UPDATES: Hunter Biden Pleads NOT Guilty As Judge Weighs Options on Plea Deal

Isaac SchorrJul 26th, 2023, 11:54 am
 

After a series of twists and turns on Wednesday, it appears that Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to federal tax and gun charges against him.

Hunter Biden’s legal team and federal prosecutors had seemingly reached a “more limited” plea deal on Wednesday after their original agreement briefly appeared to have fallen apart.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins had originally reported that the plea deal between Biden and federal prosecutors fell apart during a hearing in front of a judge.

“According to the prosecutors and the defense, there is no Hunter Biden plea deal and things appear to have fallen apart during today’s hearing. Hunter Biden had been expected to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors,” tweeted Collins, who credited her colleagues Megan Tierney and Kara Scannell for the news.

The original deal was made public last month. Under its terms, the president’s son pled guilty to two tax misdemeanors and admitted to the facts of the prosecution’s case against him on a felony gun charge.

Per Scannell, the deal was in jeopardy because the judge’s line of inquiry revealed that the deal would not protect Biden from a potential future charge under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

From Scannell’s on-air appearance explaining the dispute:

The judge was back up 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 there being 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 ‘If you can charge that, then what does this mean.’ And so she asked Hunter Biden’s attorneys about that and he said ‘Well, then there’s no deal.’ And the prosecutors said ‘Then there is no deal.’

But just a few minutes later, Scannell returned to the air to explain that the two parties had reached a “more limited” deal covering “any charges that were tax charges from 2014-2019, any drug use charges because Biden has admitted that he used illegal drugs, and the specific firearm possession charge that is in this deal.”

“Things are back on track, and Biden is in the process of beginning his plea to the tax misdemeanor charges, and then the firearm offense,” she continued.

Now, though, the deal appears to have fallen apart again.

“As it stands right now, the president’s son Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty and is, in fact, at this point it’s unclear where we stand with this case and trial, it’s possible they don’t come to an agreement long-term, though I think that’s unlikely,” explained Tom Winter on MSNBC, before going on to say that the two parties could reach an agreement at a later date.

Biden pleaded not guilty after the judge expressed concerns about the constitutionality of the pre-trial diversion agreement reached on the gun charge, and is not presently “ready to accept or reject this plea agreement,” and “want some more information before she makes a decision.”

Watch above via CNN.

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