Judge Maryellen Noreika on Thursday dismissed two misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden, a formality that allows for new or the same charges to be brought in a potential trial.
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss requested the dismissal last week in order to bring new charges in California or Washington, D.C., where Biden has lived, after a previous plea deal collapsed and remained unsalvageable.
“After the hearing, the parties continued negotiating but reached an impasse,” Weiss wrote in court filings last week, according to the Hill. “A trial is therefore in order.”
The Washington Post reported that efforts to negotiate a new plea deal have “foundered” over Hunter Biden’s insistence on immunity against any new charges and the federal government’s insistence that any immunity offered would only apply to additional tax charges between 2014 and 2019.
The plea deal would have had Hunter Biden plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations and enter a pretrial diversion program on a felony gun violation. According to the Post, Biden’s defense team understood the deal to have granted him immunity from all future charges stemming from the federal government’s investigation into him. Meanwhile, the FBI reportedly pushed prosecutors behind the scenes to make it clear that the investigation into Biden was ongoing.
According to the Post:
For many months, IRS and FBI investigators have been frustrated with Weiss’s handling of the case, believing it should have been investigated and prosecuted more aggressively, people familiar with those discussions said.
That broader probe includes examining whether Hunter Biden violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive investigation. The act requires that lobbyists and others who work on behalf of foreign entities or governments register with the U.S. government.
The plea deal fell apart last month in court after Norieka questioned the structure of the plea deal, which she said was unusual.
The diversion agreement had an “immunity clause” outside the terms of the plea deal. Judges are not supposed to approve plea deals in which promises or threats have been made outside the terms of the guilty plea paperwork, according to the Post.
According to the outlet, prosecutors wanted to take the immunity provision out of the diversion agreement, but Biden’s team called that a deal-breaker.
Weiss now has special counsel authority after requesting and being granted it by Attorney General Merrick Garland last Friday. House Republicans have argued that Weiss cannot be trusted as special counsel, given that he had negotiated the plea deal that fell apart last month.
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