In a Sunday court filing, Hunter Biden’s legal team said that federal prosecutors reneged on a plea deal reached by both parties in June. They further claim that an agreement reached on a felony gun charge against him still stands.
The filing Sunday followed the prosecutors move to drop the plea deal in Delaware, in its entirety. Prosecutors added Friday, that Biden may be headed for a criminal trial after plea negotiations broke down in court last month.
Hunter Biden, at that time, was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax, as well as enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate felony firearm charge. They effectively are claiming that this circumstance was seemingly two separate matters, and they are now attempting to salvage the felony gun charge, under the total plea bargain deal that appears to have crumbled.
In their filing Sunday, Hunter’s lawyers said that Biden "signed both agreements, was willing to waive certain rights, and to accept responsibility for his past mistakes." His lawyers argued, that while the deal on the tax charges fell through, that the agreement on the gun charge was "executed" and thus "binding."
The court filing states
"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."
-Hunter Biden Legal Filing of August 13
The filing also addressed the revelation from prosecutors, during last month’s hearing, that they are still investigating the president’s son contradicted his understanding of the level of immunity he would receive under the deal. His lawyers further stated in the filing-
"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," …"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."
-Hunter Biden Legal Filing of August 13
Abbe Lowell, who represents Biden, said on "CBS News" on Sunday, that there were three possible reasons for why negotiations broke down during the July 26 hearing. He claimed-
"One, they wrote something and weren’t clear what they meant,"[ Lowell said of the DOJ prosecutors.] "Two, they knew what they meant and misstated it to counsel. Or third, they changed their view as they were standing in court in Delaware."
-Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden Attorney
It was the third scenario, Lowell said he believed was the possible reason, and that prosecutors "changed their decision on the fly standing up in court." Hunter Biden’s Sunday filing came two days after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he would name David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, as the special counsel to lead investigations into Hunter Biden.
GOP members immediately criticized Garland's selection of Weiss, who happened to have led the prosecution in Biden's tax and gun charges that conservatives claimed was beyond lax. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, (R) Ky., called Garland's announcement-
"part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of [House Oversight Republicans'] mounting evidence of President Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals."
-House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, (R) Ky
“For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.”
-Bo Bennett