Hunter Biden plea deal on hold after judge is unable to accept agreement

A plea deal between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department over tax charges is on hold after a federal judge said in a court hearing Wednesday that she was not ready to accept a revised agreement between both parties. 

Hunter Biden failed to pay between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in federal taxes before the legal deadlines and was poised to plead guilty to two tax charges with prosecutors agreeing to recommend a sentence of probation.

But before the original plea could be entered, the deal began to unravel and a revised agreement reached during the hearing was not accepted by the judge.

If you’re just reading in now, here’s what you missed from Hunter Biden’s dramatic day in court:

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan credited IRS whistleblowers for the collapse of a plea deal for Hunter Biden on Wednesday, while Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin accused Republicans of hypocrisy for their selective faith in the justice system.

“I think it’s all driven by the whistleblowers and just how credible those individuals are, and the fact that their testimony has not wavered,” Jordan told CNN. “It’s been consistent, unlike the White House. Their story, unlike the Department of Justice, their story, and of course, the whistleblower testimony is backed up by the FBI agent who was … interviewed a little over a week ago.”

Asked how the Department of Justice’s assertion that its investigation into Hunter Biden is still ongoing would affect his probe, Jordan responded: “That’s a good question.”

He said that he wanted to get testimony from a dozen other witnesses before hearing from US Attorney David Weiss, who led the Biden probe and whom DOJ wants to testify to rebut GOP allegations of political interference.  

While Republicans celebrated the judge’s decision, some Democrats accused them of hypocrisy. 

“I don’t think they can have it both ways,” Raskin said. “If they express happiness about one thing that happens in court, they should just express confidence in the ability of the court to work it out, then that’s the way I feel about it,” he said. “I mean, it’s really it’s up to the judicial system and the parties in this case.”

The Maryland Democrat added, “I wish they showed that kind of confidence in the 60 federal and state courts which declared that there was no electoral irregularity or corruption in 2020.”

Raskin also called it “to my mind, absolutely anomalous and bizarre that members of Congress would try to interfere in a plea agreement.”

More background: House Republicans have zeroed in on Hunter Biden’s finances as part of their broader oversight probes into the Biden family. They are seeking testimony from Weiss about the criminal probe, and the House GOP’s right-wing flank is already clamoring for a possible impeachment of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers called the IRS whistleblowers “disgruntled agents” with “an axe to grind.”

They’ve also said their client is pleading guilty because he believes “it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life.”

 CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Holmes Lybrand and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

GOP lawmakers sharply criticized the Justice Department on today’s developments over Hunter Biden’s plea deal and expect the collapse of the deal will bolster their probe into President Joe Biden.

Rep. Tom McClintock, a member of the House Judiciary Committee who had been a key holdout on impeachment proceedings against the president, said it is time to move forward with one. The Republican from California said evidence is “mounting” on bribery allegations when Biden was vice president — something the White House has furiously denied and which Republicans have yet to corroborate.

McClintock called the plea deal between the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden’s attorneys “a disgrace.”

Other Republicans said the whole plea deal with the Justice Department deserves GOP scrutiny.

Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, told CNN: “I don’t know, but it’s just another nail in the coffin. I mean, they’re selling something. You know, Trump was selling cheap steaks and awful ties, all they’re selling is influence and that scares the hell out of me.”

Rep. Troy Nehls, a Republican from Texas, said Hunter Biden is a “true criminal” when asked to react to news that a plea deal between the Justice Department and Hunter Biden’s attorneys has fallen apart.

“Maybe because they realized Hunter Biden is a true criminal and probably needs to go to prison for a few years” Nehls, who said he has not been following the plea deal hearing, told CNN. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said that the back-and-forth on the plea deal shows that the agreement was always flawed and that more charges could be coming down. 

“It’s very telling that the judge intervened here and said basically, ‘No, I’m not going to approve some sweeping blanket deal,’” Hawley said. “I mean, that tells you the court has serious concerns about other potential charges here, and also the scope of the deal, which has seemed outrageous from the beginning.” 

