Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty To All Charges In Federal Tax Case — Update
UPDATE: Hunter Biden has pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges, a surprise outcome just as a trial was about to begin.
Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16, CNN reported.
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Earlier in the day, Biden’s attorney had indicated that he would enter what is called an Alford plea, in which he accepted the charges but still maintained that he was innocent. But this afternoon, Biden said that there was no deal with prosecutors and that he was entering a standard guilty plea, according to the network.
Abbe Lowell, Biden’s attorney, told reporters at the Los Angeles federal courthouse, “Hunter decided to enter his plea to protect those he loves from the unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation. This plea prevents that kind of a show trial that would not have provided all the facts or served any real point in justice.”
He added, “He will now move on with us to the sentencing phase, while keeping open the options to raise the many clear issues with this case on appeal. There’s no doubt this case was an extreme and unusual one for the government to bring. Like millions of Americans, Hunter was late in filing and paying his taxes. Unlike those millions of Americans, he was charged criminally for his failures that occurred during the depths of his addiction to drugs and alcohol.” He said that Biden had already paid his overdue taxes in full with interest and penalties.
“In fact, Hunter actually overpaid his taxes in the year he was charged with tax evasion. Hunter put his family first today, an it was a brave and loving thing for him to do.”
Earlier today, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that President Joe Biden would not pardon his son or commute his sentence, something he has said before. “No, it is still very much a no,” Jean-Pierre said.
PREVIOUSLY: News outlets this morning zeroed in on the surprise news that Hunter Biden intended to accept a guilty verdict in his federal tax fraud case, just as trial was scheduled to begin in Los Angeles.
The president’s son will submit an Alford plea, his attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the court this morning, per CNN and other outlets. Under the terms of that plea, Biden would still maintain that he is innocent, but would accept the guilty verdict.
Biden was charged with three tax felonies and six misdemeanors over the failure to pay taxes, tax evasion and filing of a false return. Prosecutors claim that he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over a period from 2016 to 2019, when they said that he instead “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle.”
The trial was expected to delve into Biden’s years of drug abuse. Those details also emerged in a separate federal trial last summer on gun charges. In June, a Wilmington, DE jury found him guilty on three felony counts related to the purchase of a gun in 2018.
The case likely would have been at the center of the fall presidential campaign, as Republicans have for years sought to tie President Joe Biden to his son’s business dealings. But the relevance of Hunter Biden’s trial has, obviously, greatly diminished since the president dropped out of the race.
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