Biden’s plea deal on a felony gun charge fell through during his first court appearance last month

Hunter Biden’s misdemeanor tax charges have been dismissed by a federal judge in Delaware, an expected move after his “sweetheart” plea deal fell through last month during his first court appearance in the case.

The Justice Department submitted a filing last week to dismiss the case ahead of a possible trial on Biden’s felony gun charge in a different district.

After the plea deal fell apart, Biden pleaded “not guilty” as federal prosecutors confirmed he is still under federal investigation. He was expected to plead guilty to the two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of the plea deal to avoid jail time on the felony gun charge.

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Hunter Biden wasn’t charged with felony tax evasion after years-long probe

Biden’s attorneys and Special Counsel David Weiss are still fighting over a diversion agreement concerning the felony charge that would allow him to avoid any jail time. Weiss has indicated he plans to potentially take Biden to trial in the future in either Washington, D.C., or California.

On Tuesday, Weiss strongly rejected claims by Biden’s legal team that his office “reneged” on the plea deal for President Biden’s son to resolve the federal tax and gun charges, while stressing that agreement was “not in effect.”

In a court filing, Weiss fired back at the Biden attorneys, which, over the weekend, filed a motion stating that “the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement.”

Hunter Biden’s misdemeanor tax charges have been dismissed by a federal judge in Delaware. (JosiahW/Backgrid)

He added that 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.”

Weiss said that Biden “rejected these counterproposals on August 7, 2023.”

U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss. (Fox News screenshot)

source

Thanks to Daddy Biden being from the State of Delaware and coincidentally a delaware prosecutor does not charge him with felony tax evasion because of a sweetheart deal to plea to misdemeanor tax invasion instead. 

Why Hunter Biden wasn’t charged with felony tax evasion after years-long probe? Connections and a 2 Tier System!

Federal prosecutors declined to charge first son Hunter Biden with felony tax evasion — letting him instead take a plea bargain for misdemeanors that will likely result in no jail time — due to the difficulty of proving the offense and the relatively paltry sums at stake, veteran legal eagles told The Post Wednesday.

Following a five-year investigation, Delaware US Attorney David Weiss’ office agreed to the sweetheart deal for the 53-year-old — guilty pleas to two counts of failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income from foreign countries and a pretrial diversionary program for a felony count of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in the fall of 2018.

If Hunter had been charged with felony tax evasion, he would have faced up to five years behind bars — though the federal sentencing guidelines recommend 12 to 18 months for the amount of money involved, according to former federal prosecutor David Weinstein.

According to Weiss’ office, Hunter faces up to a year in jail on each misdemeanor tax count, but prosecutors are expected to ask a judge to sign off on probation, experts say.

Former prosecutors say they aren’t surprised by the choice to allow Hunter to admit not paying at least $100,000 in income taxes on at least $1.5 million in earnings in both 2017 and 2018 rather than charge the more serious crime.

Jennifer Rodgers, an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, told The Post the feds would have weighed the severity of his crimes and a number of other factors in making the choice — which she says was “reasonable” and “in line with” other cases.

In Hunter’s case, Rodgers said that prosecutors wouldn’t have considered his alleged crimes particularly egregious because of the dollar amount he allegedly failed to pay in taxes and because he didn’t carry out an elaborate evasion scheme.

“This is not a tiny amount, but also not a massive amount, not millions of dollars evaded,” Rodgers said.

The prof added that Hunter simply failed to pay the money to tax authorities “rather than setting up companies, moving money off-shore, [and] hiding assets in some sophisticated way,” despite claims to the contrary from congressional Republicans investigating the Biden family’s overseas business interests.

And a “huge” factor that the Department of Justice would have looked “very favorably” upon is the fact that Hunter already paid back the money and penalties he owed in taxes last year, as part of his bid to avoid criminal charges.

Rodgers added that a “serious concern” for prosecutors in weighing what charges to bring was the fact that Hunter Biden was an admitted drug addict at the time — making it difficult to prove that he intended to duck his obligation to the government.

“Can you prove that he knowingly, willingly and deliberately did all of these things or in that circumstance is it safer to avoid trial by pleading it to a misdemeanor?” Rodgers said. “I know that that was under discussion, that that was a serious concern for some of the investigators on the case and perhaps for the prosecutors as well.”

Cornell Law Professor Robert Hockett agreed that prosecutors likely found Hunter’s case “worthy of plea bargaining” and of misdemeanor charges because of his substance abuse issues.

“The fact that he was apparently addicted to cocaine, maybe even crack cocaine, during that time I think has a number of consequences,” Hockett said. “One, is that it’s harder to find criminal intent … if he was [committing crimes] under the influence.”

Former federal prosecutor Maureen Ruane told The Post she also wasn’t surprised by prosecutors offering the misdemeanor plea deal.

In general, she said, tax evasion charges “are very infrequently sought” because of the difficulty of showing intent. She said that a plea deal “avoids the risks” of going to trial and the “resources and time and energy” required to follow a case through appeals.

“There often comes a point in virtually any case where the government decides that it’s willing to accept a compromise on the charges that it might have otherwise filed, in exchange for the certainly of a conviction,” Ruane explained.

