Hunter Biden’s leading attorney, Christopher Clark, has asked to withdraw from the case because he could be called in as a witness in future litigation involving the collapsed plea deal he brokered with prosecutors. Clark filed a motion with the Delaware judge who has presided over the case since the plea deal was announced. “Based on recent developments, 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,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers said in the filing. “Under the ‘witness-advocate’ rule, it is inadvisable for Mr. Clark to continue as counsel in this case.” The Associated Press has the story:
Hunter Biden’s top lawyer asks to withdraw from case
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)
Hunter Biden’s lead criminal defense attorney asked a federal judge on Tuesday for permission to withdraw from the case because he could now be called as a witness in future proceedings.
Christopher Clark, Biden’s longtime defense lawyer, filed a motion with the Delaware judge who has overseen the case since a plea deal was announced in June.
“Based on recent developments, 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 lawyers said in the filing.
Federal prosecutors said last week they reached an impasse on a plea deal related to tax offenses and a related “diversion agreement” to resolve a gun possession charge. They asked the judge to withdraw a late August deadline she previously gave both sides to re-negotiate the agreements after she refused to approve them at a hearing last month.
Biden’s lawyers said Sunday they believed the gun diversion deal was still “valid and binding.” Abbe Lowell, one of the attorneys, placed blame on prosecutors for drafting the agreements the judge took issue with.
The judge has asked for further information and has not ruled on the status of the case.
As the plea talks fell apart last week, the prosecutor handling the case, US attorney David Weiss, requested and was granted “special counsel” status by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Prosecutors in the Hunter Biden case deny defense push to keep gun charge agreement in place
A legal showdown over the derailed plea deal for Hunter Biden continued Tuesday as prosecutors asserted that an agreement on a gun charge is dead along with the rest of the deal as the case makes a major shift into a special counsel investigation.
While the agreement that was supposed to have wrapped up the long-running investigation of President Joe Biden’s son largely unraveled during a contentious court hearing last month, prosecutors said the two sides had continued to negotiate until the defense rejected their final counterproposal the day before U.S. Attorney David Weiss asked to be named special counsel.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden have argued that prosecutors reneged on an agreement on tax charges but said a separate agreement sparing him prosecution on a gun charge remains valid. The agreement on the gun charge also contains an immunity clause against federal prosecutions for some other potential crimes.
Prosecutors denied reneging on any deal. While the agreement on the gun charge was signed by a prosecutor, probation agents didn’t sign it and so it never became valid, they argued.
The conflict is now in front of U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is weighing the prosecution’s motion to pull the tax misdemeanor charges they filed and potentially file them in another court like California or Washington.
Biden’s defense attorney on the case, Christopher Clark, also filed to withdraw from the case Tuesday, saying that he could be called as a witness over the negotiation and drafting of the deal and cannot also act as his lawyer. He’s been replaced by another Hunter Biden attorney, Abbe Lowell.
The plea agreement had been decried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans who are pursuing their own congressional investigations into nearly every facet of Biden’s business dealings and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.
The agreement had originally called for Biden to plead guilty to failing to pay taxes on over $1.5 million in income in both 2017 and 2018, and get probation rather than jail on the misdemeanor counts. A separate agreement was to spare him prosecution on the felony crime of being a drug user in possession of a gun in 2018 if he kept out of trouble for two years.
Attorney General Merrick Garland’s surprise announcement last week of Weiss as special counsel raised fresh questions about the case ahead of the 2024 election. Hunter Biden’s history of drug use and financial dealings have trailed the political career of his father.
The case comes against the backdrop of the Justice Department’s indictments against former President Donald Trump — Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s election.
Trump has been indicted and is awaiting trial in two separate cases brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith. One is over Trump’s refusal to turn over classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The other involves charges of fraud and conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In the case of Hunter Biden, prosecutors have not made any accusations or charges against the president in probing the affairs of his son. House Republicans have been trying to connect Hunter Biden’s work to his father, but have not been able to produce evidence to show wrongdoing.
