What was the disconnect in the Hunter Biden plea deal?

 

If you talk to them they say

they believe in their leader.
They say it is up to him to make
decisions about his health and
his future.
>> Lauren, appreciate the
reporting.
Thank you.
>>> This morning hunter Biden's
legal fate is in serious
question.
This is after his plea deal
collapsed at the last minute in
this remarkable, really
unprecedented court hearing
yesterday.
The federal judge put it on hold
as the president's son was
preparing to plead guilty to tax
crimes to avoid prosecution on a
felony gun charge.
This hearing was supposed to be
quick, 30 minutes, just a
formality.
It turned into an hours' long
ordeal as the judge raised
questions about this deal.
>> She called it unusual, at one
point asking if it was even
constitutional.
So the judge said she would not
be a rubber stamp there.
The deal began to unravel when
the judge asked if it gave
hunter Biden broad immunity for
other possible crimes.
When a prosecutor responded no,
hunter Biden's lawyer snapped
back that in that case the deal
would be null and void.
Let's bring in Sara Murray.
I think a lot of people in
reaction are wondering how did
they even get to that point?
>> This is not the day that
anyone expected to have in
court.
Hunter Biden walked into that
federal courthouse in Delaware
prepared to plead guilty to two
misdemeanor tax charges and
strike a deal to complete a
program that would allow him to
avoid a felony gun charge.
As the judge was sort of
pressing about what the scope of
this deal encompassed, things
began to fall apart, and
"Politico" obtained a copy of a
version of this plea deal.
CNN has not verified it's the
final version.
I want to read you part of it.
It gets into the scope of what
this deal was supposed to
encompass.
It says the United States agrees
not to criminally prosecutor
Biden outside the terms of this
agreement for any federal crimes
encompassed by the statement of
facts.
This agreement does not provide
any protection against
prosecution for any future
conduct by Biden or by any of
his affiliated businesses.
So as the judge is running
through this, making sure hunter
Biden knows what he's pleading
to.
She says is this an ongoing
investigation, and prosecutors
confirm it is, and the judge
says, so you know, you can't
bring maybe charges against him
for tax crimes, but could you
bring charges against him for
foreign lobbying, and the
prosecutors say, yes, we could,
and that is the point when the
deal begins to fall apart.
Hunter Biden's attorneys say
that's not our understanding.
They take a recess.
They come to an agreement again
about this deal, the prosecution
and the defense.
They say okay, we've reached a
deal where prosecutors won't
prosecute hunter Biden for tax
crimes, they're not going to
prosecute him for drug offenses
and firearms offense.
That is the scope of it.
As the judge continues to look
this over, she essentially says
I'm not going to reject or
accept it, but I want more
information.
She has given both sides 30 days
to answer some of her questions
and concerns about this plea
deal.
>> You've reported on this so
closely for so many months,
there's a world in which a plea
deal does not come together,
right, and where this could go
to trial.
>> There is of course a world,
the way we saw yesterday play
out, the way this deal fell
apart, came back together,
there's always the chance that
this kind of thing goes to
trial, which I don't think is
necessarily what prosecutors
want in this case.
Obviously it seems like hunter
Biden would like to avoid a
trial.
I think what's most likely is
both sides are going to go back
and try to craft a plea
agreement that they think is
going to satisfy the judge,
maybe make tweaks to the one
they have or at least be able to
answer the judge's questions
more efficiently.
You can't rule out the
possibility this could be
something that goes to trial.
Again, because hunter Biden was
not able to get the deal signed
off on, he did this pro Forma
move of pleading not guilty.
>> Let's bring in senior legal
analyst, when you look at this,
how do you get to the point
where you show up in front of a
judge and you have the doj and
hunter Biden's attorneys who
have such a different view of
what the agreement is they awe
-- all agreed to.
>> It was a failure by
lawyering, it was a failure by
the doj and hunter Biden's
lawyer.
The key language says hunter
Biden will not be further
prosecuted for anything laid out
in the statement of facts.
If you look at that document,
there is a statement of facts.
It's about four pages and it
lays out hunter Biden's business
history making millions of
dollars from Chinese companies
and Ukrainian companies and his
drug use history.
Now, this is where the legalese
comes in.
There's play on this.
Doj apparently reads that to
mean only the tax stuff that's
talked about in the actual text.
Hunter Biden's lawyers said,
well we sort of understood it to
mean anything in the periphery,
anything that might touch on any
of his foreign dealings at all.
When the judge identified that,
she said you don't have a deal.
>> Yeah.
The judge here, meticulous in
her questioning, a former patent
attorney.
It was really interesting to
just hear as Kara was coming out
of the court and reporting that
as this was going step by step.
The question was ambiguity and
how ambiguous this language is,
and then the issue of potential
charges came up.
Can you explain what that is?
>> I think the judge was the
only person in the courtroom who
did her job properly.
When the judge was trying to
explore this disconnect, what is
he covered for, what is he not.
The judge said would he be
covered for the foreign agents
registration act.
If you are lobbying the U.S.
Government on behalf of a
foreign government you have to
register with doj.
Hunter Biden had not registered.
And doj said he's not covered
for that, and hunter Biden's
team went, whoa, that's a
problem, and that is crucial.
Is he still chargeable for this
under their agreement or not,
and when the judge identified
that, she said, you all need to
go back to the drawing board.
>> Can I just ask you why
wouldn't they think that was
possible.
Why wouldn't hunter Biden's team
think?
This is anything but a normal
case and that letter from David
Weiss said the investigation was
ongoing.
>> I think the answer is undue
optimism.
I think they were hoping he
would be covered.
Clearly they never had a direct
conversation about this with
prosecutors, which is not good
practice by defense.
A plea agreement is an
agreement.
It's a contract.
It's the most important contract
you will ever -- not you two,
but one will ever --
>> I hope we never have a plea
agreement, poppy.
>> I hope.
>> You never know.
>> It's the most important
contract one will ever
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