Gary Shapley, a whistleblower at the Internal Revenue Service, told CBS News last month that he was assigned to Hunter’s case in the beginning of 2020 and that soon saw that normal protocols weren’t followed and decisions by the agency “seemed to always benefit” Hunter.

After speaking out, Shapley said he was marginalized and eventually taken off of the investigation.

Republicans decried the plea bargain, with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) saying the deal “cannot be the final word give the significant body of evidence that the FBI and the Justice Department have at their disposal.”

James Comer (R-Ky.) — the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has been probing Hunter and his dad Joe over claims they received $10 million in bribes — said the charges and “sweetheart plea deal have no impact” on the panel’s investigation.

Former Vice President Mike Pence last month turned over classified documents discovered at the Indiana home

FBI agents on Friday searched former Vice President Mike Pence’s residence as federal authorities continue their classified document investigation, two sources confirmed to Fox News.

Local police blocked off the entrance to the Carmel, Indiana, home before federal investigators arrived in a white vehicle.

The search was planned for days, the sources said, with the full consent of the former vice president.

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home is seen from the air as a police vehicle is seen in the driveway on Friday. (NewsNation)

A police vehicle blocks the entrance to former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home on Friday. (Fox News)

Pence is not at home during the investigation — he is currently in California visiting his daughter, who recently gave birth to his second grandchild.

Authorities will be assisted by an attorney representing Pence, if necessary.

The officials could be seen showing a badge to local police before being granted entry to the residence.

Former Vice President Mike Pence meets with social conservative leaders and activists on the morning of the annual March for Life rally opposing legalized abortion in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2023. (Andrea Hanks for Advancing American Freedom)

A police vehicle blocks the entrance to former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home on Friday. (Fox News)

Pence informed Congress last month that he discovered documents bearing classified markings from his time as vice president on Jan. 16. This search is to check that nothing was missed, the sources indicated.

Pence attorney Greg Jacob wrote on Jan. 18 to Acting Director Kate Dillon McClure of the White House Liaison Division National Archives and Records Administration to inform her of the papers “containing classified markings.”

Pence’s team found the documents following revelations that classified documents from President Biden’s tenure as vice president were found at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, D.C., and at the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Fox News’ John Roberts contributed to this report.

By David Spunt , Timothy H.J. Nerozzi , Madison Scarpino | Fox News

Pence FBI search lasted 5 hours, recovered one additional classified doc

Pence team confirms one additional classified doc found

The FBI search of former Vice President Pence’s Indiana home lasted five hours and resulted in one document with classified markings and six additional pages not marked classified, according to Pence’s office.

“Following the discovery and disclosure of a small number of potentially classified documents that had inadvertently been transported to his home in Indiana, Vice President Pence and his legal team have fully cooperated with the appropriate authorities and agreed to a consensual search of his residence that took place today,” Pence adviser Devin O’Malley told Fox News Digital.

FBI SEARCHES MIKE PENCE INDIANA HOME AMID CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT INVESTIGATION, SOURCES SAY

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home is seen from the air as a police vehicle is seen in the driveway, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. (NewsNation)

“The vice president has directed his legal team to continue its cooperation with appropriate authorities and to be fully transparent through the conclusion of this matter.”

The DOJ did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for confirmation on the documents found. The FBI referred inquiries to the DOJ.

MIKE PENCE INDIANA HOME SEEN FROM THE AIR AMID FBI SEARCH

FBI agents on Friday searched former Vice President Mike Pence’s residence as federal authorities continue their classified document investigation, two sources confirmed to Fox News.

Mike Pence’s new book “So Help Me God”, details Pence’s time in the White House. (Getty Images)

Local police blocked off the entrance to the Carmel, Indiana, home before federal investigators arrived in a white vehicle.

The search was planned for days, the sources said, with the full consent of the former vice president.

Pence is not at home during the investigation — he is currently in California visiting his daughter, who recently gave birth to his second grandchild.

A police vehicle blocks the entrance to former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. (Fox News)

Pence informed Congress last month that he discovered documents bearing classified markings from his time as vice president on Jan. 16. This search is to check that nothing was missed, the sources indicated.

By Kelly Laco | Fox News

The FBI is expected to search the home and office of former Vice President Mike Pence in the coming days for any potential classified documents, Fox News has learned.

The FBI and a representative for Pence would not confirm a potential search, which is believed to be consensual. However, Fox News is told by a source familiar that the FBI will conduct a search, although the timing is unclear.

Former Vice President Mike Pence delivers a speech at The Heritage Foundation titled “The Freedom Agenda and America’s Future” in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 19, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In recent months, classified materials have turned up one after the other, beginning in August when documents were found in former President Donald Trump’s possession during a raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Trump denies the documents in his possession were classified, however, arguing that as president he had the authority to declassify them.

PENCE SPEAKS OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER CLASSIFIED DOCS FOUND IN INDIANA HOME: ‘MISTAKES WERE MADE’

There is also currently an investigation underway into documents found in President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home, as well as his Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C.

Most recently, Pence found classified documents at his home and reported it to the FBI, pledging full cooperation with any future investigation.

By Bradford Betz , David Spunt , Jake Gibson | Fox News

   

By Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz, Jeremy Herb and Chandelis Duster, source