LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges Thursday in a surprise move that allows President Joe Biden’s family to avoid having to endure another likely embarrassing and painful criminal trial of the president’s son.
His stunning decision to guilty plea to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
The president’s son was already facing potential prison time after his June conviction in a trial that aired unflattering and salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction.
While President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election lessened the potential political implications of the tax case, the trial was expected to carry a heavy emotional toll for the president in the final months of his five-decade long political career.
More than 100 potential jurors jurors had been brought to the courthouse to begin the process of picking the panel that would decide whether he’s guilty of misdemeanor and felony charges over what prosecutors say was a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while pulling in millions of dollars from foreign business entities.
But defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge that the evidence against Hunter Biden was “overwhelming” and that the president’s son wanted to resolve the case with what’s referred to as an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.
A prosecutor urged U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi to reject the proposed plea, saying that Hunter Biden “is not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him.”
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.
Wise said it wasn’t sufficient for Biden to acknowledge that the government had enough evidence to prove him guilty and wanted him to acknowledge the facts laid out in the indictment are true.
White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she was “not able to comment” on Hunter Biden’s plans to change his plea. President Joe Biden has said he would not pardon or commute a sentence handed down against his son. Asked again Thursday if the president would pardon Hunter, Jean-Pierre said: ”Still no.”
A last-minute plea would allow Hunter Biden to avoid a second criminal trial in just months. He was convicted in June in Delaware of three felony charges over a gun he bought in 2018.
The tax trial was expected to put a spotlight on his foreign business dealings, which Republicans have spent years scrutinizing to accuse his father — without evidence — of corruption in connection with his son’s work overseas.
The potential political ramifications of the trial just weeks before the presidential election may have faded somewhat since President Biden’s July decision to drop out of the 2024 race. But the president is deeply concerned with the well-being of his son, so a trial would likely weigh heavily on him in the final months of his five-decade political career.
Hunter Biden walked into the courtroom holding hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and flanked by Secret Service agents. Initially, he pleaded not guilty to the charges related to his 2016 through 2019 taxes and his attorneys had indicated they would argue he didn’t act “willfully,” or with the intention to break the law, in part because of his well-documented struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.
Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses last year in a deal with the Justice Department that would allow him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. But the agreement imploded after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and he was subsequently indicted in the two cases.
His decision to change his plea Thursday came after the judge issued some unfavorable pre-trial rulings for the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert lined up to testify about addiction.
Scarsi, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, also placed some restrictions on what jurors would be allowed to hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden’s family, friends and attorneys say led to his drug addiction.
The judge barred attorneys from connecting his substance abuse struggles to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden from cancer or the car accident that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler.
The indictment alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”
Hunter Biden’s attorneys had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his expenses that they say amount to a “character assassination,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court papers that he will maintain “strict control” over the presentation of potentially salacious evidence.
Prosecutors had said they want to introduce evidence about Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings, which have been at the center of Republican investigations into the Biden family often seeking — without evidence— to tie the president to an alleged influence peddling scheme.
The special counsel’s team had planned to have a business associate of Hunter Biden’s testify about their work for a Romanian businessman, who prosecutors say sought to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president.
Sentencing in Hunter Biden’s Delaware conviction is set for Nov. 13. He could face up to 25 years in prison, but as a first-time offender, he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.
Lauer reported from Philadelphia. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed from Washington.
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