He added, “This, I think, signals that they’re still very much as potential for prosecution forward.” Hawley said that Biden should not receive special treatment, as whistleblowers have alleged. “He should be treated like any other person under the law. That’s my view on him.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he “can understand” why House Republicans are frustrated by the Justice Department’s handling of the Hunter Biden case, after the plea deal fell apart earlier today. “There are a lot of people in the House who are better lawyers than I am, and it’s a bit confusing now — I’m not sure what happened this morning — but to the extent that it looks like the administration is treating Democrats more favorably than Republicans, I can understand why people in the House are upset about it,” the Republican from Kentucky said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, pushed back on the Republicans’ claims. “He’s a Trump appointee,” the lawmaker from New York said of the US attorney leading the probe, David Weiss. “He’s doing his job and there’s just no evidence to support any conclusion of unfair deal.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, emphasized that Hunter Biden is a private citizen and that’s how the case should be looked at.

“Hunter Biden should go through the process and the legal process. And I think that what’s important is that Republicans don’t try to politicize this issue. Hunter Biden should be treated fairly within the criminal justice system. If he’s committed wrongdoing, he should be held accountable for that, and I think all of us agree on that point,” he said.

Federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, presided over a plea hearing Wednesday related to a case involving the Justice Department and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

A revised agreement was not accepted by the judge Wednesday, and she asked both sides to file additional briefs explaining the plea deal’s legal structuring. She has the sole authority to decide Hunter Biden’s ultimate punishment.

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 had 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 had agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for the two counts of failing to pay taxes in a timely matter.

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.

CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Kara Scannell contributed reporting to this post. 

A plea deal between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department over tax charges is on hold after a federal judge said in court Wednesday that she was not ready to accept a revised agreement between both parties.

Here’s a look at the courtroom sketches from the dramatic hearing today:

Hunter Biden has departed the US District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, after his hearing ended with the plea deal on hold Wednesday afternoon.

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she was not ready to accept the plea deal, and the hearing ended with Hunter Biden pleading not guilty. 

Hunter Biden appeared agitated and worried during the hearing as a plea deal struck between his legal team and prosecutors began to fall apart. 

He appeared in court wearing a dark suit and sporting slicked back hair and spoke softly as he answered a series of routine questions from the judge. 

He looked down as a prosecutor recounted his personal struggles, earnings and tax troubles. 

But after the plea agreement began to fall apart, Biden appeared concerned.

During two moments when the judge left the courtroom, Biden left the defense table to huddle with his lawyers, his brow furrowed as he conversed with them about what was unfolding. 

After Noreika said she would not accept the agreement Wednesday, she asked Biden how he pled to the charges discussed during the hearing. 

“Not guilty, your honor,” Biden said, his voice slightly louder than it was earlier that day as he answered other questions from the judge. 

The federal judge overseeing Wednesday’s plea hearing raised serious questions about the agreements Hunter Biden reached with prosecutors, leading her to end the proceedings without accepting his plea deal.

“Is this even constitutional?” US District Judge Maryellen Noreika said of the proposed agreement to resolve Biden’s gun possession conduct, adding that she has “concerns about the constitutionality” of the gun deal because it might violate separation of powers principles. 

The felony charge revolves around alleged false statements on his application to purchase the gun in which he affirmed falsely he was not using drugs at the time. Under the proposed deal presented going into the hearing, Biden would enter a diversion program to resolve the gun charge if he abides by certain conditions for a period of time. 

At Wednesday’s proceedings, the judge said she was “trying to exercise due deliverance and consideration to make sure we do not make a misstep.”

“You all are telling me to just rubber-stamp” the gun deal, Noreika said. 

The gun deal is “not straightforward” and contains “atypical provisions,” the judge said.

Noreika expressed frustration that the two sides structured the deals – which also included a separate plea agreement for two tax misdemeanors — in a way where she would need to approve the gun deal, but had no powers to approve or reject the tax agreement. 

The diversion agreement — which doesn’t often go to a judge — has a provision that says if there is a dispute over whether Biden breached the terms of the deal, it would go to the judge for fact finding. Noreika questioned why it would “plop” her in the middle of a deal she didn’t have a say in, and potentially block the Justice Department from bringing charges, a function of the executive branch.

Biden’s attorney said given the politicization of the case, they wanted a neutral arbiter to handle any potential disputes. The judge said she couldn’t make that decision on the fly. 

“I cannot accept the plea agreement today,” Noreika said.

According to an order issued after the hearing wrapped up, the parties have 30 days to submit additional briefs on the matter.

Hunter Biden’s legal team has departed US District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, after his hearing ended with the plea deal on hold Wednesday afternoon.

