Two days ago Hunter Biden and his lawyers went before a federal judge in Wilmington, Delaware to enter a guilty plea for no prison time on two misdemeanor tax charges. It was supposed to be a simple in and out proceeding.

But the judge caught them and the corrupt Department of Justice trying to pull a fast one by, at the last minute, including a grant of blanket immunity to Biden for all possible crimes that he might have committed separate and apart from the charges to which he was pleading. That would include, but not be limited to, his business dealings in Ukraine, China and Romania.

The judge continued the case for 30 days with instructions that the parties clarify the terms of the plea agreement. At least for now, the thoroughly corrupt deal has been halted.

Just as court recessed for the day, the publisher of The American Spectator emailed me requesting an article about what had happened. So I banged out a quick and messy piece without knowing the full extent to which the prosecution and defense had colluded to protect Hunter. That article is set forth below.

Since the article’s publication I have read a transcript of the hearing. I will be writing another, less rushed and better informed piece very soon.

Here’s the article.

Three Cheers for Judge Noreika – The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

George Parry

The Hunter Biden plea deal was so sweet that reading about it made my fillings ache.

Under its terms, Biden was to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges for failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018 after receiving more than $1.5 million each year. In return, he would not be incarcerated. Similarly, on a felony charge related to his illegal purchase of a firearm, he was going to be placed in a pre-trial diversion program that would result in no prison time and eventual expungement of the matter from his record.

In addition to being sickeningly sweet, Biden’s deal also reeked of prosecutorial corruption. According to the testimony of the IRS whistleblowers who worked the case, these paltry misdemeanor tax charges were just the scraps left after the Department of Justice had delayed the Biden investigation until the statute of limitations had run on more serious felony tax violations. The stunningly lenient terms of the plea agreement were merely the insult on top of the injury.

As I write this, today Hunter Biden confidently strolled into the federal courthouse in Wilmington to plead pursuant to the terms of the agreement and play out the final act in the farce.

And that’s when Biden’s sweet deal ran into the Honorable Maryellen Noreika of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. 

Titanic, meet the iceberg.

Noreika was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump in 2017 and confirmed in 2018 with the support of Delaware’s two Democrat senators. For the previous 25 years, she had been a patent litigator.

At the bar of the court, Biden stated that he intended to plead guilty on the misdemeanor tax charges. That’s when things started to fall apart.

Over the next three hours, the judge relentlessly and brutally questioned the prosecution and defense with scathing and incisive questions about the terms of the plea agreement. In the course of doing so, she described the deal as “not standard, not what I normally see,” without legal precedent, potentially “unconstitutional,” and “not worth the paper it’s written on.”

Ouch. 

For example, noting the agreement’s overly generous terms, Judge Noreika asked Leo Wise, the prosecutor, if the deal had any precedent. Wise replied, “No, your honor.”

And then, when she asked Wise if the plea deal meant that Biden would be immune from prosecution for other crimes, including violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, things really fell apart. 

When the prosecutor stated that Hunter would not be immune, the defense abruptly declared the deal “null and void.”

But Noreika wasn’t finished. She asked if the Biden investigation was “ongoing.” The prosecutor said that it was and that, if Biden’s legal team expected otherwise, “there’s no deal.”

Nevertheless, the defense claimed that it understood the immunity under the plea agreement would apply to all possible offenses related to matters that the prosecution had examined during the investigation. This would include Biden’s consulting and investment deals with entities in Ukraine, China, and Romania. 

The prosecution countered that the immunity covered only the tax and gun violations already charged. Biden was not being offered immunity for all other crimes.

In short, the judge’s pointed questions had turned the deal into a shambles. 

 Throughout the proceedings, Noreika repeatedly and angrily said that she felt that she was being asked to “rubber-stamp” the plea agreement about which she had grave reservations. In exasperation, she instructed the two sides to modify the deal to clarify the scope of Biden’s immunity from prosecution. 

After hours of sidebar conferences and negotiations, the two sides were unable to reach agreement on the immunity issue. So it was that the proceedings ended with Biden pleading not guilty to the tax misdemeanors.

And with that, court was adjourned for 30 days, during which time the parties will try to iron out their differences. 

So what happened? How did this train wreck occur? Are Biden’s lawyers idiots who don’t know how to negotiate a plea deal? Are we supposed to believe that they failed to address and reach an agreement on the scope of Biden’s immunity? 

Or did the otherwise shameless Department of Justice falter, fold, and try to disavow the deal when publicly exposed and confronted by a righteous judge who could distinguish chicken droppings from chicken salad? 

For now, Hunter Biden’s sweet deal is in shambles. We will find out in the weeks to come whether it stays that way. 

In the meantime, three cheers and a hand salute for the formidable Judge Maryellen Noreika, who proved today that she is nobody’s fool.

George Parry is a former federal and state prosecutor. He blogs at knowldegeisgood.net.