DOJ Rebukes Hunter Biden’s Lawyers, Denies ‘Sweetheart’ Immunity Agreement Is Valid
Katelynn Richardson on August 15, 2023
Special Counsel David Weiss said in a court filing Tuesday that Hunter Biden’s plea deal and pretrial diversion agreement are not in effect, denying a claim his lawyers made Sunday night.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers told the judge in a filing that his plea deal and diversion agreement were “largely dictated” by Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors, also stating that the diversion agreement is still “valid and binding.” The lawyers wrote in a footnote that the Government said in court the agreement was “in effect” and stands apart from the plea deal, which the DOJ denied Tuesday.
“The Government never said the proposed diversion agreement was in effect because it is not,” Weiss responded in the court filing Tuesday. “And in none of the portions of the transcript that the Defendant cites in this footnote did the Government say the diversion agreement was in effect. In fact, the Government said the opposite.”
The proposed “sweetheart deal” would have had Hunter Biden plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and enter a diversion agreement allowing him to avoid jail time for a felony gun charge. Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the deal during the July 26 hearing after uncovering a provision in the diversion agreement that would grant broad immunity for future charges.
Weiss argued that Hunter Biden’s teams’ understanding of the agreement during the hearing to include broad immunity was “a problem entirely of their own making.”
“Mr. Clark and his client were both telling the Court that the Defendant was pleading guilty because of promises that were not contained in the plea agreement,” the filing states. “This was a problem entirely of their own making and not one that resulted from the drafting of the proposed plea or diversion agreements.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers said Sunday that the prosecutors “dictated the form and content of the Plea and Diversion Agreements,” including the language of “paragraph 15 of the Diversion Agreement (the so-called immunity provision).”
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