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she was not ready to accept the plea deal, and the hearing ended with Hunter Biden pleading not guilty for the time being. 

The White House again referred questions surrounding the legal proceedings in Hunter Biden’s case to his legal team after a Wednesday hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, ended with a plea deal on hold. The White House called the case “a personal matter.”

“Hunter Biden is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter for him. As we have said, the President, the first lady, they love their son, and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during Wednesday’s briefing. “This case was handled independently, as all of you know, by the Justice Department under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by the former president, President Trump.”  

The hearing ended Wednesday after US District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she was not ready to accept a revised plea deal between the DOJ and the President’s son’s legal team.

For the time being, Hunter Biden is pleading not guilty.

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she was not ready to accept the plea deal, and the hearing ended with Hunter Biden pleading not guilty for the time being.

The judge asked the sides to file additional briefs explaining the plea deal’s legal structuring. 

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika called the deal federal prosecutors reached with Hunter Biden for his gun possession offense “unusual.” 

She said the deal — in which Biden would enter the diversion program to resolve the charge — contains some “non-standard terms,” such as “broad immunity” from other potential charges. 

“We don’t usually make diversion agreements public,” the judge said, referring to the move by the parties to make that aspect of their agreement public and discuss it in open court.

The judge is asking Hunter Biden a series of questions about the facts that are included in the charging documents. 

The judge asked Biden for the names of the foreign companies where he has worked. 

“The Ukrainian energy company was Burisma,” Biden said. Biden has also mentioned his work for a Chinese energy company, CEFC. His ties to that company have come under intense scrutiny by House Republicans.  

The judge asked Biden, “You did know that you owed tax money, right?” 

Biden said, “Yes, your honor.” 

The Hunter Biden plea proceedings have restarted and the president’s son has agreed to a limited agreement that covers 2014 to 2019 and only includes conduct related to tax offenses, drug use and gun possession.

President Joe Biden’s son will still plead guilty to the tax misdemeanors for 2017 and 2018, but the agreement will also cover his tax-related conduct for the three years prior.

The two sides have agreed that this deal does not shield him from potential future charges.

The proceedings are ongoing. 

The judge called a second recess in the Hunter Biden plea proceedings as it appeared that the agreements the president’s son had reached with prosecutors had begun to unravel. 

The judge said she had “concerns” about the parties seemingly linking the tax plea agreement to the deal on the gun charge. During the proceedings, prosecutors confirmed that the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son was ongoing. 

The judge had been questioning the parties on the scope of the agreement.  

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig called the stunning development that the Hunter Biden plea agreement appears to have fallen apart today in court “very, very rare.” 

Honig said on CNN that sometimes with plea deals the sides will have a “miscommunication” of the “scope” of “what the coverage is,” in terms of what the plea agreement covers moving forward.

“If Hunter Biden agrees to one, two or three misdemeanors, that’s fine, but the agreement is no prison time. The bigger concern is (whether he is) covered for anything else,” Honig said.

He added that to have the deal fall apart in this fashion is “really surprising” and “doesn’t reflect well on either of the two parties.”

Honig said that if today’s proceedings end without a deal the parties “are back to the drawing board.” 

“The DOJ could say, ‘we don’t have a deal, we’re going back to our investigative work.’ You might get indicted straight up or we might conclude that we don’t have enough to charge here,” Honing said.

There is no Hunter Biden plea deal, according to the prosecutors and the defense.

President Joe Biden’s son had been expected to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors. 

Federal prosecutors gave a lengthy and detailed description of Hunter Biden’s tax problems and troubled finances at Wednesday’s plea proceedings. 

Biden failed to pay between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in federal taxes before the legal deadlines, prosecutors said in court.

President Joe Biden’s son earlier told the court that he intends to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. A sentencing date will likely be scheduled during the plea hearing.

The judge is asking the parties to explain how the deals on the tax crimes and the gun charges fit together. 

She is giving them a chance to discuss the matter amongst themselves and has called for a brief recess. 

The Justice Department will recommend probation for Hunter Biden, prosecutors confirmed at his plea hearing.

This is part of the negotiated plea agreement. The prosecutors highlighted Biden’s substantial income from Ukrainian and Chinese energy companies, and how he repeatedly missed federal tax deadlines. 

