A federal judge on Wednesday set a court date of July 26 for Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, to make his initial court appearance related to the plea deal he agreed to Tuesday, ABC News reported.
The hearing was ordered by US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware, hours after she was assigned to the case.
Biden agreed to a plea deal regarding a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and a pretrial diversion agreement on a felony gun charge. Noreika will have the power to either approve or reject the plea agreement prosecutors brokered with Hunter Biden's legal team.
As part of his plea deal, the younger Biden will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018, according to the agreement. For the gun charge, he will agree to pretrial diversion, with the charge being dropped if he adheres to certain terms.
He will likely avoid jail time if Noreika signs off on the deal.
Former US President Donald Trump likened the agreement with Hunter Biden to a “mere traffic ticket,” adding, “Our system is BROKEN!”
Trump had suggested last week that his recent federal indictment comes as a “distraction” for allegations made by House Republicans in their probe into President Biden and his son.
“It was done for political reasons, but it was also done, I guess, to cover up the kind of a massive crime that’s now being revealed by the Republicans in the House,” Trump said.
“It’s incredible when you look at what happened, when you look at the kind of money that flows into the Biden family, and to Joe Biden, by the way, and so they wanted to do a distraction,” he added.
House Republicans have long made investigating “the Biden family’s influence peddling and business schemes” and concerns about Hunter Biden’s laptop a priority for their lower chamber majority.