Francey Hakes, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and Jay Town, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, told Newsmax on Tuesday that U.S. Attorney David Weiss' case against first son Hunter Biden should not have taken five years and that the statement about the investigation being "ongoing" is "bogus."
"The statement that the investigation is ongoing ... that certainly caught my attention, but it wouldn't be normal for a prosecutor, at any level, to allow a plea … and still have an ongoing investigation into that individual," Town said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "You'd want to wrap it up all very neatly into one single case. And honestly, it wouldn't be normal for a defense lawyer either to allow a plea when there's still an ongoing investigation into, perhaps, what has to be more serious misconduct, because you're dealing away your bargaining chips to the other case."
"There's no normal criminal case that should take that long when it results in this kind of plea agreement. And, to Jay's point about a defense attorney allowing Hunter Biden to plead guilty, " Hakes said, "you know that if Hunter Biden has these convictions behind him, and then the Department of Justice were to bring further charges from that laptop and take it to trial, those charges could be used against him, were he to testify, because at least one or two of them are probably crimes of moral turpitude.
"What defense attorney is going to let him have cross examination or impeachment material against him by having him plead before the investigation is finished?" she added. "I think 'the investigation is ongoing' language is bogus and merely meant to defeat any future subpoenas or requests from Congress."
Hunter Biden was charged with failure to pay federal income tax and illegal possession of a weapon, and he reached an agreement with the Justice Department, according to a letter filed in U.S. district court in Delaware.
Under the agreement, President Joe Biden's son will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and is expected to reach an agreement with prosecutors on the felony charge of illegal possession of a firearm as a drug user.
Town said that despite all the alleged Hunter Biden criminal activity, the charges he is now facing will probably be the end of legal repercussions.
"Unfortunately, the only body probably left investigating anything to do with Hunter Biden, and the influence that he may or may not have been peddling in Washington, D.C., is going to be the United States Congress. To some extent, that's pretty feckless, because all they can do is refer charges to a Biden Justice Department," Town said. "So, I tend to believe we're at the end of the Hunter Biden saga here."
Hakes said that the charges are not reasonable, given the evidence.
"We have an entire laptop full of evidence of other crimes and a five-year investigation that has now resulted in what? A couple of misdemeanor pleas and pretrial diversion?" she said. "That is not how 'Joe Man on the Street' would have been treated."
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