By Aditi Sangal and Mike Hayes, CNN
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
The plea hearing for Hunter Biden is underway at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
The son of President Joe Biden is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time, and enter a deal with prosecutors that will resolve a felony gun charge.
This is an unprecedented moment in American history. Never before has the son of the sitting US president walked into a federal courthouse and pleaded guilty to a crime.
From CNN's Tierney Sneed and Marshall Cohen
Federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, will preside over the case that Justice Department brought against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Biden’s plea hearing was scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET.
Noreika, a former patent lawyer in Delaware, had the support of both Democratic senators from Delaware when she was nominated by Trump. Under the Senate’s so-called blue slip tradition, nominees for district court seats must have the support of the home state senators to move forward.
She was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote in August 2018.
The Justice Department announced last month that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and struck a deal to resolve a felony gun charge.
As part of the plea agreement, the Justice Department has agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for the two counts of failing to pay taxes in a timely matter, according to sources. A judge would have the final say on any sentence, however.
Campaign donations: Federal records indicate that Noreika has donated more than $15,000 to political candidates dating back to 1999. Her political spending has gone to both parties.
On the presidential level, she gave $1,000 to then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. She later donated $2,300 to the eventual 2008 Republican nominee, then-Arizona Sen. John McCain. She donated to the subsequent GOP nominee as well, giving $2,500 to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.
Noreika also financially supported Sen. Tom Cotton, a conservative Republican from Arkansas, during his campaign in 2014, when he unseated an incumbent Democratic senator. And she donated $1,000 to Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum in 2005.
She also donated $1,000 in 2009 to the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the DSCC.
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is set to plead guilty soon to two federal misdemeanors for not paying taxes on time — a major step toward concluding the highly scrutinized Justice Department investigation into his troubled finances.
Previous court filings indicate that Hunter Biden will admit to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time in 2017 and 2018, and he will also enter into a deal with prosecutors that would resolve a felony gun charge.
As part of the plea agreement, Justice Department prosecutors are expected to recommend a sentence of probation for the president’s son. District Judge Maryellen Noreika – a Donald Trump appointee who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate – will preside over Wednesday’s hearing and has the sole authority to decide Hunter Biden’s punishment.
A sentencing date will likely be scheduled during the plea hearing.
More about the probe: While the investigation was ongoing, Hunter Biden fully paid his federal tax bill, along with interest and penalties, his lawyers have previously said. A person familiar with the matter told CNN the total bill was approximately $2 million.
This is an unprecedented moment in American history: Never before has the son of the sitting US president walked into a federal courthouse and pleaded guilty to a crime. (There is no public indication that Joe Biden or the White House ever tried to intervene in the probe.)
The Trump-era Justice Department started investigating Hunter Biden in 2018, and the probe steadily expanded to examine whether he violated money laundering and foreign lobbying laws with his multimillion-dollar overseas business dealings. Federal investigators also looked into Hunter Biden’s unpaid taxes and lavish spending, which came amid a struggle with addiction.
US attorney David Weiss has led the investigation. He was appointed by Trump, and Joe Biden kept him at his post so he could continue handling the probe.
From CNN's Marshall Cohen and Tierney Sneed
In a new filing Tuesday night, Hunter Biden’s legal team denied that they lied to court officials earlier in the day to get materials from a senior Republican lawmaker removed from the public docket, blaming the kerfuffle on an “unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication.”
Their denials came in response to District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who threatened them with sanctions amid accusations that a member of their staff lied to a court official when she allegedly “misrepresented … who she worked for” while requesting the removal of the GOP filing.
The dispute “appears to stem from an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court,” Biden’s lawyers wrote to Noreika, saying sanctions aren’t warranted because “there was no misrepresentation.”
The 11th-hour fracas came on the eve of Biden’s plea hearing, which is slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
Jessica Bengels, a staffer of the law firm representing Biden who had reached out to the court earlier on Tuesday, said in a sworn affidavit that she never told anyone that she was working with attorneys representing the Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith.
