CNN Points Out Hunter Biden NOT Pleading Guilty To ‘Strange’ and ‘Very Rarely Used’ Gun Charge

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig and correspondent Evan Perez pointed out that Hunter Biden will not plead guilty to a “very rarely used” gun charge, but will instead complete a program that will make the charge go away.

News broke Tuesday morning that President Joe Biden’s only surviving son Hunter has reached a plea deal on three federal charges — two tax misdemeanors and one gun felony.

But on Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN News Central, Honig and Perez both took pains to note that the firearms charge — which Honig says is “very rarely used” — will cease to exist if Hunter Biden completes a pretrial diversion program:

ELIE HONIG: This is a strange and somewhat obscure, a rarely used, not never, but rarely used federal law. I used to do firearms cases all the time. But the vast majority of federal firearms cases are either a firearm used in another crime of violence or a firearm possessed by somebody who has a prior felony. This is sort of low down on the list of firearms offenses. And so the question here, well he’s he’s apparently it’s not entirely clear to me whether he’s going to plead guilty to that firearms offense, because this letter from DOJ specifies that he will plead guilty to the tax misdemeanors. It does not say he will plead guilty to the firearms offenses. It says he’s going into a pretrial diversion agreement.

KATE BOLDUAN: So, Elie, hold on one second on that. Let let me let’s get over to Evan Perez for he has a little bit more information about that. The exact wording, Evan, in this letter is the defendant has agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement with respect to the firearm information. What are you learning?

EVAN PEREZ: Yeah, look, so this is one of the things we certainly, it’s a little confusing the language. He has agreed that he’s going to enter this program. One of them, one of has to do with his substance abuse issues, of which Hunter Biden has been very, very public about. He wrote a book and ironically, that’s in the book. The book where he talked about his his substance abuse issues, very, very candid things that he said about what he was doing at the time is what really compounded his problems in this federal investigation, because it was from that from his own words that prosecutors and investigators learned that at the time that he had owned or he had purchased a gun, he was addicted to drugs, which is a violation of federal firearms law. One of the things you do when you buy a gun is you fill out this form that goes to the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. And you swear that one of the things you swear to is that you are not addicted to drugs. And of course, what Hunter Biden did when he wrote that book, he admitted and he said it in interviews, he said that he was addicted. And so one of the things that happened was they became very, very focused on that particular charge, because it is something that the Biden administration has been pushing, certainly to go after people who lie in order to afford to buy firearms. And so what this program will do is, you know, Hunter Biden will get some treatment for his for his drug issues. And if he completes this to the satisfaction of a judge, this charge as if it never happened, this charge goes away.

The Department of Justice letter to the court reads:

Enclosed, please find two Informations to be docketed in criminal matters involving the above-referenced defendant. The first Information charges the defendant with tax offenses—namely, two counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203. The defendant has agreed to plead guilty to both counts of the tax Information. The second Information charges the defendant with a firearm offense—namely, one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and 924(a)(2) (2018). The defendant has agreed to enter a Pretrial Diversion Agreement with respect to the firearm Information.

The defendant is represented by Christopher J. Clark. The parties jointly request that the Court schedule a consolidated Initial Appearance on the firearm Information and an Initial Appearance and Change of Plea Hearing on the tax Information charges. Original, executed copies of the Memorandum of Plea Agreement related to the tax Information, and the Pretrial Diversion Agreement related to the firearm Information, will be submitted at or in advance of the Hearing.

Watch above via CNN News Central.