Hunter Biden’s lawyers, DOJ tried to hide sweeping immunity clause in ‘diversion agreement’ for gun charge, expected judge to ‘rubber stamp’ plea deal

Under the terms of the diversion agreement, the DOJ would drop Biden's gun charges so long as he adhered to federal regulations. The document included an additional clause, however, essentially protecting him against future charges, including any that arose from investigations into his overseas business dealings, which were not included in the current tax crimes case and had nothing to do with the gun charge.

Whereas a plea agreement is simply an admission of guilt in exchange for concessions from the court, a diversion agreement specifies conditions the defendant must follow in order to have their charges dismissed. The former is under the purview of the judge, while the latter cannot be signed off by anyone except the parties in the case.

Buried deep within the diversion agreement written up by Biden's lawyers and the DOJ is Paragraph 15, an "Agreement Not to Prosecute."

"The United States agrees not to criminally prosecute Biden, outside of the terms of this Agreement, for any federal crimes encompassed by the attached Statement of Facts (Attachment A) and the Statement of Facts attached as Exhibit 1 to the Memorandum of Plea Agreement," the section reads.

"This agreement does not provide any protection against prosecution for any future conduct by Biden or by any of his affiliated businesses."

The facts laid out in Attachment A pertain to Biden's drug and firearm use, while those included in Exhibit 1 deal with his tax problems. Also discussed in the latter document are his business dealings, and the millions of dollars in compensation he received.

On Wednesday, Biden's plea deal fell through after US District Judge Maryellen Noreika discovered the diversion agreement scheme.

"You're telling me that I don't have any role in it, and you're leaving provisions of the plea agreement out and putting them into an agreement that you are not asking me to sign off on?" she said. "I guess I'm supposed to rubber stamp it?"

Noreika went on to slam both Biden's lawyers and the DOJ's for their unorthodox tactics.

"We looked through a bunch of diversion agreements that we have access to and we couldn't find anything that had anything similar to that," she told the legal teams. "Have you ever seen a diversion agreement where the agreement not to prosecute is so broad that it encompasses crimes in a different case?"

DOJ attorney Leo Wise admitted that, "no," he had not.

Despite the sweeping immunity laid out in the diversion agreement, DOJ lawyers admitted that Biden could still face charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a fact that the first son's lawyers did not appear very pleased with.

As a result of the failed plea deal, Biden pleaded not guilty to the tax crimes and Noreika gave both sides 30 days to come up with an acceptable agreement.