205 If He Loses in November Blame Joe Biden’s Suicidal Belief in Respectability Politics
Denial and Forgetting at the Hunter Biden Trial – emptywheel
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-perplexing-state-of-gaza-ceasefire-negotiations-explained/ar-BB1o7aNk?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=2429799ea055471a810d8b36a800d689&ei=8
Merrick Garland Must Go | The Nation
Merrick Garland Isn’t Being “Impartial”—He’s Helping Trump | The Nation
Assange plea came after warning that U.S. would lose extradition fight – The Washington Post
The timeline makes several things clear: First, Weiss did revoke the terms of the immunity agreement he offered in June 2023. But that’s not what killed the plea deal. Hunter was willing to accept a narrowed plea deal. What killed it was Judge Noreika’s intervention in the Diversion Agreement. Once she gave David Weiss the opportunity, he withdrew all remaining meaningful terms of the plea deal, got Special Counsel status, and chased the Alexander Smirnov hoax.
Weiss was personally involved in a plea offer on June 6 that would have immunized Hunter against further charges on the fact set under discussion (so guns, taxes, drugs, and FARA). It remains uncontested that Weiss’ office told Chris Clark on June 19 there was no ongoing investigation.
On July 20, Probation agreed to changes to the Diversion Agreement, seemingly indicating approval. But then, as Wise and Hunter were signing the Diversion Agreement on July 26, the head of Probation told AUSA Ben Wallace she would not sign the Diversion Agreement; no one ever told Hunter this in the hearing or the negotiations immediately after the hearing, but it appears that Judge Maryellen Noreika knew Probation was not going to sign.
Before any specific discussion of scope of immunity, Judge Noreika suggested Probation could veto Diversion Agreement because grant of immunity is too broad. After that, she complained over and over and over that she didn’t get to sign the Diversion Agreement.
At the plea hearing, Leo Wise asserted (contrary to earlier assurances) there was an ongoing investigation. After Wise said the immunity permitted FARA charges and there would be no deal if FARA were excluded, Clark agreed to orally modify the scope of immunity, and by the end of the hearing both Wise and Noreika recognized that. At that point, Hunter believed he had a signed Diversion Agreement covering guns, taxes, and drugs (but no longer FARA).
After complaining that she didn’t get to sign the Diversion Agreement over and over, Noreika deferred the plea, and ordered more briefing.”
Yet Marcy Wheeler still argues against seeing Noreika as a political hack despite her own fact pattern strongly suggesting just that.
See Nicole Sandler June 7