“I am completely confident that I never indicated that I was calling from Mr. Kittila's firm or that I worked with him in any way,” Bengels said in the affidavit, referring to Smith lawyer Ted Kittila.
Bengels said she had two phone calls with two court clerks, and said “there may have been some confusion” between the officials that led to a “mistaken understanding” about her identity.
According to earlier court filings, a court clerk said their office had been told by Bengels that she “worked with” Kittila, whose filing urged the judge to consider recent claims from two IRS whistleblowers involved in the Biden case that there was political meddling in the probe.
It appears likely that the matter will come up at Wednesday’s plea hearing.
From CNN's Arlette Saenz and Kevin Liptak
President Joe Biden is spending today out of public view, meeting with advisers at the White House as his son Hunter is appearing this morning at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, where he’s expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time in 2017 and 2018, and enter a deal with prosecutors that will resolve a felony gun charge.
As Hunter Biden arrived at the Delaware courthouse, the president was set to receive his daily intelligence briefing behind closed doors at the White House, the lone event listed on his schedule. He is not scheduled to appear in front of reporters today, and any comment, though not guaranteed yet, would likely come through the White House press shop.
First lady Jill Biden is traveling overseas with her daughter Ashley.
When details of Hunter’s plea agreement were revealed last month, the president and first lady telegraphed their support in a short statement from a White House spokesman. “The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” said White House spokesman Ian Sams.
Ahead of today’s hearing, the White House stuck to that sentiment.
“What you just said about the President and the First Lady loving their son and will continue to support him as he moves forward with his life, that continues to be true. And that will stay to be true,” White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said Tuesday. “The President will be here working on behalf of…the American people.”
Hunter Biden was last seen at the White House on the Fourth of July, taking in the fireworks in the nation’s capital with his family.
From CNN's Kara Scannell, Evan Perez and Paula Reid
US attorney David Weiss, who has led the Hunter Biden criminal probe, has offered to testify at a public congressional hearing this fall, according to a letter sent to lawmakers on Monday.
House Republicans have demanded that Weiss – a Donald Trump appointee – answer questions about allegations from two IRS whistleblowers that the tax investigation was tainted by political interference.
The new letter from the Justice Department proposes several dates in September and October when Weiss would be willing to testify to the House Judiciary Committee, which is led by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Notably, those dates are all long after Hunter Biden’s scheduled guilty plea, which is set to take place Wednesday. He has agreed to plead guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors as part of a plea deal.
The new letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte, states that the Justice Department has reservations about public testimony while investigations and judicial proceedings are “ongoing.” But there are “misrepresentations” that need to be addressed, and it “is strongly in the public interest for the American people and for Congress to hear directly” from Weiss.
“We are deeply concerned by any misrepresentations about our work – whether deliberate or arising from misunderstandings – that could unduly harm public confidence in the evenhanded administration of justice, to which we are dedicated,” Uriarte wrote.
The IRS whistleblowers claim Justice Department officials slow-walked the criminal probe into Hunter Biden’s tax issues, stymied their efforts to obtain subpoenas and search warrants, rebuffed their attempts to further scrutinize Biden family members, and repeatedly blocked Weiss from filing the felony charges that they had recommended.
Their allegations of political interference in the probe have been met with adamant denials from Weiss, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other top Justice Department officials who were involved. In previous letters to Congress, Weiss has maintained that he was “granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges.”
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee submitted materials Tuesday to the judge in Hunter Biden’s criminal case, flagging recent claims from IRS whistleblowers that the probe into President Joe Biden’s son was tainted by political interference.
Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, wants District Judge Maryellen Noreika to “consider” these allegations while she presides over Hunter Biden’s plea hearing on Wednesday morning in Delaware.
“The Defendant appears to have benefited from political interference which calls into question the propriety of the investigation of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Smith’s attorney wrote in a court filing, which went to say, “it is critical that the Court consider the Whistleblower Materials before determining whether to accept the Plea Agreement.”
