Delaware Judge Dismisses Hunter Biden Tax Charges, Setting Stage for Additional Charges from Special Counsel

District Judge Maryellen Noreika has dismissed two outstanding misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden following a request from federal prosecutors, setting the stage for additional charges from newly appointed special counsel David Weiss.

Under the terms of an initial plea deal that later collapsed, Hunter was to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations and submit to a pre-trial diversion agreement to avoid a felony gun charge in exchange for broad immunity from future charges.

Noreika challenged the terms of the deal in court last month, noting that the broad immunity prosecutors offered Hunter was unprecedented. The judge’s remarks triggered federal prosecutors to pull the original deal and offer a more narrow agreement.

Last Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss to serve as special counsel designated to investigate Hunter Biden free of standard Department of Justice oversights. Moments before the announcement, federal prosecutors said in a court filing that the revised deal had fallen through and that a future trial was expected.

Garland elaborated in a brief statement that Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, had asked for special counsel authority earlier in the week. Weiss will continue to oversee the “ongoing investigation” of Hunter as well as “any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation,” Garland said.

The appointment “reinforces for the American people the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” the attorney general added.

Hunter’s then-lawyer, Christopher Clark, reaffirmed that he expects “a fair resolution” to the case following the appointment of Weiss. “This U.S. attorney has diligently been investigating my client for five years, and he had proposed a resolution which we fully intend to pursue in court,” Clark said in a statement.

“It is hard to see why he would have proposed such a resolution if there were other offenses he could have successfully prosecuted, and we are aware of none.”

However, Clark withdrew from the case on Tuesday, citing the possibility that he may be called to testify in the forthcoming case. “It appears that the negotiation and drafting of the plea agreement and diversion agreement will be contested, and Mr. Clark is a percipient witness to those issues,” Biden’s legal team wrote, according to court filings. “It is inadvisable for Mr. Clark to continue as counsel in this case.”

The loss of immunity related to Hunter’s foreign business dealings is important given that Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have, in recent months, uncovered extensive evidence of what they say is foreign influence peddling by the first son.

Last Wednesday, Representative James Comer (R., Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced that the body had uncovered banking records indicating that shell companies linked to Hunter and his business associates received a total of $20 million in payments from oligarchs in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine while his father was vice president.

On Thursday, Comer sent a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration requesting documents related to any official duties Joe Biden undertook while vice president that overlapped with Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.