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Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, pleaded not guilty to tax fraud charges on Wednesday after a federal judge indicated she needed more time to evaluate a potential agreement with prosecutors to avoid a felony gun charge.

The younger Biden is notorious for his involvement in numerous scandals, including substance abuse, commercial sex, and most importantly, high-level corruption. 

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The turnaround occurred after what was supposed to be a normal plea hearing evolved into a three-hour marathon of quiet discussions between lawyers and tough questioning from US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika.

"I cannot accept the plea agreement today," Noreika proclaimed, asking for clarification from the parties on why she should accept the plea.

This means attorneys may still have a chance to persuade Noreika to approve the settlement as originally agreed or to change it to a form she may accept.

The news of the plea agreement in June drew claims of preferential treatment for Hunter from Donald Trump and his Republican supporters, who have long accused the younger Biden of foreign influence-peddling, among other things.

Trump called the justice system "broken" in a Truth Social post, expressing that the Justice Department barely gave Hunter a "traffic ticket" for his crimes.

Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and a presidential candidate for 2024, accused the Secret Service last week of concealing the true origin of cocaine found in the White House, suggesting that the motive behind it is to protect Hunter Biden.

This week, Comer said he anticipates filing "between six and 10 criminal referrals" with the Justice Department and that the list would include evidence that Hunter violated the Mann Act, which bans the transportation of women across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sexual acts.

That same day and in the same hearing, IRS whistleblowers, Supervisory IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley, and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, accused the Biden family of accepting millions from foreign entities.

Ziegler claimed to have discovered Hunter and his business associates receiving $17 million from foreign sources, which include $7.3 million from Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and both whistleblowers described how the Justice Department hindered their investigation to protect Hunter from prosecution.

E-mails recovered from Hunter's abandoned laptop show that he played a major role in the acquisition of millions of dollars in funding for Metabiota, a Department of Defense contractor specializing in research on pandemic-causing diseases that could be used as bioweapons.