As the judge presiding over the case, Noreika has the power to reject the plea agreement that was negotiated between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department, though that would be a surprising and unexpected move. The House committee and Smith are not parties in the case.
Smith’s committee heard testimony from two IRS agents who helped lead the probe. They claimed Justice Department officials undercut their attempts to scrutinize Biden family members, slow-walked requests for subpoenas and search warrants, and blocked the US attorney who oversaw the probe from bringing the felony tax evasion charges that they had recommended.
The relevant parties – including US attorney David Weiss, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other senior Justice Department officials – publicly refuted the whistleblowers’ claims of politicization, which included alleged incidents dating back to 2020 when Trump was president.
Weiss, a Trump appointee, has offered to publicly testify about the matter to Congress this fall.
Also on Tuesday, the right-wing Heritage Foundation urged Noreika to postpone Wednesday’s plea hearing so she could “obtain additional information” directly from the Justice Department that might address the lingering questions about whether there was any political interference in the probe.
From CNN's Kara Scannell, Evan Perez and Paula Reid
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, will plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and struck a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve a felony gun charge, the Justice Department said last month in court filings.
As part of the plea agreement, the Justice Department has agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for the two counts of failing to pay taxes in a timely matter for the years 2017 and 2018, according to sources. Hunter Biden owed at least $100,000 in federal taxes for 2017, and at least $100,000 in 2018, but did not pay what was due to the Internal Revenue Service by the deadlines.
A judge will have the final say on any sentence.The charges were detailed in a criminal filing in US District Court in Delaware, where the US Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, has been conducting the investigation that at one time explored allegations of money laundering, foreign lobbying and other potential charges.
The investigation is ongoing, the Justice Department said last month.
But Hunter Biden’s attorney, Christopher Clark, said in a statement that the deal with federal prosecutors will “resolve” the Justice Department’s long-running criminal probe into the president’s son.
“Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement,” Clark said. “A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government. I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”
In a brief statement, the White House said the Bidens “love their son.”
“The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” said White House spokesman Ian Sams.
Former President Donald Trump criticized the Hunter Biden plea deal on Truth Social: "Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere “traffic ticket.” Our system is BROKEN!"
The plea hearing for Hunter Biden is underway at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
The son of President Joe Biden is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time, and enter a deal with prosecutors that will resolve a felony gun charge.
This is an unprecedented moment in American history. Never before has the son of the sitting US president walked into a federal courthouse and pleaded guilty to a crime.
Federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, will preside over the case that Justice Department brought against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Biden’s plea hearing was scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET.
Noreika, a former patent lawyer in Delaware, had the support of both Democratic senators from Delaware when she was nominated by Trump. Under the Senate’s so-called blue slip tradition, nominees for district court seats must have the support of the home state senators to move forward.
She was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote in August 2018.
The Justice Department announced last month that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and struck a deal to resolve a felony gun charge.
As part of the plea agreement, the Justice Department has agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for the two counts of failing to pay taxes in a timely matter, according to sources. A judge would have the final say on any sentence, however.
Campaign donations: Federal records indicate that Noreika has donated more than $15,000 to political candidates dating back to 1999. Her political spending has gone to both parties.
On the presidential level, she gave $1,000 to then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. She later donated $2,300 to the eventual 2008 Republican nominee, then-Arizona Sen. John McCain. She donated to the subsequent GOP nominee as well, giving $2,500 to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.
Noreika also financially supported Sen. Tom Cotton, a conservative Republican from Arkansas, during his campaign in 2014, when he unseated an incumbent Democratic senator. And she donated $1,000 to Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum in 2005.
She also donated $1,000 in 2009 to the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the DSCC.
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is set to plead guilty soon to two federal misdemeanors for not paying taxes on time — a major step toward concluding the highly scrutinized Justice Department investigation into his troubled finances.
Previous court filings indicate that Hunter Biden will admit to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time in 2017 and 2018, and he will also enter into a deal with prosecutors that would resolve a felony gun charge.
