Hunter Biden’s plea agreement will be presided over by a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump and confirmed with support from both political parties.
According to court records, Judge Maryellen Noreika was assigned to the case. In 2018, the Senate appointed her through a voice vote to serve as a judge in the District of Delaware.
Reports surfaced earlier in the week that Biden admitted guilt to two counts of willful failure to pay income tax and agreed to enter a diversion agreement related to a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm. As part of the agreement, Biden will participate in a pretrial diversion program, which may remove the charge from his record if he successfully fulfills the program’s requirements.
For Biden to avoid prison time, Noreika must approve the deal with the prosecutors. If approved, he would most likely receive probation.
Since the deal was publicly released on Tuesday (June 20), Republican lawmakers, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA.), have mostly criticized it, pointing out the disparity between the conclusion of the investigation into Biden compared to the outcome of the probe into Trump.
The group is claiming that the recent deal highlights how biased the justice system is in the country, where the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration is accused of favoring the President’s son by giving him a lenient deal while pursuing charges against Trump for the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago property. This has led to accusations of a “two-tier” system of justice.
However, others have pointed out this couldn’t be possible given that Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss made the deal.
