Here’s the lowdown on how the prosecution and defense teamed up and tried to pull a fast one on the judge. She didn’t buy it. From Moon of Alabama at moonofalabama.org:
Yesterday Delaware US District Judge Maryellen Noreika nixed a plea deal negotiated between Hunter Biden attorney Chris Clark and the prosecutor team from Joe Biden’s Department of Justice.
Hunter Biden is accused of two tax misdemeanors and wrongdoing in a gun case.
The deal was constructed in an unusual way that would have given Hunter Biden immunity over additional accusations of not having registered as a foreign agent under the FARA law.
The tax and gun cases were split and the judge would have only been given judicial oversight over the tax issue plea while the immunity part was hidden in the gun case plea deal, a diversion agreement, where the judicial oversight would have stayed with the prosecutor. The wide ranging immunity part would thus have been hidden from the public.
The well explained legal technicalities can be found in this tweet:
Will Scharf @willscharf – 10:35 UTC · Jul 27, 2023
Based on conversations with people who were in the courtroom today, and my experience as a former federal prosecutor, I think I know the full story of what happened with the Hunter Biden plea agreement blow-up this morning.
Bear with me, because this is a little complicated: … Show more:
The results of the dirty deal would have been very generous for Hunter but the judge didn’t fall for the trick:
Will Scharf @willscharf – 10:35 UTC · Jul 27, 2023
…
Judge Noreika smelled a rat. She understood that the lawyers were trying to paint her into a corner and hide the ball. Instead, she backed DOJ and Hunter’s lawyers into a corner by pulling all the details out into the open and then indicating that she wasn’t going to approve a deal as broad as what she had discovered.DOJ, attempting to save face and save its case, then stated on the record that the investigation into Hunter was ongoing and that Hunter remained susceptible to prosecution under FARA. Hunter’s lawyers exploded. They clearly believed that FARA was covered under the deal, because as written, the pretrial diversion agreement language was broad enough to cover it. They blew up the deal, Hunter pled not guilty, and that’s the current state of play.
And so here we are. Hunter’s lawyers and DOJ are going to go off and try to pull together a new set of agreements, likely narrower, to satisfy Judge Noreika. Fortunately, I doubt if FARA or any charges related to Hunter’s foreign influence peddling will be included, which leaves open the possibility of further investigations leading to further prosecutions.
No one is talking about the lawyer posing as a Grand Old Politburo fellow traveler in order to fool the court.
This might have pissed off the judge.