Sandra what could happen . John im John Roberts in washington. Wow, sandra. It just doesnt stop. Nevery day its new to us. John im Sandra Smith in new york. We have a big hour for you. This case stems from a yearlong investigation. The president s son is charged with three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning 1. 4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid. No statement yet from the first family, and Kamala Harris declined to speak to this moments ago, that we did just hear from Karine Jeanpierre. She is declining to comment specifically as well, although she said there will still not be a pardon by the president , john. John yes, the answer that question is still a no, and as we pointed out, right up until it is a yes. And President Biden ignored questions from the press as he boarded Marine One earlier. Listen to this. Mr. President, will you commute your Sons Sentence . Are you glad your son has pled in his case . John yes, the dulcet sounds of the auxiliary Power Unit on a helicopter. We have Fox Team Coverage all our with a deep bench of kerri urbahn, leo terrell, Judge Jeanine, Jonathan Turley, and andy mccarthy. Sandra looking forward to this. First a Jonathan Hunt live outside the federal courthouse were all lawyers are back in court now, including special counsel David Weiss. Jonathan, set it up for us. Sandra, everybody is back in court and the session is do to get underway any moment now, with the prosecution offering their reaction to this sudden change in plea. We have an inclination that this might be an unusual day. When Hunter Biden arrived for the court hearing today, and every time driven into an underground parking lot. Today they showed up about 30 minutes before he arrived, cleared a path from the sidewalk to the courtroom doors, and Hunter Biden pulled up and walked in holding his wife melissas hand, flanked by Secret Service agents, followed by one of his lead attorneys, Abbe Lowell. And then it was lowell who, at the start of proceedings today, dropped the bombshell that his client was changing his plea to guilty, but it is what is called an Alford Plea. That means the defendant, in this case Hunter Biden, except that the prosecution could prove that case on the basis of evidence, but yet still asserts their innocence. It is a curious kind of plea, one that legal experts will No Doubt break down in a couple of minutes. But that was the bombshell, and one of the lead prosecutors told the judge at that point, this is the first we are hearing about this. So they, the prosecution, were caught totally unawares. Now theyve had a couple of hours where court has been in recess and they have been able to consider their response to this. We assume that they have been in direct contact with the Department Of Justice, and there is a scenario in which this kind of plea would have to be signed off on by the Attorney General himself, Merrick Garland. We dont know at this point if it will go this high. In the words of one of the panel that you are about to have on, our esteemed legal editor kerri urbahn, this is messy. That is the understatement of the day, i think. And then we have the question of, if this goes forward, there will be sentencing. On those three felonies and six misdemeanors, Hunter Biden could have faced up to 17 years in prison. President biden has been on the record as saying he will not pardon his son in either this case where the Gun Case that hes already been convicted on, and he will not commute any sentence. As you mentioned at the top, Karine Jeanpierre was just on Board Air Force one and was asked that. She said it is still a no. But as John Roberts astutely observed, and politics it is always know until it is yes. Sandra . Sku and jonathan, it is john here. As we pointed out with you, kerri said its going to messy. It could end up a sticky wicket, quoting some of the colloquialisms from your homeland. Have you been able to pick up any rumblings of which way the doj is going to jump on this . No, john. To continue the cricket analogy, they got Bolderred Googly this morning, and unplayable ball. We are waiting for it right now. We have a couple in the court just to give you a lay of the land here. They are not allowed to have any medication from either the courtroom or the media overflow room. They will step through the doors and send it to us immediately they get it. I see we are only a couple minutes into the session, nothing coming through as yet. The simple answer is, john, no, we have no idea at this point how prosecutors are going to respond where they were clearly caught unawares, shocked and surprised, and as i said before, any other word you want to look up in the thesaurus. This was a surprise and a shocker to any person concerned, except, it seems, for Hunter Bidens defense team. John what was that Cricket Term again . A googly. It is a pitch, if you like. Lets call it a pitch, but it is a ball bowled by a spinner which sort of spins, bounces into different directions. Its almost unplayable. A googly. Wikipedia it. John well, that kind of sounds like this entire case. Jonathan, i think that is an apt description. For sure. John the Spring And Leo terrell, Fox News Contributor and civil rights attorney, and kerri urbahn, Art Laffer Mention Fox News legal editor leo, we are going to play that you are in oldtime gramophone. We will lined you up and let you go. I will tell you right now, remember 13 months ago i think i was on Harris Faulkners show, and i said the only way the Sweetheart Deal would be blocked would be from the judge. Sandra and john, we cant look through this legal lens. Its all politics. If it werent for the judge 13 months ago in delaware, if it werent for those whistleblowers, Hunter Biden would be off scotfree. Lets make sure we understand this. This is a political trial. The Department Of Justice, the person in charge is Merrick Garland. He works for Joe Biden. So if there is any notion that this is not going to be resolved in a manner of a Plea Deal, somebodys being very naive. This is going to be resolved, Joe Biden is going to pardon his son, and the Department Of Justice going to this Jekyll And Hyde position, they dont care. Theyre going to take their Marching Orders from their boss, who works for President Biden. Joe biden is no longer the most powerful men on the planet, hes not running for reelection, he has zero to lose. Sandra thank you for that. We are going to get jonathan back up here in just a moment, because kerri crossing the wires right now via reuters is at the Justice Department has opposed Hunters Plea in this tax case. Your reaction . Im not surprised at all. In fact, i thought this would happen, actually, for a couple of reasons. One, doj does not like to be Jerked Around, and they certainly dont like to be surprised. That has happened, to use the Analogy I Cant even go into, with the ball circling john the googly. Thats exactly what happened today. If youre asking for a deal of any kind, thats a very bad way to start on hunters part. Not surprised on that. The second reason why im not surprised is because the doj is trying to rehabilitate, i think, its reputation after that ridiculous Plea Deal the lifetime that they offered to Hunter Biden last year that was exposed by that judge. And