In exchange he was offered probation, as he had already paid what he owed the government along with penalties.
In the same deal, Weiss agreed to suspend the felony gun charge if Biden completed “pretrial diversion,” which often involves counseling or rehabilitation.
But in a dramatic July 26 hearing, the deal collapsed over the issue of whether Biden would have been immune from any other charges also investigated by Weiss, including possible crimes related to his business dealings in Ukraine, China and elsewhere.
The judge mentioned the possibility that Biden could be charged as having acted as a lobbyist for foreign governments without registering with the Justice Department.
Three weeks later, after the deal collapsed, Weiss dropped the tax charges and indicated in a court filing that new charges would be brought in other states.
And he told the Delaware court that an indictment on the gun charge would come by the end of September.
The legal troubles of Biden, a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist, pose an increasing challenge to his father’s bid for a second term.
Without offering any evidence, Republicans have accused President Biden’s Justice Department of protecting his son and have accused Weiss, a Republican appointee, of going easy on Hunter.
On Tuesday Republicans in the House of Representatives formally opened an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden.
They alleged, without offering hard evidence, that while vice president in 2015-2016, Biden intervened to protect an allegedly corrupt Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, where Hunter Biden sat on the board.
Republicans allege Joe Biden and his family reaped large sums for helping Burisma.
AFP
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