Prosecutors could use the possible indictment of Hunter Biden on gun charges to “leverage” the new plea deal and resolve his other legal problems — including possible tax charges and an investigation into the scandal-plagued eldest son’s foreign affairs, experts told The Post .
Special Counsel David Weiss’ office on Wednesday said it intends to seek a grand jury indictment of President Biden’s 53-year-old son on felony firearms charges — for allegedly possessing a gun while addicted to cracking cocaine — before the statute of limitations expires next month.
Weiss pursued the gun charges after a failed plea deal in July in which the younger Biden would have faced two misdemeanor tax charges and entered a diversion program for lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in the fall of 2018.
The firearms charge he will plead guilty to is a felony but was not indicted by a grand jury.
David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor, told The Post that the indictment on the gun charges “isn’t very important” and may just be a “placeholder” — meaning Weiss could still potentially bring a case against Biden related to any potential illegal foreign dealings. -legal or criminal tax charges.
“It retains the ability to use its leverage — the criminal firearms charge — in negotiations with Hunter Biden to resolve his global criminal exposure,” Weinstein said.
Hunter Biden’s indictment on gun charges could be used to leverage a plea deal with him in all open cases and investigations he faces, experts say.AP
Weiss may have preferred to make another plea deal with the first son — rather than let him go to trial — because certain firearms charges, linked to drug use, are “rarely” prosecuted and an appeals court last month overturned convictions on similar charges in cases that were not related, Weinstein said.
Still, that appeals court, located in the south, is a separate jurisdiction from the Delaware case against Biden and, therefore, “is not binding,” Weinstein said.
Even though the initial plea deal fell through in July, that doesn’t mean another deal can’t be reached between Hunter and Weiss, according to the former federal prosecutor.
Hunter Biden allegedly lied about the fact that he was addicted to cocaine when he bought a gun in 2018.
This time, however, Biden was able to “see [a plea offer] that’s a little bit worse in terms of him having to do some actual jail time,” Weinstein said.
“But they can go back to the table and achieve something close to what’s there,” he added.
The previous deal fell through because of a “combination of factors” — including that the Biden camp thought he would receive “blanket immunity,” which Weinstein said Weiss did not have the authority to offer at the time.
But in August, Weiss was appointed special counsel, which would give him the ability to make such a “global plea deal,” Weinstein said.
Hunter Biden also faces tax charges and the investigation into Hunter is ongoing, feds.AP said
Still, the legal expert said he doesn’t necessarily think Weiss “will end up playing hardball” in potentially ongoing negotiations.
Cornell Law Professor Robert Hockett also told The Post he agreed that indictments on gun charges could be used to bring about larger settlements.
But the professor said that Weiss would be careful to avoid appearing too easy on the president’s son, given the criticism Weiss has received from the alt-right over his previous plea deal.
Republicans accused the Delaware attorney of offering the sweetheart deal as payback to the Biden family for not demanding his resignation. Weiss was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
“My guess is the way Republicans continue to talk [Weiss] and suggesting that he has some personal interest in paying attention to Mr. Biden … I think it is appropriate for Mr. Weiss to try to avoid anything that might be disruptive or appear less objective or overly favorable to the Biden family,” Hockett said.
Still, Weiss will abide by the law “and the norms of the prosecutorial profession” and offer a deal — if a plea deal seems more likely to succeed than a trial conviction, Hockett said.
Of Weiss’s right-wing critics, the professor said: “He designed this pretty well, he turned it all into a case for gun control.”
“That would put all the Republicans who hate Biden in a weird position because they’re also against gun control,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
