Hunter Biden pleads guilty in tax case in Los Angeles

On Thursday afternoon, just hours after jury selection was scheduled to begin in the trial of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to all nine charges in his criminal tax case.

Biden’s sentencing was scheduled for December 16th.

Biden faces up to 17 years in prison, but is likely to face a lesser sentence under federal sentencing guidelines.

The plea came after Biden offered a special plea, a so-called “special plea,” earlier in the day, which prosecutors strongly opposed. Alford Plea This allows the defendant to continue to claim that he or she believes he or she is innocent, but acknowledges that the prosecution had enough evidence to convict the defendant at trial.

If the Alford plea had been accepted by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarci, Biden would have been convicted.

The plea Biden ultimately offered to Scarce was an “open plea,” meaning it was made without a plea deal with prosecutors that could have included reducing the charges Biden faces or an agreement on sentencing terms.

Biden, 54, was charged in the case with three felony counts and six misdemeanors related to failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019.

The indictment accuses him of deducting payments to prostitutes as business expenses from his taxes and “spending millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle rather than paying taxes.”

Asked if he would comment on the guilty plea, David Weiss, the special counsel at the Justice Department appointed to investigate Biden, said “not right now.”

Weiss’s team won a conviction in Delaware federal court in June for three felony counts against Biden related to his purchase of a handgun in 2018 while he was a crack cocaine user. He is awaiting sentencing in that case.

Biden, who left the courtroom with his wife, Melissa Cohen, did not speak to reporters after pleading guilty but released a written statement.

“I stood trial in Delaware without realizing the suffering it would cause families, and I will never put them through that again,” Biden said.

“When it became clear that these same prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my drug addiction, I had only one option,” he said. “I will not subject my family to any more pain, invasion of privacy or unnecessary humiliation. After all I have put them through over the years, I cannot afford to subject them to any more pain, so I have decided to plead guilty.”

“Like millions of Americans, I didn’t file my tax return on time and pay my taxes, and I take responsibility for that,” Biden said.

“As I have said, addiction is not an excuse, but it does explain some of my failings that are at issue in this lawsuit,” he said. “When I was addicted, I didn’t think about taxes, I just thought about surviving. But the jury wouldn’t have heard that, and they would never have known that I paid all of my past due taxes, including penalties.”

“Today Hunter put his family first,” Hunter’s lawyer, Abe Lowell, said outside court.

Lowell said Biden’s “plea will prevent a show trial that is likely to include evidence of his drug abuse, use of prostitutes and a lavish lifestyle during a time when he did not pay taxes.”

“He is going to [the] “The sentencing stage has been reserved and many key issues in the case remain unresolved at the appeal stage,” Lowell said.

“This case is extreme and unusual for the government to bring,” said Lowell, who had criticized the Justice Department’s decision to prosecute Biden after plea deals to resolve the tax lawsuit and a Delaware firearms case fell apart last summer when a judge questioned their terms.

“Hunter actually overpaid taxes during the several years during which his alleged tax evasion is being investigated,” his lawyer said.

Earlier in the courtroom, Judge Lowell had told Judge Scarce after returning from a break following arguments on the Alford plea, “Mr. Biden will agree that the elements of each of the charges have been satisfied.”

When Scarce asked special counsel Leo Wise if that was enough, Wise said he would prefer that Biden admit his conduct as the indictment states.

“Would Biden agree that that’s true? Because truth matters,” Wise said. “He has to say the facts are true!”

Rowell then argued that it wasn’t required by law.

“He just has to agree to the terms,” ​​Lowell said. “I’m sure Wise would like Biden to say, ‘Plus, I was a really bad person when I did this,’ but that’s not what the law requires.”

“So we’re going to have an open response from Mr. Biden, and we’re going to ask him whether he committed any acts that satisfy the requirements of the indictment,” Scalci said.

Judge Wise then began reading the 56-page indictment to the court, a process that took nearly 90 minutes.

More than 100 potential jurors gathered in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday morning for jury selection in Biden’s tax case.

But Biden’s lawyer, Lowell, surprised prosecutors in court by telling Scarce that “because Biden intends to change the charges, there is no reason to proceed with jury selection.”

Lowell told Scarce that there was “no agreement” with prosecutors about Biden’s planned Alford plea deal, but he said such an agreement was not necessary.

“The law is very clear: if a defendant satisfies Rule 11b, the court must accept the plea,” Lowell said.

“I don’t think it would be agreed to in a normal plea bargain situation,” Lowell added.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” Special Counsel Wise told Scarce. Special Counsel Wise asked for time to discuss proposed changes to the plea agreement privately.

“I think this can be resolved today,” Lowell said. “It doesn’t need to take days.”

After a recess, Judge Wise told the judge, “Let me be clear: The United States is opposed to the Alford plea.”

“Under no circumstances will I accept an Alford plea agreement,” Wise said. “I believe it is contrary to the public interest, contrary to the rule of law and unjust.”

““Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” Wise said.

“We were just as shocked as anyone else,” the prosecutor said of the proposed Alford plea.

He said prosecutors were not in a position to evaluate that plea offer Thursday.

“We can’t rush it at this point, and we shouldn’t rush it,” Wise said.

According to Justice Department guidelines, federal prosecutors may not agree to an Alford plea “except in extremely unusual circumstances and unless an Assistant Attorney General for the Revenue Division or a senior Department official has approved a written request.”

Lowell told Scarci that Biden isn’t seeking special treatment and that “people across the country” have accepted the Alford plea.

“He’s asking for the same rights as everyone else,” Lowell said. “I would be happy to say the government has presented enough evidence to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. … I don’t know why the government wants to hold off.”

After hearing the arguments, Judge Scalsi called another recess and told the lawyers, “I have never seen a case that says we have to accept an Alford plea.”

However, the judge also said, “If there is an opportunity to decline to enter an Alford plea, why shouldn’t you decline it?”

“You need a reason to accept or reject a plea agreement,” Scarci said.

After a break, Biden returned to the courtroom and said Lowell would withdraw his offer of an Alford plea and enter an open guilty plea.

As he left the White House early Thursday for Wisconsin, President Biden ignored questions shouted by reporters about his son’s plans to change his initial plea of ​​innocence in the case.

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