Jonathan Turley says Hunter Biden 'lost his game of chicken' with guilty plea in tax case
'He really has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position,' Turley tells 'Outnumbered'
By Fox News Staff Fox News
3 min read| Published September 5, 2024 2:30pm EDT
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley joined "Outnumbered" on Thursday to discuss Hunter Biden planning to change his plea to guilty on federal tax charges brought against him by Special Counsel David Weiss. Turley said President Biden's son is now likely to face jail time.
JONATHAN TURLEY: Well, it's not uncommon to see plea deals occur before trials. But in this case, many of us have been writing for months that Hunter Biden was perfectly insane not to plead guilty. Timing is important. You can get a better deal if you plead early rather than late. It's sort of like waiting for the water to reach the deck on the Titanic before you ask about swimming lessons. I mean, it's a little bit late for some of those options. And so he really has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position. In terms of a plea, this is the penalty for a lawyer standing in federal court and telling prosecutors, 'just rip it up.'
And that's what happened when the judge raised concerns about this sweetheart deal. And prosecutors admitted they'd never seen a deal like this being offered to a defendant. And the defense basically sort of tipped the table over and said, 'well, we're not going to cooperate.' The Department of Justice later said that they still wanted to get a plea with Hunter, but they blamed the defense for its position. So there's a lack of intelligent design here. I mean, in some ways, you could say, well, this is just a game of chicken, but if it is, they lost. By pleading guilty on the eve of the trial, you don't have much to trade away.
And that's what happened when the judge raised concerns about this sweetheart deal. And prosecutors admitted they'd never seen a deal like this being offered to a defendant. And the defense basically sort of tipped the table over and said, 'well, we're not going to cooperate.' The Department of Justice later said that they still wanted to get a plea with Hunter, but they blamed the defense for its position. So there's a lack of intelligent design here. I mean, in some ways, you could say, well, this is just a game of chicken, but if it is, they lost. By pleading guilty on the eve of the trial, you don't have much to trade away.
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