In a surprise move, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all nine federal tax charges he faced, just as jury selection was about to begin in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
After a prosecutor finished reading aloud the 56-page indictment, President Biden’s troubled son stood before U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi wearing a dark blue suit over a crisp white shirt and blue tie. He responded nine times with “guilty” as Scarsi asked how he pleaded to each of the federal charges.
Biden faces a maximum of 17 years in prison and potentially more than $1.2 million in fines when Scarsi sentences him at a hearing scheduled for Dec. 16. The plea draws to a close the second of two criminal cases against Biden, who was convicted in June of three federal crimes related to the purchase of a firearm.
Both prosecutions had been set to fuel a barrage of attacks on the Bidens by former President Trump and his allies in the run-up to the November election. But Joe Biden’s decision last month to drop out of the race altered that calculus.
Thursday’s dramatic turn of events began when Biden’s defense attorneys announced that they intended to introduce a so-called Alford plea, which would have allowed Biden to maintain his innocence while admitting that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.
“I know it’s an unusual procedural [move],” Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Biden, told Scarsi. “We could have resolved this case by an agreement, but it’s been a long road to here.”
Assistant U.S. Atty. Leo Wise urged Scarsi to reject the Alford plea, stating that doing so would be “contrary to the rule of law” and “an injustice.”
“Alford pleas are rare. They occur under exceptional circumstances, and that’s not the case today,” Wise said, adding later that “we will not under any circumstances agree to an Alford plea.”
After a brief recess to confer with Biden and the rest of his legal team, Lowell stated that Biden would not pursue the Alford plea and would instead plead guilty to all nine counts.
Wise asked Scarsi to allow him to read the indictment into the record, and the judge agreed.
The indictment included racy details of Biden’s life between 2016 and 2019 — the period during which now he admits he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes — including the hundreds of thousands of dollars he spent on escorts, a pornographic website, hotels, luxury car rentals and other lavish personal expenses.
Prosecutors alleged, among other things, that Biden improperly classified personal expenses as business expenses and paid his federal income taxes late.
After Wise read the indictment, Biden pleaded guilty to the charges.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of the law firm West Coast Trial Lawyers, said it is “almost unheard of” for a defendant to plead guilty without an agreement with prosecutors.
Negotiating with prosecutors typically results in a reduced sentence and the dismissal of some charges, Rahmani said, adding that Biden’s lawyers “are either completely incompetent, or what’s more likely, Hunter Biden knows he’ll be pardoned.”
President Biden has said he would not pardon his son nor commute any sentence. On Thursday, White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the answer to whether the President would pardon Hunter Biden is “still no.”
After the hearing, Biden and his team walked out of the courthouse and into a black Chevrolet Suburban with government plates as a phalanx of media, Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security officials looked on.
Lowell made a brief statement, declining to answer any questions from reporters. He argued that the case against Biden was an “extreme and unusual one for the government to bring.”
“Hunter decided to enter his plea to protect those he loves from unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation,” Lowell said, adding later that “he will now move on … while keeping open the option to raise the many clear issues with this case on appeal.”
Times staff writer Matthew Ormseth and the Associated Press contributed to this report.