A federal judge in Delaware has cleared Hunter Biden of misdemeanor tax charges, Fox News reports.
This decision came after a proposed plea deal related to a felony gun charge failed to materialize during Biden’s initial court appearance.
In the aftermath of the unsuccessful plea deal, Hunter Biden entered a plea of “not guilty.”
The Justice Department, signaling its stance, recently filed to have the tax case dismissed, alluding to an impending trial on the felony gun charge in a separate jurisdiction.
Biden was previously anticipated to admit guilt to two misdemeanor counts of “willful failure to pay federal income tax.”
This was part of a proposed deal to bypass jail time associated with the felony gun charge.
Presently, discussions between Biden’s legal team and Special Counsel David Weiss continue over an alternative agreement called a diversion agreement, which if accepted, would shield Biden from serving a jail sentence.
The ongoing debate reached another level when Weiss countered Biden’s attorneys’ claim that an agreement had been reached.
“The parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement,” Biden’s legal team had posited in a recent motion.
Weiss was quick to dispel such notions, stating that their agreement was “not in effect.”
He further highlighted that Biden’s decision to “plead not guilty at the hearing on July 26, 2023,” coupled with the fact that “U.S. Probation declined to approve the proposed diversion agreement at that hearing” ensured that “neither proposed agreement entered into effect.”
The divide between the two parties deepened when Biden “rejected these counterproposals on August 7, 2023,” as mentioned by Weiss.
In the wake of the stalemate, Weiss clarified, “Seeing that the parties were at an impasse, the Government informed the Defendant, in writing on August 9, 2023, that it was withdrawing the most recent version of its proposed plea and diversion agreements.”
He also shed light on the government’s request to “vacate its briefing order” and motion to “dismiss the criminal tax information.”
