Hunter Biden 'May Have Just Jinxed' His Plea Deal, Jesse Watters Says

Fox News host Jesse Watters has claimed Hunter Biden's plea deal could be in jeopardy after a member of his legal team allegedly phoned a court, pretending to be from a rival law firm, Politico reported, and asked for a brief submitted by a Republican politician to be removed from the case.

Any wrongdoing has been denied by Latham & Watkins, the legal company employed by Biden; it attributed the incident to an "unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication." Newsweek contacted the law firm by telephone on Wednesday.

Speaking on his Fox News show on Tuesday, Watters said: "Hunter Biden's plea deal is now in jeopardy. President Joe Biden's son is set to appear in court tomorrow where Delaware Judge Maryellen Noreika will decide on whether or not to sign off on Hunter's plea deal and Hunter Biden may have just jinxed the deal."

Hunter Biden is due to appear before a court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to file his taxes on time, in 2017 and 2018. Prosecutors agreed to drop a separate charge for being in possession of a firearm while addicted to a controlled substance in June, as part of a plea deal.

Republicans have focused heavily on Hunter Biden since taking control of the House in the November 2022 midterm elections, with The Associated Press reporting that three committees have announced they will run a joint investigation into the federal case against the president's son.

Watters said: "You're not going to believe what he just did. Republican Congressman Jason Smith just filed a brief with the judge entering into evidence the IRS whistleblower testimony, basically a legal move to get the judge to think, 'You know, what? Are you really going to let this guy off so easy?'

"Hunter Biden's attorney called the courthouse clerk today and pretended to be a Republican attorney and told the clerk, 'Oops, you know what? We didn't really mean to file all that whistleblower stuff. Can you guys just strike that from the record?' Seriously? Hunter Biden's lawyer made a phony phone call to the court and tried to remove the whistleblower testimony."

Judge Noreika accused Jessica Bengels, a Latham & Watkins employee, of phoning the court while claiming to work for rival law firm Halloran Farkas + Kittila, which is representing Rep. Smith, Politico reported. Bengels allegedly asked for Smith's filing to be removed, claiming it contained "sensitive grand jury, taxpayer and social security information." Smith chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Noreika commented: "It appears that the caller misrepresented her identity and who she worked for in an attempt to improperly convince the Clerk's Office to remove the amicus materials."

An amicus curiae is defined as an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case.

Newsweek contacted Bengels for comment via email on Wednesday.

According to Politico, Latham & Watkins denied there was any deliberate misrepresentation in a filing to the court on Tuesday.

The law firm said: "The matter under consideration appears to stem from an unfortunate and unintentional miscommunication between a staff member at our firm and employees of the Court. We have no idea how the misunderstanding occurred, but our understanding is there was no misrepresentation."