Judge puts Hunter Biden's plea deal on hold

A deal that would have Hunter Biden plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges while avoiding prosecution on a gun charge hit a last-minute snag on Wednesday in a federal District Court in Delaware.

The three-hour hearing in Wilmington ended with Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is overseeing the case, saying, "I cannot accept the plea agreement today."

Toward the end of the hearing, she repeatedly said she felt as though she was being asked to "rubber stamp" the plea deal. "I'm not going to say I'm going to accept the agreement,'' she said. "I'm not going to say I'll deny it."

The hearing ended with President Joe Biden's son pleading not guilty for the time being and the judge asking both sides to file additional briefs explaining the plea deal's legal structuring in the coming weeks before determining the next step.

Hunter Biden is expected to reverse his plea if a new agreement or the information presented to the judge eventually satisfies her.

In the courtroom, a dispute broke out between prosecutors and Biden's lawyers over whether the agreement they had reached gave Biden protection against any future charges.

Prosecutors insisted that the investigation into Hunter Biden's activities remained ongoing and said in response to the judge's question that he could face additional foreign lobbying charges.

But Hunter Biden's lawyer, Chris Clark, said he disagreed with that interpretation and believed the agreement foreclosed the possibility of additional charges.

"As far as I'm concerned, the plea agreement is null and void," he said.

Clark then asked for a recess to try to work out a compromise to salvage the deal, and the parties began negotiating.

The judge asked if the agreement meant that Biden would be immune from prosecution for other possible crimes — including violations related to representing foreign governments — in perpetuity.

Noreika lamented on multiple occasions the deal's "form over substance". On several occasions, she took issue with the agreement, including describing it as "atypical" and "not straightforward".

"I have concerns about the agreement, and that's why I'm asking these questions," Noreika said during the hearing. "I'm trying to exercise due diligence."

Noreika, who was appointed by former president Donald Trump, asked the two sides to change the deal to clarify her role and insert language that limits the scope of broad immunity from prosecution it would grant to Biden on his business dealings.

After another brief halt to the proceedings, Noreika said she would delay her ruling. Biden's lawyers estimated it would take about two weeks to work out the changes she requested.

The proposed deal came after a yearslong investigation by the federal prosecutor in Delaware, David Weiss, a Trump appointee who was kept on by the Biden Justice Department. Weiss sat to one side of the courtroom during the hearing

Begun in 2018, the investigation first examined the younger Biden's foreign business dealings but has come in more recent years to focus on his taxes and his false claim on a form to purchase a gun, that he wasn't using or addicted to drugs.

In his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden detailed his long addiction to drugs and wrote that he smoked crack "every 15 minutes" for stretches in 2018.

Biden was charged last month with two misdemeanor tax crimes of failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes from more than $1.5 million in income in both 2017 and 2018. He faced a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison and a fine of $25,000 on each count.

He was expected to plead guilty on Wednesday after he made an agreement with prosecutors, who were planning to recommend two years of probation.

As part of the agreement, prosecutors had agreed not to pursue a separate felony gun-possession charge as long as Hunter Biden remains drug-free and agrees to never own a firearm again. The firearms charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a hefty fine.

Republican lawmakers in Washington have decried the agreement as too lenient and have seized on it to cast Hunter Biden as the privileged son of a sitting president. They have promised to forge ahead with their own investigations.

There hasn't been any evidence yet to substantiate GOP claims linking President Biden to his son's legal challenges.

Agencies contributed to this story.