House Republicans Hail Foiled Plea Deal for Hunter Biden

After a widely anticipated plea agreement for Hunter Biden was upended in federal court on Wednesday, congressional Republicans reacted with a newfound sense of bravado and accomplishment.

GOP committee chairmen who have been investigating alleged wrongdoing by the Biden family renewed their pledges to go after President Joe Biden — as they claimed credit for the stunning unraveling of what they had dubbed Hunter Biden's "sweetheart" plea deal. That proposed deal has now been placed on hold in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

Reps. Jim Jordan, James Comer and Jason Smith, chairs of the Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means panels, respectively, all appeared on Fox News' “Hannity” Wednesday night to root for their cases, now with newfound zeal in light of the plea agreement limbo.

In particular they celebrated two IRS whistleblowers who worked on the Hunter Biden federal tax investigation — which now remains open — and provided testimony to their committees. In a recent televised hearing, the whistleblowers said Department of Justice officials blocked prosecutors from taking more serious action against the Bidens.

"We have really credible whistleblowers coming forward and they’re all singing from the same tune," Smith said on the conservative talk show.

"The compelling thing that has happened in the last several weeks is two brave whistleblowers coming forward," Jordan told host Sean Hannity. "Their credibility was unimpeachable."

"Today was a victory for justice in America," Comer said.

The committee chairs also harped on a bizarre turn of events in the federal court case in which U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika threatened sanctions against Hunter Biden’s lawyers.

Smith called the allegation in which a staffer for one of Hunter Biden's law firms pretended to be a GOP lawyer "absolutely incredible."

In the Capitol earlier Wednesday other Republicans also celebrated the news.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he was glad the Hunter Biden plea deal had fallen through, calling the original arrangement a “complete and utter mess.”

“It was a sweetheart deal designed to be a slap on the wrist for Hunter, and most importantly, designed to cover up any criminal misconduct by Joe Biden,” Cruz told The Messenger.

The original plea deal was widely expected to allow Biden's troubled son to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and enroll in a diversion program to avoid prosecution for a gun charge. But Judge Noreika on Wednesday asked the opposing legal teams to work out a new arrangement amid confusion about the terms of immunity for other potential charges.

Cruz also praised GOP leaders on the other side of the Capitol for keeping after Hunter Biden.

“I'm confident the House will continue to exert real oversight,” he said of the House GOP’s ongoing investigations. “I think they've done extraordinary work so far.”

House Judiciary Committee member Darrell Issa said Hunter Biden got "too good a deal" to begin with. But he warned that this new wrinkle doesn't guarantee the DOJ's handling of the case will improve.

"The concern is that the people who didn't gave him the sweetheart deal are the same ones who were expected now to aggressively prosecute him," the California Republican told The Messenger.

Issa added that Attorney General Merrick Garland should look at all the information House Republicans have gathered about the younger Biden's business dealings. But he said he highly doubted DOJ would shift gears.

"I think the attorney general is likely not to move it to a new team – although he should," Issa said.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the hearing brought to light "a very important new development" that Hunter Biden is still under investigation for other potential federal crimes.

"We were pleased to hear that were additional investigations going on," he said. "They had to make that very clear because in that court the attorneys understood they had to answer the judge."

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said Judge Noreika appeared to be "reacting in a stunned way, frankly, to her sense that things are way out of the norm."

"She's obviously concerned that she's being asked to put her stamp of approval on something that is very unusual," Bishop told The Messenger.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a former prosecutor, said disputes between the prosecution and defense over provisions of a plea deal happen "every now and then" but "it's somewhat unusual" for them to have not worked that out before the hearing.

"You would have thought they would have gone through every sentence in great detail," he said. "It doesn't seem like it was nefarious. It seems like they just had a different interpretation. And now we'll see what happens."

Asked about Hunter Biden appearing to seek immunity for other potential crimes, Lieu said, "Well, of course. The defense attorney is going to be advocating for the best interest of his client."

Comer said he and Jordan, as far back as January, felt Biden had clearly violated the foreign agent registration law — which became a focal point in the Biden case on Wednesday.

Noreika, in her courtroom in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, asked a hypothetical question about whether the president’s son could still be prosecuted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in trying to understand the terms of the deal. That law requires U.S. political operatives and lobbyists acting on behalf of foreign interests to disclose those associations.

Hunter Biden's counsel objected to the notion that prosecutors could bring such charges after the plea deal, which is among the items they now have to work out with the prosecution in restructuring the deal.

Bishop said he can't understand why either side would enter the plea deal without answering understanding whether there would be Foreign Agents Registration Act charges.

"It's almost hard to imagine how he could he could not be a foreign agent under the circumstances," he said of Hunter. "And he certainly wasn't registered."

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., agreed that Hunter Biden should have been prosecuted under the statute.

"He's been operating as a foreign agent," Donalds said. "Where was the Department of Justice in that? Nowhere to be found. They threw Paul Manafort in jail for less."

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he's "not surprised" that Hunter Biden wanted the immunity "to encompass all potential crimes" as more questions are raised about his business dealings.

"We just got to get to the bottom of all of this," he said. "Clearly in the last six months what's come out about Mr. Biden, it's not pretty. It looks like somebody knocked over a urine sample."