“He did, in fact, have the funds available” to pay his 2017 taxes on time — but didn’t pay, prosecutors said in court. Instead, he continued to “spend wildly” on personal luxuries and expenses, they said. 

Remember: Hunter Biden said earlier in court that he intends to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying federal taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. A sentencing date will likely also be scheduled during the plea hearing.

During the plea proceedings, the judge asked Hunter Biden about his past drug and alcohol abuse. He said he was repeatedly in and out of in-patient treatment “over the course of 20 years.” 

President Joe Biden’s son told the judge that he has been sober — from alcohol and drugs — since June 2019. 

During the plea proceedings for Hunter Biden, US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, Justice Department attorneys and Biden’s lawyers expressed agreement that the judge did not have the power to order the prosecutors to “redo” the probe if she thought “the investigation was lacking.” 

Attorneys for the Justice Department said that would need to be addressed “through the political process.”

As part of the conditions of release that were outlined at the start of Wednesday’s plea hearing, Hunter Biden cannot drink alcohol or use illegal drugs. He also can be drug tested at random by court officials. 

The plea hearing is still underway at a federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The plea hearing for Hunter Biden started Wednesday without the judge getting into the allegations that a staffer at the firm representing the president’s son misled the court’s clerk office in an effort to get a court filing from a GOP lawmaker removed from the docket.

It is possible the matter will come up later in the hearing, but the proceedings started with the procedural maneuvers surrounding Biden’s plea. 

The law firm staffer was accused Tuesday by court officials of misrepresenting herself as working with the lawyers for the GOP lawmaker, House Ways and Means chairman Jason Smith.  

Hunter Biden’s legal team has denied the allegation, writing to the judge Tuesday evening that there may have been a “misunderstanding” but that their “understanding” was that “there was no misrepresentation.” 

Hunter Biden has told the federal court in Delaware he intends to plead guilty to the charges he faces. 

When asked if he intended to plead guilty, he told the court, “Yes, your honor.”

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.

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.

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.

The House Oversight Committee heard last week from two IRS whistleblowers whose claims that the Justice Department politicized the Hunter Biden criminal probe have ignited a firestorm among Republicans.

One of the two whistleblowers identified himself publicly for the first time at the hearing: Joseph Ziegler, a 13-year IRS special agent with the Criminal Investigation Division.

In his testimony, Ziegler said he witnessed federal prosecutors deviating from normal procedures, and he echoed fellow whistleblower Gary Shapley’s claims that IRS investigators recommended charging Biden with far more serious crimes than what the president’s son has agreed to plead guilty to.

“It appeared to me, based on what I experienced, that the US attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other US attorneys,” Ziegler said.

The whistleblowers also told lawmakers that Justice Department officials stopped their investigators from scrutinizing President Joe Biden and his grandchildren, after finding evidence potentially linking them to Hunter Biden’s troubled finances.

“When the subject’s father is somehow related to the finances of the subject, in the normal course of any Investigation, we would have to get that information, to properly vet the financial flows of money, and determine what we end up charging,” Shapley said, adding that his team was blocked from running down leads related to the president.

Ziegler, who is Shapley’s deputy, also told the panel in his written testimony that he wanted to interview Hunter Biden’s adult children after uncovering potentially illegal deductions in Hunter Biden’s tax returns, related to payments to his children. But a Justice Department prosecutor said that would “get us into hot water” and it didn’t happen, Ziegler wrote.

The Justice Department and the White House have previously denied the whistleblowers’ claims that there was any political interference in the Hunter Biden criminal probe. These allegations are consistent with their previous closed-door testimony, which was made public last month.

Biden has said he wasn’t involved in his son’s business deals.

Throughout the six-hour hearing, Democrats poked holes in some of the whistleblowers’ claims and repeatedly noted that the Hunter Biden probe began under then-President Donald Trump and was overseen by a Trump-appointed prosecutor. They also accused Republicans of hypocritically focusing on the Biden family’s finances while ignoring possible conflicts tied to Trump’s business empire.

At one point, firebrand GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene held up large posters showing highly explicit images of a naked Hunter Biden with a sex worker. (The IRS whistleblowers had testified that his tax records showed payments to prostitutes and sex clubs while he struggled with addiction.) Her antics drew swift rebukes from Democrats on the panel.

Read more about the hearing here.

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!”