A federal judge in Delaware formally dismissed misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden on Thursday, but the president’s son is expected to face the same charges — or new ones — in the near future.
The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika was expected following a failed plea agreement last month between federal prosecutors and President Joe Biden’s son.
Special counsel David Weiss’s office moved to dismiss the charges last week, citing venue problems that would not have been an issue had Biden pleaded guilty in the case as initially anticipated.
Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges related to his failure to pay income taxes earlier this year in return for prosecutors recommending a sentence of probation. But the agreement fell apart over confusion at the plea hearing about a separate gun charge and questions the judge had about the deals.
Weiss was the main prosecutor at the time, as U.S. Attorney for Delaware. He has since been named special counsel.
“After the hearing, the parties continued negotiating but reached an impasse. A trial is therefore in order,” prosecutors said last week.
They indicated they’d likely bring charges against Biden in California or Washington, D.C.. “The Government, in the exercise of its prosecutorial discretion, is considering what tax charges to bring in another district and may elect to bring the same charges set forth in the instant information or different ones,” the filing said.
The judge has not yet ruled on an issue involving the separate gun charge, a felony alleging Biden illegally owned a Colt Cobra .38 Special handgun during a period when Biden was using drugs. Under the terms of the scuttled plea deal, the charge would have been dropped in two years had Biden honored the terms of a diversion agreement with prosecutors.
Biden’s attorneys said last week they consider that deal — which contained a passage granting him protection from some other possible charges — was still in effect because both sides has signed it.
Prosecutors say the deal was not in effect, because the agreement also needed to be signed off on by the probation office, and was not.
One of Biden’s lawyers, Chris Clark, moved to withdraw from the case during the back and forth, saying he anticipated he’d be called as a witness in the dispute. Noreika signed off on his withdrawal in a separate order late Thursday.
NBC News has reached out to another Biden lawyer for comment.