OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
In order to avoid jail time following the breakdown of his plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors, first son Hunter Biden must fulfill several court-ordered conditions, the judge has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika has ordered Hunter to “actively seek employment,” lay off alcohol and drugs, submit to random drug testing, and not have a gun after his recent plea deal fell through once she grew suspicious of it, Fox News reported.
In July, Hunter was charged with a pair of misdemeanor offenses for failing to pay over $100,000 in taxes on an income exceeding $1.5 million in both 2017 and 2018. In addition, another aspect of the deal was to avoid a felony charge for purchasing a gun after allegedly lying on a federal background check form about never having been addicted to drugs.
“But the plea deal collapsed during a court hearing after Judge Noreika raised concerns about the terms of the agreement and her role in the proceedings,” Fox News noted further, adding:
The plan also included an agreement on a separate gun charge — Hunter Biden has been accused of possessing a firearm in 2018 as a drug user. The younger Biden has admitted to struggling with drug addiction in the past. As long as he adhered to the terms of his agreement, the gun case was to be wiped from his record. Otherwise, the felony charge carries 10 years in prison.
“So have you ever seen — I think I just asked you this, but have you ever seen a Diversion Agreement where the agreement not to prosecute is so broad that it encompasses crimes in a different case?” Noreika asked, according to a court transcript.
“No,” federal prosecutor Leo Wise replied. “And I would say Your Honor, I don’t think it is broad in the sense that —”
The judge interrupted at that point: “We’re going to talk about that. You can sit down.”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who is a lawyer, ripped Biden’s Justice Department after the deal collapsed for essentially “colluding” with Hunter Biden’s defense lawyers to craft a sweetheart deal that would have immunized the first sone from future legal proceedings, say, under a new Trump administration.
“Now the details of the now defunct Hunter Biden plea show once again how far the legal system will bend to accommodate and ultimately protect the Bidens. So the rule of law is always an afterthought for these people. What’s important is keeping Joe Biden in power,” she said to begin a monologue.
She added:
So after combing through both the plea agreement itself, as well as the transcript of yesterday’s court proceedings, The Angle understands why there was such a concerted effort to keep it all from the public. Now, the most damning provision, and one we hit briefly last night, would have granted absurdly broad immunity to Hunter Biden.
Very conveniently, it would have covered every crime he may have committed during the relevant time frame. Presumably, stuff regarding his lucrative business dealings with foreign entities based in China, Romania, Ukraine, and God knows where else.
Now the effort to shield Hunter from further investigations — this is an explosive development, and it begs the question, if all these relationships he had with foreign business interests were on the up and up, now, why would the first son and why would his legal team think he needed this expansive immunity deal? And why wasn’t this known until yesterday?
Well, I’ll tell you why. Because it appears that the lawyers from Joe Biden’s DOJ and Hunter’s legal team were in cahoots. The secret get-out-of-jail-free arrangement was hidden in paragraph 15 of something called the Pretrial Diversion Agreement, not even the deal itself. So when Judge Noreika discovered the scope of the immunity and then the unconstitutional role it would have conferred upon her, she was not happy.
