CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said Hunter Biden’s plea agreement, which allowed him to avoid a felony charge, was a “fairly rare” occurrence.
Hunter appeared in court Wednesday to plead guilty to two felony misdemeanor charges for failing to pay taxes, which would allow him to avoid jail time for a separate gun charge.
Hunter’s plea deal, however, nearly collapsed after the defense and prosecution were unable to agree on the scope of immunity of coverage that Hunter had, specifically whether the agreement would shield Hunter from being charged under Foreign Agents Registration Act in the future. The two sides appeared to resolve the issue shortly thereafter, limiting the immunity to tax charges between 2014 and 2019 and the gun charge, CNN reported.
“On the gun charge, which is a felony charge, they’ve agreed to a diversion program which means he has to meet certain requirements and then there’s no charge, that [gun] charge goes away, correct?” host John Berman asked before the plea deal came into question.
“Right, and that’s fairly rare in the federal system,” Honig said. “Diversionary programs like this, meaning if you comply — usually it would mean if you comply with drug testing, you stay off drugs if you report in … if you comply, this case goes away. When I was in the federal system here in New York, that did not exist. But this was a more recent development.”
MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos made a similar claim Wednesday, claiming that misdemeanor charges of the kind Hunter faces are generally accompanied by felony charges.
“No matter how you cut it, pre-trial diversion as an offer is very rare in federal court,” Cevallos said.
This story has been updated to reflect new information.