because there are no political ramifications because Joe Biden is no longer the race, they had every reason to lean in here and be aggressive, in order to really retain some integrity in this case. For Hunter Biden to show off, spring this on them, and ask for an Alford Plea, which says that you have enough evidence to convict me but im not actually guilty, i just dont see the doj necessarily standing for that. Sandra sorry, kerri. The judge is jumping in here. Look, the only thing the Department Of Justice has any input on is whether or not he gets the Alford Plea. The Alford Plea is something that makes the Justice System look ridiculous. The public doesnt understand it, it doesnt make sense to them where a person says, im not really guilty, but if you present the evidence, youll probably get a verdict of guilty. This defendant can plead guilty to every count of the indictment, the Justice Department has no say in that. Any defendant can walk in and say that. The only issue is whether or not they are going to give him permission to do the Alford Plea. In The End, if that is the only thing the Justice Department has any control over, if the defendant says i want to plead to the whole indictment, then Hunter Biden is going to say, ill plead to the whole indictment without the Alford Plea, because we all know how its going to end. Its better for Joe Biden and Hunter Biden to not have to hear the evidence, and as they were trying to get joe out of the race for president , president , all of a sudden We Saw David Weiss releasing more facts about money coming to hunter from a romanian oligarch in addition to all of the other money. So there was a squeeze that was going ahead by the Justice Department to get him out of the race, saying, for this trial, we will have evidence that will impact Joe Biden. But the only issue, and it is the only issue that the Justice Department has any say in, is whether or not he gets to plead the Alford Plea. Which is, im not going to plead guilty, but you can find me guilty and sentenced me as such. Hes going to go in and say, ill plead to the indictment. Sentence me. My father is going to pardon me. John judge, do you think this was the doj calling his bluff . And do you think Hunter Biden will say, okay, forget the Alford Plea, im just going to plead guilty . Or will he say, if the Justice Department says, look, we reject this plea and we are going to trial, hell say, ill meet you in court. Which way do you think hes going to jump . I think hes got to plead guilty. The Bidens Cannot afford that the last thing out in the last couple months of Joe Bidens presidency and his legacy is that, while he was Vice President , money was going to his son. They dont want this. Plus all the stuff about the prostitutes, the hookers, everybodys disgusted with the bidens. They want it over. They want it done. They asked for the alford thinking maybe they can get it, and theyre not going to get it according to the Justice Department. So plead guilty, shut up, take your sentence and reverse it with a pardon. Sandra kerri, and more from you on what must be happening right now as we do get this word out of the courtroom. Attorney general garland i think has been typically overly deferential to special counsel, and people have accepted that along the way. You hear comments from him like, the special counsel, its up to them. They are independent, they do their thing. But at The End of the day the really tough decisions and i would say this is one of them, because it is his Boss Son whose fate is on the line right now those tough decisions belong to really one person and one person only, the Attorney General of the united states. Thats what you sign up for when you take that job and it is Something Bill Barr would get criticized for. They would say he was too involved when he viewed it as, its my job to do the tough things that other people dont have to. This is why im here. Im very curious right now to know what conversations are going on behind the scenes, how much Merrick Garland is involved or not. Certainly David Weiss would be incredibly involved. But, again, doj ive said this for weeks now they were looking at this tax case, i think, as a way to rehabilitate the reputation after the disgrace of last summer with the Plea Deal. So as Judge Jeanine pointed out, they dumped a lot of information in a filing related to pay for play schemes, that the judge in this case admonish them for her and, hey, thats not what this is about. Its about not paying taxes. But the reason they did that, as Judge Jeanine pointed out, show the american people what was going on. Which obviously was very different than how they were approaching this case for years. John leo, why do you think he walked this Game Right up to the Judges Bench as opposed to weeks ago, saving the doj and the american taxpayer a lot of Money And Effort . By doing this, you just kind of ticked everybody off. You ticked everyone off, but this is politics. I just cant get that out of my head. Let me talk about rehabilitating the Department Of Justice, this is the Department Of Justice that went after a republican candidate with charges all over the map. I mean, it is politics. It is politics. So why did Hunter Biden walk this up to the day of court . Because his dads president. His dads president. Judge jeanine and kerri said, hes going to get a pardon. What form of that pardon depends on whether he accepts all the charges or the Alford Deal. The Alford Deal is dead. The Bottom Line is its the same result as 13 months ago. He gets away with walking. For tax evasion, possibly other actions, and the gun charge, he gets a clean slate with a Joe Biden pardon. Sandra thank you very much for that, leo. Kerri, stay with us. Judge, stay with us. We are going to add Jonathan Turley to this discussion as we await more Breaking News out of the courtroom there in Los Angeles. Well be right back. Now i have skyrizi. Ive got places to go and im feeling free control of my crohns means everything to me control is everything to me and now im back in the picture. Feel significant Symptom Relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less Abdominal Pain and fewer bowel movements. Skyrizi helped visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. 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It is something that does not go over well with the prosecution. Im a criminal defense attorney, and i would never have done that. Even if i dont get along with the prosecution, i dont want to have this type of Jump Scare in the middle of the courtroom with the judge watching. I think that probably poisoned the well for the Alford Plea. I think that, months ago, if they had gone back to the table, they probably could have secured the Alford Plea as part of a global agreement. They could not have handled this case worse, in my view. They have put Hunter Biden in the worst possible position. He will get very little benefit from his plea, because he has very little to trade at this point. When the Plea Deal collapsed in the delaware courtroom, his counsel famously declared just rip it up. At the time i said, ive got to tell you, very few Defense Attorneys would have said that instead of going back to the table and trying to eke out the best you can get i