appreciate you joining us here as always and we want to continue to update you here on the stories Hunter Biden right now still in court after offering up his guilty plea really shocking uh the court system here today Fox News even reporting that the doj did not see this coming a live look right now outside of the courthouse in Los Angeles there is a Podium set up to see if anybody will come after the day and speak but we'll definitely be keep keeping an eye on that but I do want to bring in our next guest here of this hour Neema Romani thanks so much for joining us former Federal prosecutor to talk about the big day out in Los Angeles and the shock uh that happened with Hunter Biden doing a Switcheroo Mike shocker I'm sitting here a mile away from the courthouse and no one thought that Hunter Biden would plead and plead pursuant to an Alfred plead and really plead open so an Alfred plea is named after a pretty famous Supreme Court case and some some States called a no contest plead but essentially the defendant pleads no contest or what they're saying is I'm not admitting guilt but I am admitting that the government has enough evidence to convict me Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so I'm not really contesting the charges or the evidence for all intents and purposes it's the same the defendant is going to be sentenced in some states it might not be able to be used against the defendant in a civil case on the federal side it can so really surprising turn of events really as the 120 potential jurors were in the courthouse waiting to be called in to hear this case jury selection was supposed to start today yeah I mean it's so abrupt there and tell me Nema is there any um advantage to Hunter Biden to waiting until this period to issue and want to plead guilty on the day of jury selection or did it really not matter if he did it today or even last week Mike the only Advantage is time because 99% of defendants when they plead guilty they plead pursuant to a plea agreement they get a reduced sentence they get some of the charges dropped they get a different recommendation from the government rarely does a defendant plead open or plead to the sheet or the indictment which is happening here which means huning can't pick and choose he has to plead guilty to nine felony tax counts because the government isn't offering him any type of deal in fact they're opposing this Alfred plead the Department of Justice has a pretty long-standing internal policy that says that if defendants want to plead guilty they can but they have to admit the elements of the charge they have to admit their guilt and they can't maintain their innocence while doing so now some people would want to know if Hunter Biden wasn't the son of a president would someone do this going into court there as jury selection is about to start and you plead guilty the answer is probably not Mike and what likely is happening behind the scenes and my prediction is Hunter Biden has a pardon locked up because normally someone wouldn't just plead to N9 counts when they can negotiate some sort of deal with the government let's not forget the original deal on the table was for Hunter Biden to plead guilty to two Mis amuno tax counts and that would resolve both cases in Delaware and in California the gun case in the tax Cas so now we know of course Hunter was convicted of multiple felon accounts in Delaware but now we're eating nine tax counts here in California and the only reason someone would do something like this is the very real possibility that Joe Biden is going to Pardon his son Hunter on his way out he has no reason not to do so he's a lame duck president my prediction is that he's going to wait until after the November election of course so there's no more political Fallout but I fully expect Hunter Biden to get a part in in this case and what does the timeline look here just on the sentencing uh so when they leave the courtroom today uh will they know okay we have a sentencing date and how what does that that look like will it be before or after the election it's going to be after the election but just barely so the way it works is obviously the government is going to object to this Alfred plea so it's up to the judge Mark scarz here in Los Angeles actually just to work with him and he's going to have to decide whether he's going to accept this Alfred plea or not if he does the next date that is going to be scheduled is going to be a sentencing but the sentencing doesn't occur right away for one Vari important reason us probation which is an arm of the Court they have to prepare a pre-sentence report and it usually takes them about two to three months to do so so that's probably going to put us out close to December if not December and a pres sentence report uh discusses the defendant his history his characteristics criminal history Health all this sort of information so at sentencing there's actually three sets of recommendations the government the Department of Justice is going to make their recommendation probably going to argue for jail time uh the defense is going to make their recommendation I'm sure they're going to argue for probation and probation applim is going to make its own recommendation and to do so they do need some time yes definitely a lot of moving Parts here and really a shocker that came earlier this morning in Los Angeles with the with the uh guilty plea there but uh Nima Romani thanks so much for joining us on live now from Fox and giving us some great insight here into this matter we really appreciate it as always thanks Mike you take care and we are continuing to bring you a