Hunter Biden to vary tax case plea in dramatic shift forward of jury choice
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Hunter Biden has offered to plead guilty in his federal tax case, his attorney Abbe Lowell has announced.
This last-minute change came just before jury selection began in Los Angeles, according to NBC News. President Joe Biden’s son originally pleaded not guilty to the tax-related charges.
Biden is now offering to admit guilt, CNN reports. Biden originally planned to enter an Alford Plea, Lowell said in court on Thursday. This meant he would have pleaded guilty and accepted his sentencing while still maintaining innocence.
However, Biden’s legal team changed course after the prosecution objected.
“I want to make something crystal clear – the United States opposes an Alford plea,” prosecutor Leo Wise said. “Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty. He is not permitted to plead guilty on special terms.”
Biden has offered up a guilty plea without any kind of deal from prosecutors, CNN reports.
Biden was indicted on nine tax-related criminal charges in December, three of which are felony counts. Prosecutors argued he made millions from 2016 to 2020 and engaged in an “extravagant lifestyle” all while skipping out on more than $1.4m in taxes.
Prosecutors said Biden avoided his taxes and instead spent the cash on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature.”
The president’s son initially tried to have the charges dismissed — however, Scarsi sided with the prosecution and denied his request in April.
If the judge accepts his plea, Biden will avoid a trial, during which salacious and embarrassing testimony from more than two dozen witnesses could have come to light, NBC News reports.
His tax trial was originally slated to begin June 20, but his legal team advocated for a delay, arguing that they were struggling to prepare as he faced another trial on gun charges in Delaware.
Biden was convicted earlier this year of three felony gun charges in June, marking the first time a sitting president’s child has been found guilty of a crime. Special counsel David Weiss brought three gun-related charges against him last year, claiming Biden unlawfully purchased a firearm by lying on a federal gun form about his drug use.
He is set to be sentenced in September.
Source: independent.co.uk
