There was no joy in the ranks of Hunter Biden’s legal team after his plea deal struck out in court on Wednesday, according to a new report.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware had cut a deal in which President Joe Biden’s son would plead guilty to a pair of tax crime misdemeanors, resulting in probation, while a charge of having a gun while being a drug user would simply go away.
The deal fell apart amid questions from U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, whose approval was needed. As a result, the hearing ended with Hunter Biden entering a plea of not guilty to the charges against him. The two sides are now expected to iron out a new deal.
A report from Axios on Thursday summed up the mood of Biden’s attorneys as “angry,” dejected” and “fuming.”
Some on Team Hunter claimed the fact that Noreika was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2017 was possibly significant, the report said. Trump is the front-runner among Republican candidates vying to take on Biden in 2024.
Noreika had questioned the two sides about the agreement, revealing that they could not agree on whether the resolution to the gun charge was linked to the tax deal, and the judge said she was unsure the deal was constitutional.
Differences also emerged over whether the deal ended all matters concerning Hunter Biden, with the government saying it did not and Biden’s lawyers viewing the agreement differently.
Amid the hours of back-and-forth, Biden partially threw up his hands in apparent frustration.
“I know you wanted to get this done,” Noreika told the president’s son. “I’m sorry, but I need more information. We need to get this right.”
The New York Times reported that at various times during the hearing, the judge called the deal “not standard, not what I normally see,” possibly “unconstitutional,” unprecedented and potentially “not worth the paper it is printed on.”
“You all are saying, ‘Just rubber stamp the agreement,’” she said. “I’m not in a position to accept or reject it. I need to defer.”
At one point, Noreika asked prosecutor Leo Weiss whether the deal would avert the prosecution of Hunter Biden for allegedly breaking laws regulating foreign lobbying. Weiss said it would not, leading Biden to say he would not accept a deal without broad immunity.
“District Judge Noreika did the right thing by refusing to rubberstamp Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal,” House Oversight Committee chairman and Republican Rep. James Comer said, according to Fox News. “But let’s be clear: Hunter’s sweetheart plea deal belongs in the trash.”
The Washington Post sought to explain Noreika’s issues by noting that the initial deal was on two very different levels.
A diversion agreement, which is the technical term for making the gun charge vanish, is cut by prosecution and defense teams.
Plea agreements to settle criminal charges need a judge’s approval.
The Post said the initial agreement put the judge in the picture as the enforcer of the gun deal, which she said she could not legally do.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.