A Tale of Two Sweethearts: Hunter Biden’s Plea Bargain Is History Repeating Itself – The

Many Americans are still reeling from the Department of Justice’s announcement last month of a rather astonishing plea bargain for Hunter Biden. There are interesting parallels with the plea bargain reached with Watergate figure John Dean some 50 years ago. Neither are what they initially appeared to be.

Hunter was to be allowed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor income tax counts, for which DOJ would recommend two years of probation, as well as a diversion agreement on a possible felony gun charge, which would be expunged after two years of good behavior. Republicans screamed foul, characterizing the bargain as a sweetheart deal that would never be offered to anyone not named “Biden.” (READ MORE: Broken Plea Deal Exposes Fast Times at the DOJ)

Hunter’s July 26th appearance before U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, where he was expected to plead guilty, quickly fell apart. As it developed, the agreement had not been publicly released, and she had only gotten a full copy earlier that morning. The judge asked, not unreasonably, if the language in paragraph 15 of the diversion agreement meant what it appeared to say, that Hunter would be protected from further investigation on any other matters in perpetuity. Caught in an indefensible situation, prosecutors denied this was what was intended. At which point, Hunter’s defense counsel then announced the whole deal was off.

After three hours of negotiation, the parties seemed to agree that the offending sentence would be removed entirely, but the judge put off any resolution for thirty days — and Hunter entered Not Guilty pleas. It is not entirely clear as to what he pled to since there doesn’t appear to be an actual indictment enumerating his offenses, just an agreement to resolve them. Time will tell as to what is ultimately finalized, but Republicans are concerned that the American public does not appear to be represented in the pending hearings.

The Case of John Dean

John Dean, like Hunter in the Biden Crime Family, was at the very center of Watergate’s alleged wrongdoing. He had recruited Gordon Liddy to prepare a campaign intelligence plan and then been present at two meetings in the Attorney General’s office where it was presented, including proposals for mugging, bugging, kidnapping, and prostitution. Several months later, when five burglars were caught red-handed in offices of the Democrat National Committee, Dean rightfully realized his own risk of prosecution — and became, in his own words, the “chief desk officer” for the ensuing cover-up. The FBI later called him Watergate’s “master manipulator.” When his cover-up collapsed, Dean was first to approach career prosecutors, seeking immunity in exchange for testimony against others at President Nixon’s re-election campaign. Prosecutors refused, concluding Dean was not being forthcoming about the extent of his own role, which was far too central to go unpunished.

Dean, however, had retained prominent Democrat Charles Shaffer as his criminal defense counsel. Shaffer was a former member of Robert Kennedy’s “Get Hoffa” squad at the DOJ and had convicted Hoffa for jury tampering in Tennessee, the culmination of efforts stretching over seven years. His co-counsel, in that case, was James Neal, who had recently been named to head the Special Prosecutor’s Watergate Task Force. The two former co-counsel from the sixties had no problem reaching a plea agreement on Dean’s behalf — to plead to a single felony, conspiracy to obstruct justice, in exchange for becoming the principal witness against his former Nixon White House colleagues. (READ MORE: A Biden Impeachment Inquiry Is Well-Earned)

Potential problems arose, however, as the date for the Cover-up Trial came closer. While Dean had been cast as a whistleblowing hero in the Senate Ervin Committee hearings, somehow the Virginia Bar Association didn’t go along: they charged (according to a report in the New York Times) that Dean had been guilty of “withholding evidence, inducing a witness to commit perjury, authorizing payment of hush money to the Watergate burglars and diverting money to his own use.” Moreover, in the recent prosecution of two Nixon cabinet secretaries in New York City, the jury had voted for acquittal, telling the media they had not found Dean’s testimony to be credible.

Both special prosecutors and Judge Sirica feared when testifying under oath and subject to cross-examination at the Cover-up Trial, Dean’s claims against his former colleagues might not prove persuasive, so they concocted a revised approach. Dean was called before Judge Sirica, where he was sentenced for his single felony — but to a prison term of one to four years, the harshest sentence handed down at that point to any cover-up participant, with incarceration to coincide with the beginning of the Cover-up Trial. So sentenced, Dean made a great witness, testifying that he was being punished for his own misdeeds; so also should be his former colleagues. (READ MORE: Grassley’s Biden Bribery Bombshell)

Then, just one week following their cover-up convictions, Dean’s sentence was reduced to “time served”: less than four months of technical confinement. It also developed he had never spent a single night in jail, being held instead at a witness protection facility at nearby Fort Holabird, Maryland, where he had a separate office and enjoyed conjugial visits from his spouse.

Dean’s plea bargain, a sweetheart deal from the outset, but one falsely made to appear harsher in order to increase his credibility as a government witness, was a fraud on the Watergate jurors — and on the American public.

That was 50 years ago, but the same forces appear to be in play today. One can only wonder how Hunter Biden’s plea bargain will be “enhanced” to make it appear he’s somehow being punished for his own misdeeds.

Geoff Shepard came to Washington in 1969 as a White House Fellow after graduating from Harvard Law School. He served on President Nixon’s White House staff for five years, including a year as deputy counsel on the President’s Watergate defense team. He has written three books about the internal prosecutorial documents he’s uncovered, many of which are posted on his website: www.shepardonwatergate.com