On Wednesday, Hunter Biden appeared in court for the first time regarding his tax misdemeanor charges.
It is widely anticipated that the president’s son would enter a guilty plea in the ongoing federal probe into his tax returns. In the morning, Biden was seen entering the courtroom, where he would meet with Judge Maryellen Noreika at 10:00 a.m.
In June, Biden was charged with two counts of tax evasion for 2017 and one count of firearm possession for 2018.
Biden reached a plea bargain with the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding minor tax offenses. If the court accepts the plea agreement, the first son will not have to serve time in prison for unlawfully having a weapon.
During the court hearing, the judge in charge of Hunter Biden’s plea agreement allegedly scorched the first son.
Kara Scannell, a CNN journalist in the courtroom, said that while the plea arrangement was at risk, Judge Maryellen Noreika approached Hunter. The first plea agreement between the Department of Justice and Biden’s legal team was rejected by Noreika, who is facing tax misdemeanor charges.
Part of the accusations to which he has pleaded guilty was revealed in court transcripts: “He told the judge he was sober, and she asked him, ‘You were sober, so why didn’t you pay your taxes?'” and he claimed he’d just gotten sober, that his life was a huge disaster, that he was trying to pick up the pieces and put them together, and that it had effectively fallen through the gaps,” Scannell said.
During the hearing, Hunter pleaded “not guilty” when the defense and prosecution couldn’t agree on the agreement’s conditions.
Noreika declined to sign the plea bargain because, in her view, it was unclear whether the Justice Department (DOJ) might pursue further charges against Biden.