As part of the plea agreement, Justice Department prosecutors are expected to recommend a sentence of probation for the president’s son. District Judge Maryellen Noreika – a Donald Trump appointee who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate – will preside over Wednesday’s hearing and has the sole authority to decide Hunter Biden’s punishment.
A sentencing date will likely be scheduled during the plea hearing.
More about the probe: While the investigation was ongoing, Hunter Biden fully paid his federal tax bill, along with interest and penalties, his lawyers have previously said. A person familiar with the matter told CNN the total bill was approximately $2 million.
This is an unprecedented moment in American history: Never before has the son of the sitting US president walked into a federal courthouse and pleaded guilty to a crime. (There is no public indication that Joe Biden or the White House ever tried to intervene in the probe.)
The Trump-era Justice Department started investigating Hunter Biden in 2018, and the probe steadily expanded to examine whether he violated money laundering and foreign lobbying laws with his multimillion-dollar overseas business dealings. Federal investigators also looked into Hunter Biden’s unpaid taxes and lavish spending, which came amid a struggle with addiction.
US attorney David Weiss has led the investigation. He was appointed by Trump, and Joe Biden kept him at his post so he could continue handling the probe.
In a new filing Tuesday night, Hunter Biden’s legal team denied that they lied to court officials earlier in the day to get materials from a senior Republican lawmaker removed from the public docket, blaming the kerfuffle on an “unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication.”
Their denials came in response to District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who threatened them with sanctions amid accusations that a member of their staff lied to a court official when she allegedly “misrepresented … who she worked for” while requesting the removal of the GOP filing.
The dispute “appears to stem from an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court,” Biden’s lawyers wrote to Noreika, saying sanctions aren’t warranted because “there was no misrepresentation.”
The 11th-hour fracas came on the eve of Biden’s plea hearing, which is slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
Jessica Bengels, a staffer of the law firm representing Biden who had reached out to the court earlier on Tuesday, said in a sworn affidavit that she never told anyone that she was working with attorneys representing the Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith.
“I am completely confident that I never indicated that I was calling from Mr. Kittila's firm or that I worked with him in any way,” Bengels said in the affidavit, referring to Smith lawyer Ted Kittila.
Bengels said she had two phone calls with two court clerks, and said “there may have been some confusion” between the officials that led to a “mistaken understanding” about her identity.
According to earlier court filings, a court clerk said their office had been told by Bengels that she “worked with” Kittila, whose filing urged the judge to consider recent claims from two IRS whistleblowers involved in the Biden case that there was political meddling in the probe.
It appears likely that the matter will come up at Wednesday’s plea hearing.
President Joe Biden is spending today out of public view, meeting with advisers at the White House as his son Hunter is appearing this morning at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, where he’s expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time in 2017 and 2018, and enter a deal with prosecutors that will resolve a felony gun charge.
As Hunter Biden arrived at the Delaware courthouse, the president was set to receive his daily intelligence briefing behind closed doors at the White House, the lone event listed on his schedule. He is not scheduled to appear in front of reporters today, and any comment, though not guaranteed yet, would likely come through the White House press shop.
First lady Jill Biden is traveling overseas with her daughter Ashley.
When details of Hunter’s plea agreement were revealed last month, the president and first lady telegraphed their support in a short statement from a White House spokesman. “The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” said White House spokesman Ian Sams.
Ahead of today’s hearing, the White House stuck to that sentiment.
“What you just said about the President and the First Lady loving their son and will continue to support him as he moves forward with his life, that continues to be true. And that will stay to be true,” White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said Tuesday. “The President will be here working on behalf of…the American people.”
Hunter Biden was last seen at the White House on the Fourth of July, taking in the fireworks in the nation’s capital with his family.
US attorney David Weiss, who has led the Hunter Biden criminal probe, has offered to testify at a public congressional hearing this fall, according to a letter sent to lawmakers on Monday.
House Republicans have demanded that Weiss – a Donald Trump appointee – answer questions about allegations from two IRS whistleblowers that the tax investigation was tainted by political interference.
