Hunter Biden’s lawyers warned prosecutors last year the defense would put the president on the stand to testify in his son’s defense if criminal charges were ever brought against him, according to a report.
Hunter’s lawyer, Chris Clark, wrote a letter to prosecutors last October after news leaked that federal agents had enough evidence to charge the first son with illegally buying a firearm while still using crack cocaine.
Clark said that if the Justice Department charged Hunter, the defense would be forced to put the commander in chief on the witness stand.
“President Biden now unquestionably would be a fact witness for the defense in any criminal trial,” Clark wrote in a 32-page letter obtained by Politico.
The email along with an additional 300 pages of emails reviewed by the outlet give a new, unreported insight into how Hunter’s sweet plea deal — which would have kept him out of prison — fell apart at the seams at the last minute last month.
The younger Biden, 53, pleaded not guilty to federal tax and gun charges in Delaware on July 26 after the deal — which was bashed by congressional Republicans for its leniency — was pulled by US District Judge Maryellen Noreika.
The judge had concerns over ongoing probes into other potential offenses committed by Hunter, including failing to register as a foreign agent for lucrative dealings with foreign countries that allegedly involved his father. After persistent questioning, Clark declared the deal “null and void.”
In exchanges in the months prior, Clark and his team often told prosecutors during private negotiations that they were worried about the intense political atmosphere surrounding the case, according to Politico.
They raised concerns over pressure from Republican lawmakers and argued that the case could tarnish the DOJ’s reputation.
Clark said that trying the president’s son, pitting the president against his own Justice Department, would create constitutional chaos.
“This of all cases justifies neither the spectacle of a sitting President testifying at a criminal trial nor the potential for a resulting Constitutional crisis,” Clark wrote.
Noreika dismissed tax misdemeanor charges against first son Hunter Biden on Thursday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Delaware US Attorney David Weiss to serve as special counsel in the case.
The appointment will allow him to bring charges without the approval of Biden appointees in other districts that blocked Weiss’s previous efforts to charge Hunter with millions of dollars with of tax fraud charges.
Hunter is expected to stand trial in either Washington DC or Southern California.
Read More: Hunter Biden’s lawyers threatened to put president on the stand: report
