Hunter Biden’s scheduled plea deal on Wednesday was supposed to be an opportunity for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign to turn the page on a possibly toxic campaign point.
But a federal judge’s simple questions about the scope of the deal exposed a rift between Hunter Biden’s lawyers and the Department of Justice, delaying any resolution for at least two weeks.
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“I understand why you want to get this resolved, but I’m not in a position to do so now,” U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said at the hearing.
In addition to the tax, drugs, and firearms activities covered by the plea deal, Noreika reportedly raised the question of whether the deal also covered any possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the same law the DOJ charged Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort with violating.
When the DOJ admitted under questioning that investigations into Hunter Biden were ongoing and the existing plea deal did not cover other possible crimes, Hunter Biden’s lawyers said the original agreement was “null and void.”
The DOJ and Hunter Biden’s lawyers then tried to revive the deal, but Noreika said she could not “rubber stamp” what she had been given. Hunter Biden’s lawyers estimate it will take about two weeks to settle on language that will satisfy Noreika.
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The collapse of Hunter Biden’s plea deal means at least two more weeks of questioning about political interference with the DOJ’s investigation. Thanks to that interference, investigators never got to question Hunter Biden about payments he received from foreign governments, and they were also forbidden from speaking to other Biden family members who received similar foreign money.
If the DOJ is actively investigating Hunter Biden’s work with foreign entities, as Noreika’s question seems to suggest, then the end of the DOJ’s investigation into the Biden family is nowhere in sight.