The new letter from the Justice Department proposes several dates in September and October when Weiss would be willing to testify to the House Judiciary Committee, which is led by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Notably, those dates are all long after Hunter Biden’s scheduled guilty plea, which is set to take place Wednesday. He has agreed to plead guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors as part of a plea deal.
The new letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte, states that the Justice Department has reservations about public testimony while investigations and judicial proceedings are “ongoing.” But there are “misrepresentations” that need to be addressed, and it “is strongly in the public interest for the American people and for Congress to hear directly” from Weiss.
“We are deeply concerned by any misrepresentations about our work – whether deliberate or arising from misunderstandings – that could unduly harm public confidence in the evenhanded administration of justice, to which we are dedicated,” Uriarte wrote.
The IRS whistleblowers claim Justice Department officials slow-walked the criminal probe into Hunter Biden’s tax issues, stymied their efforts to obtain subpoenas and search warrants, rebuffed their attempts to further scrutinize Biden family members, and repeatedly blocked Weiss from filing the felony charges that they had recommended.
Their allegations of political interference in the probe have been met with adamant denials from Weiss, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other top Justice Department officials who were involved. In previous letters to Congress, Weiss has maintained that he was “granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges.”
The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee submitted materials Tuesday to the judge in Hunter Biden’s criminal case, flagging recent claims from IRS whistleblowers that the probe into President Joe Biden’s son was tainted by political interference.
Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, wants District Judge Maryellen Noreika to “consider” these allegations while she presides over Hunter Biden’s plea hearing on Wednesday morning in Delaware.
“The Defendant appears to have benefited from political interference which calls into question the propriety of the investigation of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Smith’s attorney wrote in a court filing, which went to say, “it is critical that the Court consider the Whistleblower Materials before determining whether to accept the Plea Agreement.”
As the judge presiding over the case, Noreika has the power to reject the plea agreement that was negotiated between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department, though that would be a surprising and unexpected move. The House committee and Smith are not parties in the case.
Smith’s committee heard testimony from two IRS agents who helped lead the probe. They claimed Justice Department officials undercut their attempts to scrutinize Biden family members, slow-walked requests for subpoenas and search warrants, and blocked the US attorney who oversaw the probe from bringing the felony tax evasion charges that they had recommended.
The relevant parties – including US attorney David Weiss, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other senior Justice Department officials – publicly refuted the whistleblowers’ claims of politicization, which included alleged incidents dating back to 2020 when Trump was president.
Weiss, a Trump appointee, has offered to publicly testify about the matter to Congress this fall.
Also on Tuesday, the right-wing Heritage Foundation urged Noreika to postpone Wednesday’s plea hearing so she could “obtain additional information” directly from the Justice Department that might address the lingering questions about whether there was any political interference in the probe.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, will plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and struck a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve a felony gun charge, the Justice Department said last month in court filings.
As part of the plea agreement, the Justice Department has agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for the two counts of failing to pay taxes in a timely matter for the years 2017 and 2018, according to sources. Hunter Biden owed at least $100,000 in federal taxes for 2017, and at least $100,000 in 2018, but did not pay what was due to the Internal Revenue Service by the deadlines.
A judge will have the final say on any sentence.The charges were detailed in a criminal filing in US District Court in Delaware, where the US Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, has been conducting the investigation that at one time explored allegations of money laundering, foreign lobbying and other potential charges.
The investigation is ongoing, the Justice Department said last month.
But Hunter Biden’s attorney, Christopher Clark, said in a statement that the deal with federal prosecutors will “resolve” the Justice Department’s long-running criminal probe into the president’s son.
“Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement,” Clark said. “A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government. I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”
In a brief statement, the White House said the Bidens “love their son.”
“The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” said White House spokesman Ian Sams.
Former President Donald Trump criticized the Hunter Biden plea deal on Truth Social: "Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere “traffic ticket.” Our system is BROKEN!"
