President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, backed out of a plea deal Wednesday after learning that the Justice Department planned to continue pursuing new criminal charges after he pleaded guilty.
Hunter’s attorneys thought that last month they’d secured a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in which Hunter would plead guilty to federal tax and firearms charges and avoid both prison time and felonies on his record. If Hunter were a normal citizen not related to the president, he would have otherwise faced charges for additional years of unpaid taxes, unreported income, illegal tax deductions for hookers and payments to family members, unregistered lobbying for foreign interests, and falsely denying his drug problems on an application to purchase a firearm.