The judge presiding over the criminal case against Hunter Biden threatened the first son''s legal team with sanctions for allegedly lying to the clerk's office.
The attorney for Hunter Biden is accused of circumventing proper court procedure to remove information about IRS whistleblowers from the proceedings. Tuesday at 9 p.m., Delaware Judge Maryellen Noreika gave Biden's legal team until then to present their case.
Hunter Biden's Legal Team Faces Pressure
In particular, a member of Hunter Biden's legal team is accused of misrepresenting her identity when requesting the removal of amicus documents from the docket. She allegedly contacted the registrar instead of filing a formal request with the court to have the information sealed.
Biden's legal team informed the judge in a letter obtained by Fox News that the attorney who called the clerk accurately represented her affiliation with her law firm.
On Wednesday, Biden will plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax. In 2017 and 2018, the First Son reportedly neglected to pay more than $100,000 in taxes on earnings exceeding $1.5 million.
Biden will also enter a pretrial diversion agreement for a distinct felony allegation involving a firearm. Critics have dubbed the plea agreement negotiated by Biden and the Department of Justice a "sweetheart deal," and Noreika has the authority to approve or reject it.
The judge's order was issued hours after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) asked the judge to consider denying Hunter Biden's plea deal with Delaware prosecutors over whistleblower claims that the president's son was given preferential treatment during the nearly five-year investigation.
According to The Washington Examiner, the filing included transcripts of interviews conducted with two IRS whistleblowers on May 26 and June 1. The committee's senior attorney, Theodore Kittila, detailed the subsequent hours in an email, which was then summarized in Noreika's order.
Bengels is the director of litigation services at the New York law firm Latham & Watkins, where Chris Clark, the younger Biden's counsel, was previously a partner.
Noreika wrote that it appears Bengels "misrepresented her identity and the organization for which she worked in an attempt to inappropriately persuade the clerk's office to withdraw the amicus materials from the docket."
Hunter Biden is anticipated to enter a guilty plea to two misdemeanor tax charges and participate in a pretrial diversion program that will enable him to avoid prosecution on a separate felony firearms charge.
Uncertain is whether Tuesday evening's docket activity will influence Noreika's decision regarding whether to accept the younger Biden's plea, which Republican critics have called a "sweetheart deal."
According to a source familiar with the Republican offices' plans, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky), and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) are likely to subpoena testimony from 10 federal investigators after Attorney General Merrick Garland ignored a Monday deadline to cooperate.
IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler, who worked closely on the Hunter case, testified to Congress last week that the Department of Justice "slow-walked" the investigation and that prosecutors appointed by President Biden prevented Delaware US Attorney David Weiss from charging the president's son outside of his district.
Weiss allegedly notified investigators on October 7, 2022, that Washington, DC, US Attorney Matthew Graves and Southern California US Attorney E. Martin Estrada had denied him the authority to charge Hunter Biden.
Per NY Post, Garland stated in congressional testimony under oath that Weiss had been granted "complete authority" to file charges against Hunter Biden earlier this year. In a letter to Jordan dated June 7, Weiss asserted his "ultimate authority" over the matter.
However, the Republican committee leaders noted that Weiss had made "altering statements" in subsequent letters to Congress, claiming first that he "had been awarded ultimate authority" and then that he "would be granted that authority in the future, if necessary, after a specified process."
Shapley's attorneys stated that Weiss' Criminal Coordinator, Shawn Weede, and Assistant US Attorney Shannon Hanson were present at the meeting to discuss charges last year. Tom Sobocinski, the FBI special agent in charge for Baltimore, and Ryeshia Holley, his assistant, were also present.
IRS Whistleblowers Accusations Against Hunter Biden's Probe
In prior depositions before the House Ways and Means Committee, IRS agents stated that Delaware Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf discouraged their team from pursuing interrogation lines that could lead to the president.
IRS agents added that Wolf subsequently informed Hunter Biden's defense counsel of a planned investigation of his Northern Virginia storage locker. The Republicans requested transcribed interviews with Graves, Estrada, Weede, Hanson, Sobocinski, Holley, and Wolf.
Mark Daly, Jack Morgan, and Stuart Goldberg of the DOJ's tax division were also requested. In a letter dated Monday, the Justice Department proposed to allow Weiss to testify before the Judiciary Committee following the August congressional recess while denying all other requests.
In 2017, former President Donald Trump nominated Weiss for the position of United States attorney on the advice of Delaware's two Democratic senators, Chris Coons and Tom Carper.
Wednesday morning, 53-year-old Hunter Biden plans to plead guilty to tax misdemeanors related to missed six-figure payments in 2017 and 2018. Shapley and Ziegler assert that the first son avoided at least $2,200,000 in taxes on the $8,300,000 in foreign income he earned between 2014 and 2019.
After he lied about his substance use on a gun-purchase form in 2018, the eldest son is also entering a diversion agreement for a felony firearms charge.
When the agreement was disclosed on June 20, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who recently hinted at impeachment proceedings over the Hunter investigation, referred to it as a "sweetheart bargain."
If approved by Delaware United States District Judge Maryellen Noreika, the first son will serve two years of probation, and his gun charge will be dismissed.
Related Article : Hunter Biden Probe: DOJ Offers Investigator To Testify Before Congress
