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Judge Releases Hunter Biden Plea Deal


By Charlie McCarthy    |   Wednesday, 02 August 2023 01:23 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/us/hunter-biden-plea-deal-release/2023/08/02/id/1129403/

The federal judge who rejected Hunter Biden’s plea deal released the proposed settlement publicly on Wednesday.

Judge Maryellen Noreika granted a request by NBC reporter Tom Winter for the full Hunter Biden plea deal to be released, The Messenger reported. Neither Biden’s lawyers nor prosecutors objected. A leaked version of the proposed plea deal was widely shared in the media last week.

Large portions of the plea deal were read in court on July 26, when Hunter Biden’s proposed deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to tax charges and avoid a gun charge hit a snag when Noreika said she needed more time to review the agreement.

“Those agreements should be publicly docketed given that they were discussed in open court and played a role in Your Honor’s decision on the proposed plea deal,” Winter wrote in his request.

Noreika also released the diversion agreement, which included that the U.S. agreed to “not criminally prosecute Biden, outside of the terms of this Agreement, or any federal crimes encompassed by the attached Statement of Facts (Attachment A) and the Statement of Facts attached as Exhibit 1 to the Memorandum of Plea Agreement filed this same day.”

Hunter Biden initially had agreed to plead guilty to two tax evasion charges and minor gun charges, much to the protest of Republican lawmakers.

After Noreika rejected the deal, the first son pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to pay taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018 despite owing more than $100,000, prosecutors allege.

The Republican heads of three House committees on Monday announced in a letter they will investigate the circumstances surrounding Biden’s failed plea deal, the New York Post reported.

The letter, signed by Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland less than one week after Noreika rejected the plea deal after describing it as “not standard” and questioning the deal’s diversion agreement.

Noreika ordered attorneys Friday to raise issues with her chambers, not the court clerk.

The order came two days after an employee at a law firm representing Biden allegedly misrepresented her identity to the clerk’s office during a phone call.

Reuters contributed to this story.

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Judge Denies Biden Request to Delay Social Media Order


By Charlie McCarthy    |   Monday, 10 July 2023 02:20 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/judge-social-media-communications/2023/07/10/id/1126585/

A federal judge in Louisiana denied a request by the Biden administration to delay an order he imposed last week banning federal officials from communicating with social media companies, Bloomberg reported.

U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty on Monday refused to pause his July 4 nationwide injunction blocking multiple government agencies and administration officials from meeting with or contacting social media companies for the purpose of “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

WHY WOULD THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, AND THEIR PUPPET MASTERS, WANT THE COURT TO STAY THIS ORDER? Only nefarious motivations want a stay. Is it just me, or are they no longer concerned about being blatant with their cheating?

Doughty, nominated to the federal bench by then-President Donald Trump, also denied the government’s alternative request for a seven-day pause while it petitions the appeals court to step in.

The Justice Department is expected to ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene, Bloomberg reported. DOJ had insisted that Doughty’s order was broad and unclear in defining what kind of communication with tech companies is no longer allowed.

The judge responded by saying the government isn’t entitled to a delay in enforcing his order since they were likely to lose on the merits of the case, Bloomberg reported. Doughty added that DOJ failed to identify specific examples of government activity that would be hurt in the meantime.

“[The injunction] it is not as broad as it appears,” Doughty wrote in the order. “It only prohibits something the Defendants have no legal right to do — contacting social media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner, the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms. It also contains numerous exceptions.”

Doughty last week ruled the government likely violated the First Amendment in its efforts to persuade tech companies to take steps to limit the spread of misinformation and fake accounts, especially during the pandemic. The Biden administration wants the ban put on hold while it challenges the judge’s 155-page opinion.

Doughty’s order bars many agencies and their employees from “urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing” social media companies to remove or restrict content covered by the First Amendment’s free speech protections. The judge included exceptions for communications about criminal activity, national security threats, election integrity issues, and other “permissible public government speech,” Bloomberg reported.

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