Conservative activists want Federal District Judge Maryellen Noreika to toss the plea deal reached between Hunter Biden and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.
Talk show host Hugh Hewitt argues in a Washington Post column that Judge Noreika should follow the example of Judge Emmet Sullivan who tossed the 2017 plea deal with Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser.
“Sullivan tossed out an agreement by then-Attorney General William P. Barr and the Justice Department to drop its prosecution in an extraordinary circus soon short-circuited by a pardon for Flynn from President Donald Trump. A judge should respect the judgment of prosecutors, but the gavel is not a rubber stamp,” Hewitt wrote. “Biden’s checkered life is not on the docket in Delaware. His proposed plea bargain is. Extraordinarily lenient, the deal — if blessed by Noreika — ought to earn a significant bonus to Biden’s lawyers.
Hewitt continued: “U.S. Attorney David Weiss recommends probation for “failure to pay taxes,” two misdemeanor counts, related to income that President Biden’s son received in 2017 and 2018, plus pretrial diversion to deal with the gun charge.”
If the judge accepts the plea deal Hunter Biden will avoid jail time.
IRS Whistleblower Testimony Raises Questions
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapely and Joseph Ziegler claimed that the Justice Department interfered with their investigation of Hunter Biden. Shapely alleged in a deposition with the House Ways and Means Committee that Biden received “preferential treatment” and that the Justice Department “slow-walked” the investigation.
He claimed that Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Donoghue issued a “cease and desist” blocking the issuance of any sort of search warrant against Biden even though probable cause existed. Donoghue allegedly did not want the optics of a search warrant against Biden executed in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Ziegler called the decision-making by Justice Department officials “abnormal” in congressional testimony.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied that Hunter Biden received any special treatment and has claimed that Weiss was allowed to exercise full discretion in the probe.
“He was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “I don’t know how it would be possible for anybody to block him for bringing a prosecution given that he has that authority.
Garland continued: “Some have chosen to attack the integrity of the Justice Department … by claiming we do not treat like cases alike. This constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy and essential to the safety of the American people … Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Marco Polo Joins Hewitt Calling for Deal to Be Tossed
The research group Marco Polo led by former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler sent a letter to Noreika joining Hewitt in calling on her to nix Biden’s plea deal. The group compiled an over 600-page research report about the contents of Biden’s abandoned laptop that has had a strong behind-the-scenes influence on the congressional investigations. The report details dozens of alleged possible criminal infractions on the part of Hunter Biden and his business partners.
They are joined by former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani and his counsel Robert Costello, the first person to whom computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac gave a copy of the hard drive from Hunter Biden’s laptop, in the complaint. Guiliani served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 until 1989.
“We respectfully urge you to reject the plea deal, which was tentatively agreed upon by the Government and Biden. Prosecutorial misconduct and numerous inappropriate and likely illegal acts plagued the Biden investigation, in addition to allegations of threats made by Biden’s counsel to the prosecutors,” Marco Polo writes in its letter. “Your Honor, this proposed plea deal is a miscarriage of justice. The nature of the crimes Biden has committed but was not charged with greatly exceed the nature and seriousness of the charges Biden has agreed to plead guilty [to].”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
From 19FortyFive
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