Hunter Biden's lawyers claim DOJ reneged on plea deal

Lawyers for Hunter Biden in a Sunday filing argued that United States prosecutors reneged on the plea deal that had been reached for the President's son which would have resolved his tax and firearm charges.

Lawyers said in their filing Sunday that Biden "signed both agreements, was willing to waive certain rights, and to accept responsibility for his past mistakes," according to Fox News.

Lawyers argued that despite the deal on the tax charges falling through, the agreement on the gun charge was "executed" and "binding."

The filing said, "the Defendant intends to abide by the terms of the Diversion Agreement that was executed at the July 26 hearing by the Defendant, his counsel, and the United States, and concurs with the statements the Government made during the July 26 hearing, and which the Government then acknowledged in its filings agreeing to the public disclosure of the Plea and Diversion Agreements —that the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement."

The filing also stated that the revelation in last month’s hearing that prosecutors were still investigating Hunter Biden contradicted his understanding as to the level of immunity he would receive with the plea deal.

"The Defendant’s understanding of the scope of immunity agreed to by the United States was and is based on the express written terms of the Diversion Agreement," it reads. "His understanding of the scope of immunity agreed to by the United States is also corroborated by prosecutors’ contemporaneous written and oral communications during the plea negotiations."

The filing came just days after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed US Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation, who promptly moved to drop the deal.

"During the July 26, 2023 hearing that the court set on this matter the defendant, that would be Hunter Biden, pled not guilty. Since that time, the parties have engaged in further negotiations but are at an impasse. The government now believes that the case will not resolve short of a trial," the document stated.

The plea deal was rejected by US District Judge Maryellen Noreika back in July. Since the proposal fell apart, the legality of Hunter's would-be arrangement for immunity was called into question. He would have pleaded guilty to not paying taxes on $1.5 million in exchange for pretrial diversion on the charge of illegally owning a gun while using drugs.  

The plea, as it stood before, was dubbed a "sweetheart deal" for how minimal the punishment for his crimes would have been. Now there is a chance nothing like the deal could happen.  

With the plea deal being reneged and the Special Counsel in motion, Hunter Biden could be facing heavier criminal charges ahead of the 2024 election. This could entangle President Joe Biden into further trouble with his campaign and cause distrust with his voters as the election approaches.  

Last week, Republicans in the House Oversight Committee investigation the Biden Family also dug up that Hunter Biden and his associates received $20 million in payouts from foreign oligarchs in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.