Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to tax, gun charges
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to federal tax and gun charges, after a plea deal that was intended to resolve the allegations fell apart in court, Reuters reports.
The plea came after the federal judge presiding over the hearing in Wilmington, Delaware said she needed more time to evaluate the deal reached by the president’s son with prosecutors. Prior to the hearing, Biden had agreed to admit guilt to the tax charges, and avoid the gun charge as long as he satisfied certain conditions as part of the deal with the government.
Key events
The day so far
Hunter Biden went to a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware to formally accept an agreement with federal prosecutors, which was expected to resolve the long-running investigation into him. But amid questioning from a federal judge, the deal was revised to more narrowly cover the conduct of the president’s son, with a prosecutor making clear that he remains under investigation – a development Republicans, who are keen to prove corruption on the part of Joe Biden and his family, are sure to welcome. Back in Washington DC, GOP lawmakers are aggressively questioning homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who may soon be the target of an impeachment push, and while trying to determine if the US government has found evidence of aliens.
Here’s what else has happened so far today:
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Mayorkas defended his handling of the southern border from criticism by the GOP, saying his security strategy “is working”.
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Rudy Giuliani admitted that statements he made about two Georgia election workers alleging they perpetrated fraud in the 2020 election were false.
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At the last minute, a top House Republican tried to derail the plea agreement federal prosecutors reached with Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden’s plea agreement today will not end the federal investigations into his conduct, the New York Times reports.
The deal covers only tax charges, which the president’s son will plead guilty to, and a gun charge, which Biden will resolve by agreeing not to own and weapon and to avoid drugs for two years.
But in today’s hearing before federal judge Maryellen Noreika in Wilmington, Delaware, it has emerged that Biden remains under investigation for other matters, and this deal will not immunize him from charges in the inquiry, according to the Times:
From the start, the judge seemed highly skeptical of the unusual deal — which offered Hunter Biden broad immunity from prosecution in perpetuity, questioning why it had been filed under a provision that gave her no legal authority to reject it. When she asked Leo Wise, a prosecutor, if there was any precedent for the kind of deal being proposed, he replied, “No, your honor.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers repeatedly cast the deal as the final chapter of the five-year inquiry into the president’s son. But Judge Maryellen Noreika quickly punctured that assertion when she asked a prosecutor, Leo Wise, if the Biden investigation was “ongoing.” He replied “yes,” adding that if Biden’s team thought otherwise, “then there’s no deal.”
Hunter Biden and prosecutors agree on revised plea deal — report
Federal prosecutors and Hunter Biden have agreed on a revised plea agreement that will cover only certain conduct over a five-year period, CNN reports.
The changes came after the court hearing intended to resolve the long-running investigations of the president’s son was unexpectedly recessed after the judge questioned the deal’s terms.
Here are more details, from CNN:
ANOTHER UPDATE: Prosecutors & Hunter Biden have now agreed to a revised plea deal.
Deal covers 2014-2019 — only includes conduct related to tax offenses, drug use and gun possession.
Two sides have agreed that this does not shield Hunter Biden from potential future charges. https://t.co/zJv7hSSZ8W
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) July 26, 2023
Is the truth out there? Congress’s UFO hearing aims to find out
Elsewhere in Washington DC today, a House subcommittee is holding a hearing that seems like it could resolve one of the most enduring myths about the US government: has it made contact with aliens or recovered crashed spacecraft?
No definitive answers have emerged yet from the hearing, which centers on testimony from a whistleblower who has alleged a government cover-up. The Guardian’s Leonie Chao-Fong is covering it live, and you can follow along here:
Today’s court hearing – which appears to have gone awry – was expected to bring an end to a long-running investigation into Hunter Biden’s conduct, which Republicans have seized on to argue Joe Biden and his family are corrupt. Here’s an explainer from last month by the Guardian’s Nick Robins-Early that looks into the agreement reached with federal prosecutors:
Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, will plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor tax crimes and accept a deal with prosecutors related to a separate illegal firearm possession charge. The charges and plea deal, which authorities announced in a court filing on Tuesday, will end a five-year criminal investigation into Biden.
The case has already resulted in a political uproar as Republicans, fresh off Donald Trump’s second criminal indictment, express outrage over the plea deal and appear eager to redirect public attention to Hunter Biden. The agreement between 53-year-old Biden and authorities will likely mean he avoids any jail time, as well as set up a frequent talking point for the 2024 presidential election.
Here is a breakdown of the charges against Hunter Biden:
What is the Hunter Biden investigation?
The justice department has been looking into Hunter Biden’s personal and business dealings for years, launching an investigation into him as far back as 2018. Hunter Biden issued a statement in 2020 acknowledging that the US attorney’s office in Delaware informed his legal counsel that investigators were looking into his tax affairs, while stating he was confident he handled his affairs “legally and appropriately”.
