President Joe Biden faced reporters for the first time since a federal judge picked apart a plea deal that would keep his son Hunter out of prison, turning away amid a barrage of inquiries.
The president appeared at the White House Thursday to discuss the heat emergency scorching parts of the nation, but got grilled himself amid the sudden legal turmoil for his son.
Among questions he faced was one about whether he would pardon his son, who continues to face legal jeopardy after a federal prosecutor said in court the investigation of him is ‘ongoing.’
U.S. Attorney Leo Wise also said one area that wouldn’t be covered by the plea deal would be Foreign Assets Registration Act charges, which could be implicated by the array of high-flying business deals that U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika caused to be read into the court record Wednesday in Wilmington.
President Joe Biden ignored questions about his son’s plea deal Thursday
Nevertheless, if Hunter’s legal team and prosecutors can work out a plea deal, he could find a way to put his tax issues and a gun charge behind him.
Biden also ignored a question about whether the Justice Department blew his son’s plea deal, after the judge exposed different interpretations between the two legal teams about what conduct would be immunized from prosecution.
The president’s son left court without speaking to the media Wednesday, and his legal team also stayed mum.
President Biden will face the media again later Thursday, when he sits down with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Earlier Thursday, there was focus not on how Biden might handle his son’s legal problems in a second term, but how his rival Donald Trump might proceed if he got back in.
The plea deal that a federal judge blew up in court Wednesday contained a feature that appears designed to impose guardrails against efforts by a potential Donald Trump administration to overrun it.
Trump has spent years raging against what he calls the ‘Biden crime family’ and poking at Hunter in particular, and has vowed to settle scores should he regain the White House. He now periodically inveighs against former Attorney General Barr, who quit weeks before the end of Trump’s term after pushing back on his claims of election fraud.
Read More: Biden IGNORES questions about the collapse of Hunter’s plea deal
