Hunter Biden‘s controversial plea deal came crashing down yesterday despite what was supposed to be a formality in court — when it became clear the two sides weren’t in accord on exactly what the plea entailed. Judge Maryellen Noreika gave the two sides 30 days to figure it out.
The misunderstanding may have been, in retrospect, inevitable since as Obama-era U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote: “The government didn’t file its agreement with Biden ahead of the hearing, and the transcript of the proceedings, all 127 pages of it, only became available late today.”
(The snags were complex, but one critical issue was scope of immunity: Biden’s lawyers believed the plea deal essentially protected their client from facing further charges as a result of the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s investigation; prosecutors did not concede that further charges were off-limits as a result of the proposed plea agreement. Another challenge was a highly technical legal issue that involved judicial jurisdiction and the constitutionality of the agreement. )
Confused about what happened in today's guilty plea hearing for Hunter Biden? You're not alone. During the hearing, the Judge said, "Why can't you do that in the normal way?"
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 27, 2023
I try to sort some of it out in my newsletter: https://t.co/QeCEjvEWu2 pic.twitter.com/diNvNW8lHR
If everything in the world — even the Barbie movie — is political, then the President’s ne’er-do-well son cutting a deal on tax evasion and a gun charge has been inevitably hyper-political. The failure to find common ground in court, or the realization that the common ground is littered with misconceptions on both sides, is indicative of the larger state of affairs. The case, by lawyerly consensus, isn’t technically difficult, but the identities of the people involved in the case make it highly challenging.
One result of the political nature of the case is, predictably, a flurry of accusations of partisanship on both sides — especially in the media. An easy target here from the left is Judge Noreika, who was appointed to the bench by Donald Trump — notably with the support of Delaware’s two Democratic Senators.
But Noreika’s adjudication was apolitical here, asserts the former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, noting that the proceedings have so far risen above the fray of political rancor. Vance saw no evidence of political leanings influencing Judge Noreika’s decision to put the plea deal on hold until there was accord about its details.
Vance writes: “The Judge, who handled herself as we suggested last night, fairly, intelligently, and with a commitment to getting it right, made a key point. A plea agreement is a contract. And if there’s no meeting on the minds between the parties, there’s no agreement.”
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