The investigation, which was led by Trump-appointed US attorney for Delaware David Weiss, looked into a range of Biden’s activities that included his role in foreign businesses – such as his seat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, a frequent source of rightwing criticism. Investigators interviewed witnesses and looked through financial documents, with the probe looming in the background for years.
Ultimately the investigation narrowed down to two main issues: Biden’s failure to pay income taxes on time and a charge related to lying on a firearm application form. Prosecutors charged Biden on 20 June, while simultaneously announcing that he would enter a plea deal that will likely not result in jail time.
Hunter Biden court hearing hits snag over terms of plea agreement — report
Hunter Biden is in federal court in Delaware to plead guilty to tax charges as part of a deal to avoid jail time, but the Washington Post reports that the hearing has unexpectedly paused after a judge questioned the terms of the agreement Joe Biden’s son reached with prosecutors.
From the Post’s report:
The hearing hit a snag when U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika pressed Biden about whether he would still plead guilty if it was possible additional charges might be filed against him in the future.
When Biden answered no, he would not, the judge ordered a break in the proceeding for the two sides to sort out whether his guilty plea would essentially immunize him from potential future tax or gun charges. At every plea deal hearing, a judge is responsible for ensuring a defendant understands both what they are admitting and what they are agreeing to as part of a guilty plea. It wasn’t immediately clear how significant a stumbling block the immunity question may pose to the plea.
Mayorkas on white nationalist extremism: ‘It certainly fuels the threat landscape’
Democratic representative Hank Johnson of Georgia asked Mayorkas about the kind of impact that white nationalist rhetoric of invasion and replacement has on minority communities, citing various attacks including the Tree of Life massacre and El Paso Walmart shooting.
“When an act of hate occurs, it’s not just the community that is impacted. The adverse impact is felt across of this nation, One of the most prominent terrorism-related threats that we face in [DHS] is what we term ‘domestic violent extremism,’” Mayorkas said.
“It’s white nationalist extremism, is it not?” Johnson interjected.
In response, Mayorkas said:
“There are diverse ideologies that underlie the acts of violence. White nationalism is one of them but we do not focus on the ideology itself. We focus on its connectivity to violence and our effort to prevent that violence. We see a diverse range of ideologies of hate, anti-government sentiments, personal grievances, false narratives [that] fuel acts of violence in this country. It is the connectivity to violence.”
Johnson went on to ask: “When elected officials repeat great replacement rhetoric, including the language of invasion, are they putting a target on the backs of immigrants and people of color?”
Mayorkas replied:
It certainly fuels the threat landscape that we encountered.”
Mayorkas rejects claims government censors domestic conservative online speech
“I’m not sure exactly what you do at the DHS other than great harm on your watch,” Louisiana Republican representative Mike Johnson told Mayorkas, before going on to ask him to define what misinformation is within the context of online censorship.
Johnson criticized DHS and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, saying that it was censoring American conservative speech online.
“What is disinformation? Who determines what’s inaccurate? Who determines what’s false? Do you understand the problem here? The reason the framers of our constitution did not create an exception for ‘false information’ from the first amendment is because they didn’t trust the government to determine what it is. And you have whole committees of people in your agency trying to determine what they… define as false or misinformation.”
Mayorkas pushed back and replied:
“That is not true. That is not what we do. We disclose the tactics that adverse nation states are utilizing to weaponize information.”
“No sir, no sir. That is not true,” responded Johnson, referring to a Louisiana federal court opinion on the Missouri vs Biden case which accused the Biden administration of censoring conservative free speech online.
“The court found specifically, it’s a finding of fact that is not disputed by the government defendants, the Biden administration, your agency, the FBI, or DHS, not in the litigation. They determined you and all of your cohorts made no distinction between domestic speech and foreign speech.
So don’t stand there and tell me under oath that you only focused on adversaries around the world and foreign actors,” Johnson added, his voice rising.
Texas’s Democratic representative Sheila Jackson Lee went on to ask Mayorkas on how the DHS is responding to reports of inhumane treatment at the southwest border, as well as the role that states have been playing in transporting migrants to other states.
In response, Mayorkas replied:
“The safety and security of the American people is our highest priority. Law enforcement is most effective when it is executed collaboratively with cooperation.”
“What is your department doing to protect the Jewish community and within the new US national strategy to counter antisemitism,” said Texas’s Democratic representative Sheila Jackson Lee to Mayorkas.
“Our responsibility as the DHS is when there is a connectivity between an ideology, whatever that ideology might be and violence. It is the prevention of violence that really prompts our engagement with local communities around the country,” Mayorkas replied.
