Uncertainty lies ahead for Hunter Biden after federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss their tax case against him, arguing plea negotiations had fallen apart and that the case should go to trial, Courthouse News Service reports. The plea deal involved federal tax evasion charges and an illegal gun purchase. Prosecutors scuttled the deal related to the tax charges after they balked at terms proposed by the defense that would have given Biden immunity from future criminal charges. Disagreement about which charges the plea deal covered halted negotiations.
For a separate charge related to an illegal handgun purchase in 2018, Biden would have agreed to a pretrial intervention known as a diversion program under which he would avoid a maximum 10-year prison sentence for the charge, if he committed to living drug-free and to never again own a firearm. Despite the implosion of negotiations, Biden’s lawyers told U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in a Sunday filing that federal prosecutors should honor the separate diversion program agreement. The president’s son “intends to abide by the terms of the Diversion Agreement,” his counsel wrote, noting that the prosecution had agreed that the program stands alone from the tax plea deal and that “the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement.”