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Federal prosecutors decide on date to indict Hunter Biden

September 7, 2023 | | Print Article

The Justice Department announced in a filing Wednesday that they intend to indict President Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, as soon as by the end of the month.

Submitted to U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, the filing states bluntly that “[t]he Speedy Trial Act requires that the Government obtain the return of an indictment by a grand jury by Friday, September 29, 2023, at the earliest.”

“The Government [therefore] intends to seek the return of an indictment in this case before that date,” the filing continues.

The filing suggests that Hunter will NOT be benefitting from a sweetheart plea deal.

As previously reported, Hunter had been about to accept a sweetheart plea deal in July “that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution if he met certain conditions over a 24 month period,” according to CNN, when the deal suddenly fell apart because of Noreika, a Trump appointee, crying foul over several aspects of the deal.

She “raised concerns about the parties linking Hunter Biden’s tax plea agreement to the deal on the gun charge and over whether or not a provision in the deal would grant Hunter Biden blanket immunity — meaning that the government would not prosecute more broadly going forward,” ABC News reported at the time.

As a result, the plea deal fell apart.

Meanwhile, last month Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned U.S. Attorney David Weiss to serve as special counsel in the case.

What remains unclear is how many charges will be sought in the upcoming indictment against Hunter. In a statement, Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, for his part reportedly claimed that the previous deal remains valid.

“We believe the signed and filed diversion agreement remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr. Biden, who has been abiding by the conditions of release under that agreement for the last several weeks, including regular visits by the probation office,” he said.

“We expect a fair resolution of the sprawling, 5-year investigation into Mr. Biden that was based on the evidence and the law, not outside political pressure,” he added.

But as noted before, the deal fell apart.

“Prosecutors have said that the gun agreement is dead along with the rest of the plea agreement that called for Hunter Biden to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses,” ABC News notes.

That being said, congressional Republicans still remain very interested in the now-defunct deal, which they believe they have the right to review.

“In a letter … the Republican chairs of the House Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Oversight committees argue that Biden’s legal team relinquished its privileged communications protections by leaking information to the media,” according to NBC News.

“Given that these disclosures have been made to two media outlets and this information has been widely publicized, no basis exists to withhold these documents and communications from the Committees, including on the basis of any purported duty of confidentiality, work product, or other privilege interest,” reads the letter signed by Reps. Jim Jordan, Jason Smith, and James Comer.

“Should you refuse to provide the Committee with the requested information because of any purported privilege, the Committee may need to seek testimony from you and/or Hunter Biden regarding the disclosure of these documents and communications,” it continues.

What exactly are they looking for? “[C]orrespondence between senior federal prosecutors and Biden’s legal team that detail months of fraught negotiations, as well as a 32-page letter reviewed by Politico in which Biden’s attorneys threatened to put the president on the stand if the Justice Department charged his son,” NBC News notes.

“Included among the requested documents is a first draft of a proposed deal between Biden and the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office, emails in which the deal was line-edited, suggested changes to the plea and pretrial agreements in late July, versions of a statement reported by The New York Times that Biden’s attorneys intended to release once the deal became public, and sample and final immunity language,” according to NBC News.

The request for documents, which reportedly includes a Sept. 20th deadline, also “calls on Biden’s lawyers to produce the contents of a 100-slide PowerPoint presentation about the potential tax charges, a pretrial diversion report and other undisclosed files and communications about the settlement that Republicans claim were shared with other news organizations.”

Vivek Saxena
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