U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika deferred the plea deal negotiated by Hunter Biden’s attorneys and federal prosecutors after a contentious hearing, taking issue with the structure of the arrangement and lamenting on multiple occasions the deal’s “form over substance.”
In the interim, Hunter Biden entered a not guilty plea. Noreika requested additional briefings from the parties in the coming weeks before determining next steps.
“I’m not going to say I’m going to accept the agreement, I’m not going to say I’ll deny it,” she said.
The three-hour hearing featured several turbulent interludes. Noreika’s line of questioning about an immunity agreement exposed fissures between the two parties, with the discussion culminating in prosecutors threatening to bring foreign agent charges, prompting Chris Clark, an attorney for Biden, to say: “As far as I’m concerned, the plea agreement is null and void.”
The parties moved past those disagreements, with both sides stressing their desire to move forward. But Noreika asked the parties to consult and brief her in the coming weeks.
In the understatement of the day, Noreika acknowledged that her probing threw “a little bit of a curveball” into the proceeding.
