{"id":1987542,"date":"2023-08-01T07:23:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-probe-merrick-garland-over-hunter-bidens-atypical-plea-deal\/"},"modified":"2023-08-01T07:25:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:25:20","slug":"house-republicans-probe-merrick-garland-over-hunter-bidens-atypical-plea-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-probe-merrick-garland-over-hunter-bidens-atypical-plea-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republicans question Merrick Garland about Hunter Biden&#8217;s unusual plea agreement."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-republicans-probe-merrick-garland-over-hunter-bidens-atypical-plea-deal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1987542&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n    <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>House Republicans\u2064 Seek Answers on Hunter Biden&#8217;s Plea and Pretrial Diversion Agreements<\/h2>\n<p>Leading House \u200dRepublicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick \u200dGarland on Monday\u200d seeking more information on \u2063the \u200bDepartment of Justice\u2019s (DOJ) <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/21\/hunter-biden-plea-deal-on-five-year-old-crimes-shows-biden-protection-racket-at-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plea and pretrial \u2063diversion agreements<\/a> with Hunter Biden. The move comes after the \u2062agreements fell apart last week when a U.S. district court judge noticed they were \u201cnot standard\u201d and \u201cdifferent\u201d from what is\u200c normally presented in such scenarios.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-probe-merrick-garland-over-hunter-bidens-atypical-plea-deal\/\" title=\"House Republicans question Merrick Garland about Hunter Biden's unusual plea agreement.\">recent\u2063 unusual events relating<\/a> to the Department\u2019s plea and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-plea-house-gop-investigates-troubling-provisions-of-doj-deal\/\" title=\"House GOP investigates 'troubling' aspects of Hunter Biden's plea in DOJ deal.\">pretrial diversion agreements<\/a> with Mr. Biden, we \u2064write to\u200d better understand the \u200cDepartment\u2019s decision to\u200d sign off on \u200dsuch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-bidens-sweetheart-plea-deal-now-being-investigated-by-house-republicans\/\" title=\"House Republicans are currently investigating Hunter Biden's plea deal.\">apparently atypical agreements<\/a>,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-07-31-jdj-js-jc-to-garland-re-biden-plea-deal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> reads.<\/p>\n<p>As The Federalist\u2019s Margot Cleveland <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/21\/hunter-biden-plea-deal-on-five-year-old-crimes-shows-biden-protection-racket-at-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, Hunter originally pled guilty to two misdemeanor tax \u2062counts and signed onto \u2064a pretrial diversion agreement\u200c with\u2063 the DOJ regarding a felony\u2062 firearms offense last month. While the latter charge <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/20\/hunter-bidens-wrist-slap-on-gun-tax-crimes-is-a-complete-smokescreen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">typically<\/a> \u201cholds \u200da maximum of 10 years\u2064 in jail and a $250,000 fine,\u201d the \u2063deal struck with the DOJ allowed Hunter to avoid prosecution so\u200d long as he \u201cforsakes his drug-plagued lifestyle for 24 \u2063months and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2023\/06\/20\/us\/hunter-biden-plea-deal#hunter-biden-plea-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">never owns a gun again<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During last week\u2019s Delaware court hearing on the matter, Judge Maryellen Noreika raised serious legal\u2062 concerns about the pretrial diversion agreement. As noted in House Republicans\u2019 \u2063Monday letter, Noreika specifically questioned federal prosecutors on paragraph 14 of the\u2063 pretrial diversion agreement. Typically, if the Justice Department finds a defendant has violated his pretrial diversion agreement, the DOJ itself can press charges\u200b without a green light from the district court. Paragraph 14 of Hunter\u2019s agreement, however, essentially <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-07-31-jdj-js-jc-to-garland-re-biden-plea-deal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reasons<\/a> that unless Noreika discovers \u201cthe \u2062pretrial diversion agreement has been breached,\u200d \u2018no criminal charges can be \u200bpursued [against Mr. Biden] for the gun charge \u2062or any other federal charge\u2064 within the scope of the agreement not to be prosecuted.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Noreika pressed whether prosecutors \u201cha[d] any authority\u2064 that any \u200cCourt has ever accepted \u2026 or said\u2062 that they would\u201d agree\u2062 to such a deal, a special assistant U.S. attorney replied, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[T]he government does not have discretion to continue to pursue this charge or any other charge unless you include the Court. And that seems like it\u2019s getting outside of my lane in \u200cterms of what I am allowed to do,\u201d Noreika <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-07-31-jdj-js-jc-to-garland-re-biden-plea-deal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cI asked if there is any precedent for this, I was told no. I was\u200c asked if there is any authority for\u200d this, I\u200b was told no.\u201d<\/p>\n[[<strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/27\/how-a-federal-judge-turned-the-tables-on-hunter-bidens-plea-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How \u200dA Federal Judge \u200cTurned The Tables On Hunter Biden\u2019s Sweetheart Plea Deal<\/a><\/strong>]\n<p>Noreika further scrutinized paragraph 15 of the pretrial agreement, which guarantees that the DOJ wouldn\u2019t criminally prosecute Hunter \u2064for other federal crimes, such as those related \u2062to the Foreign Agent Registration Act. As former federal prosecutor Will Scharf \u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/27\/how-a-federal-judge-turned-the-tables-on-hunter-bidens-plea-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> in these pages, federal prosecutors were essentially attempting \u2064to \u201cinsulate Hunter\u2019s plea from\u2062 judicial oversight \u2014 and \u2063the possibility of \u2064judicial rejection\u201d by burying such an \u2063arrangement in the pretrial\u200b diversion agreement, which they argued Noreika \u201cwas\u200b not a party to and therefore lacked the power to reject.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Noreika once again asked if there was a precedent at\u2064 the DOJ for allowing this type of agreement, which has \u201cnothing to do with the case or the charges being diverted,\u201d the\u200d special assistant U.S. attorney responded,\u2063 \u201cI\u2019m not aware \u2062of any.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hunter ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/26\/hunter-biden-plea-deal-derailed-by-federal-judge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pleaded<\/a> not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department\u2019s unusual plea and \u2062pretrial diversion agreements with\u200d Mr. Biden raise serious concerns \u2014 especially \u2063when combined\u2063 with recent whistleblower allegations \u2014 that the Department has provided preferential treatment \u2064toward Mr. Biden in the course \u2062of its investigation and proposed resolution of his alleged criminal conduct,\u201d\u2063 House Republicans\u2019\u200d letter reads.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to asking a series of questions related to Hunter\u2019s case and prior DOJ \u2063pretrial diversion agreements, Republicans are \u200balso <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-07-31-jdj-js-jc-to-garland-re-biden-plea-deal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requesting<\/a> Garland\u2062 provide House committees with records related to the DOJ\u2019s prior use of pretrial diversion agreements, a \u201cgeneralized description of the nature\u201d of the\u200d DOJ\u2019s \u201congoing investigation(s) concerning Hunter,\u201d and \u200can explanation on why the agency \u201cagreed to a \u2064plea agreement if other investigation(s) \u200dconcerning Hunter Biden \u2063are ongoing\u201d by Aug. \u200d14.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Shawn \u2063Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a\u2062 graduate of the University of Mary \u200cWashington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action\u2063 and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leading House Republicans wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting details about the Department of Justice&#8217;s plea and pretrial diversion agreements with Hunter Biden. The request follows the agreements&#8217; recent dissolution, as a judge deemed them unconventional and distinct from the norm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1987543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1987542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1987543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1987542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1987542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1987542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}