Justice Department weighs delaying Hunter Biden plea deal 

The Department of Justice has acknowledged it could hold up a probation-only plea deal offered to first son Hunter Biden for tax and gun crimes, recent court records show, following Republican backlash and claims that Attorney General Merrick Garland lied to Congress about the conduct of the investigation.

A Justice Department trial attorney said in a June 29 phone call that he would tell Delaware US Attorney David Weiss to think about pushing back Hunter’s scheduled July 26 plea hearing, allowing more time for the lead prosecutor to respond to records requests about the probe, according to a filing that same day in DC federal court.

The DOJ attorney, Jason Lynch, allegedly made the promise to Samuel Dewey, a lawyer for the conservative Heritage Foundation, which is suing the Justice Department for access to Weiss’ internal communications about the case.

According to the filing, after Dewey pointed out that the DOJ could “alleviate the exigency” by “seeking to delay the plea hearing,” Lynch admitted that his counterpart was “‘absolutely right’ that the Department could file such a motion and that DOJ Counsel would take that point back to the ‘District’ (presumably speaking of the District of Delaware).”

“A DOJ attorney admitted to us that this sweetheart plea deal date was moveable,” Heritage Foundation Oversight Director Mike Howell told The Post Friday. “This deal shouldn’t move forward in any circumstance, but if Garland and the DOJ try to push it through before they comply with their legal responsibilities to release information to us then they aren’t even trying to hide their weaponization anymore.”

Lynch did not respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department has maintained the volume of responsive records makes them unlikely to be handed over until after the hearing takes place. The department’s legal counsel has also said records have been transferred to the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys for review.

Heritage has asked for the records by July 21.

Federal prosecutors have refused to turn over any of the records even after the foundation’s lawyers filed a Freedom of Information Act Request.

Weiss’ office announced June 20 that the troubled first son agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018, and had entered into a pre-trial diversion agreement to avoid a felony charge of possessing a firearm while under the influence of drugs.

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika must still approve the plea deal at the July 26 hearing, making it irreversible.

Hunter’s attorney, Christopher Clark, said in a statement on the day of the plea agreement’s announcement that the investigation had been “resolved.” But Weiss’ press release said the matter was “ongoing.”

The charges followed a five-year investigation that suffered political interference from members of the Justice Department, according to IRS whistleblowers who were kicked off an investigative team auditing the first son’s finances.

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley and another unnamed agent made protected disclosures to the House Ways and Means Committee about the probe, alleging Hunter evaded $2.2 million in taxes from lucrative business deals abroad.

Shapley also said Weiss had been blocked from charging the first son in districts outside Delaware and had been denied special counsel status twice — despite sworn congressional testimony by Garland earlier this year that the prosecutor had “full authority” during the inquiry.

US Attorneys Martin Estrada and Matthew Graves, who were both appointed by President Biden, denied Weiss the authority to charge Hunter Biden last year with felony tax crimes in Southern California and the District of Columbia, respectively, the IRS agent added.

The Heritage Foundation and House Republican leaders have requested access to communications between Weiss and other members of the Justice Department in an attempt to uncover whether any senior Biden administration official put a thumb on the scale for Hunter.

“If the whistleblowers are correct, US Attorney Weiss’ Office should have responsive records that will corroborate the whistleblowers,” Dewey states in the Heritage lawsuit.

Weiss snubbed a separate request on Thursday from the House Judiciary Committee to release communications on the Hunter probe, as well as the purging of IRS investigators who had been tasked with it.

US District Judge Dabney Friedrich has ordered the Justice Department to respond to Heritage’s emergency demand for documents by July 10.