Hunter Biden plea deal: Who is Maryellen Noreika, the judge who threw a ‘curveball’
Rachel Schilke
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Delaware federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is an appointee of former President Donald Trump, is throwing a “curveball” as she presides over the “sweetheart” plea deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutors.
Noreika, who is also a former patent lawyer from the state, is appearing poised to reject the agreement that would avoid a felony gun charge and result in a guilty plea to two tax misdemeanor charges.
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She had bipartisan support for her appointment and the support of both Democratic home-state senators. She was widely expected by legal experts to approve Hunter Biden’s plea deal, but now, Noreika appears to be taking a different approach.
Noreika expressed frustrations with attorneys on Wednesday when she asked prosecutors if investigations into Biden were continuing. When prosecutors told her there is still an active investigation into the president’s son, she asked why the process was moving forward “piecemeal.”
Noreika has experience in several legal cases over her years on and off the bench. She oversaw a lawsuit filed against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) by the owner of a Delaware computer repair shop, the same shop where Hunter Biden dropped off and left behind his now-famous laptop hard drive in April 2019.
The Delaware federal judge ruled that the suit against Schiff would be dismissed. However, litigation involving the younger Biden and news outlets CNN and Politico, also named in the lawsuit, would be allowed to play out in the state’s courts.
Last August, Noreika presided over the case of Jeremy Johnson, 34, of Wilmington, sentencing him to five years in prison for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Noreika was born in Pennsylvania and received her bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University in 1988. She obtained her master’s from Columbia University in 1990 and her J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993.
Prior to her appointment as a federal judge in 2018, she worked in private practice as an attorney with Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP in Wilmington, Delaware. She served as counsel to over 500 cases, specializing in patent law.
Noreika has a history of bipartisan donations, as well. Federal records indicate that she’s donated over $15,000 to political candidates since 1999.
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On the Democratic side, Noreika donated $1,000 to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008 and $1,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for the Senate Democrats, in 2009.
For Republicans, she gave $2,300 to then-GOP presidential nominee John McCain in 2008 and donated $2,500 to Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) presidential campaign in 2012. Noreika also supported Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) during his 2014 campaign and former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in 2005.