Hunter Biden's sweetheart plea deal collapses under judge's scrutiny; Hunter pleads not guilty — at least for now

Hunter Biden's sweetheart plea deal collapsed on Wednesday, and the first son pleaded not guilty — at least for now.

Biden walked into a federal courthouse in Delaware on Wednesday prepared to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes and to accept a pretrial diversion deal for a felony federal gun charge. The agreement would have allowed Biden to avoid jail time and prosecution for the gun charge.

But court proceedings hit a snag when U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika began asking questions about the diversion agreement.

Under interrogation from Noreika, prosecutors admitted the investigation into Biden is ongoing and may result in new criminal charges, including foreign lobbying charges. The disclosure upset Biden's attorneys, who believed the plea deal gave Biden immunity from future criminal charges.

"As far as I’m concerned, the plea agreement is null and void," Chris Clark, Biden's lead attorney, said in court.

After several recesses, prosecutors and Biden's attorneys agreed that he would receive broad immunity for all tax, drug, and gun crimes potentially committed from 2014 to 2019, not blanket immunity for any and all future potential prosecution. But Noreika's concerns about gun charge and diversion agreement persisted.

Specifically, she quizzed prosecutors on the "unusual" nature of the agreement, including whether the DOJ regularly offers such agreements for felony gun charges, and why it included "non-standard terms," such as "broad immunity," CNN reported.

Noreika even questioned the constitutionality of the diversion agreement, suggesting the deal put her — a member of the judicial branch — in the position of the executive branch, which is responsible for criminal prosecution.

"I have concerns about the constitutionality of this provision so I have concerns about the constitutionality of this agreement," she said, according to the Washington Post.

On that matter, the diversion program allows Biden to escape prosecution for the gun charge only if he abides by its terms. But what happens if he violates them? Apparently, the agreement was written in such a way that it would be up to the judge to determine whether a legitimate breach had occurred. The agreement, then, makes Noreika the "gatekeeper" of potential future prosecution, NBC News reporter Tom Winters explained, which is not her constitutional duty.

According to the New York Times, Noreika "angrily" repeated several times that she felt prosecutors and Biden's attorneys were using her to "rubber stamp" an agreement that she has serious "concerns" about.

In the end, Noreika said she is neither accepting nor rejecting the agreement, resulting in Biden's "not guilty" plea, and she gave both sides several weeks to resolve ambiguities in the deal.

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