Headline Roundup • August 16th, 2023
Is Hunter Biden's Plea Deal for Gun and Tax Crimes Still Valid?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Prosecutors and Hunter Biden's defense team remain at odds over the plea deal that collapsed last month.
The Details: Biden's lawyers have said prosecutors reneged on a tax charge agreement, but a separate agreement on a gun charge remains valid. That agreement would also contain an immunity clause against federal prosecutions for other potential crimes. Prosecutors deny reneging, and say the plea deal is invalid. Meanwhile, Biden’s defense attorney, Christopher Clark, filed to withdraw from the case Tuesday, saying he could be called as a witness in a potential trial over the failed deal.
Key Quotes: In a filing last weekend, Biden's legal team said "the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement." Special Counsel David Weiss then pushed back, saying Hunter Biden "chose to plead not guilty at the hearing on July 26, 2023, and U.S. Probation declined to approve the proposed diversion agreement at that hearing. Thus, neither proposed agreement entered into effect."
How the Media Covered It: Some left-rated sources, like Associated Press (Lean Left), covered the legal drama while also mentioning former President Donald Trump's legal issues. Right-rated outlets didn't, and instead focused more on the specifics of why Weiss and prosecutors denied efforts by Hunter's legal team to preserve the plea deal.
Featured Coverage of this Story
STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty
Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors blamed Hunter Biden’s legal team for his plea and diversion agreements falling apart at a July 26 court appearance.
DOJ special counsel David Weiss and prosecutor Leo Wise filed a motion Monday disputing Hunter Biden’s lawyers’ account of how the guilty plea negotiations collapsed and emphasizing that Biden’s diversion agreement is not valid.
“First, the Government did not ‘renege’ on the ‘previously agreed-upon Plea Agreement,’ as the Defendant [Hunter Biden] inaccurately asserts in the first substantive sentence of his response,” the motion reads.
“The Defendant chose to plead...
A legal showdown over the derailed plea deal for Hunter Biden continued Tuesday as prosecutors asserted that an agreement on a gun charge is dead along with the rest of the deal as the case makes a major shift into a special counsel investigation.
While the agreement that was supposed to have wrapped up the long-running investigation of President Joe Biden’s son largely unraveled during a contentious court hearing last month, prosecutors said the two sides had continued to negotiate until the defense rejected their final counterproposal the day before U.S. Attorney David...
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday said a pretrial diversion deal that they had offered to Hunter Biden on a felony gun charge did not take effect, despite what lawyers for the son of President Joe Biden are arguing.
Special Counsel David Weiss also accused Hunter’s defense attorneys of “inaccurately” characterizing the collapse of renewed plea negotiations, which fell apart last week after a judge raised questions about the deals Weiss was offering.
Earlier Tuesday, one of Hunter’s lawyers asked the judge in the case for permission to withdraw from the case, citing the likelihood he will...
