial in that dispute was slated to take place in Arkansas this week before the June 29 settlement announcement.
But for House Republicans, the plea deal Wednesday could open the door to more access to information, as the DOJ presumably will no longer have the pretext of an ongoing investigation to cite when denying document and witness testimony requests.
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Benza said that allowing the plea deal may allow Congress to do more of its investigation into additional potential crimes.
“Just because you’re resolving these matters doesn’t mean that it ends any concept of criminal liability,” Benza added.
