Hunter Biden pleads guilty in tax case

The US president’s son reportedly wishes to skip a potentially damaging federal trial

Lawyers for US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter have told a federal court that he is prepared to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion, eliminating the need for a trial.

Hunter Biden was indicted last December on nine charges of tax evasion, while spending millions “on an extravagant lifestyle” involving drugs, “escorts and girlfriends,” exotic cars and other personal expenses. He originally pleaded not guilty.

“Mr. Biden intends to change his plea this morning,” his lawyer Abbe Lowell told the federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday, just as jury selection was about to start.

According to Lowell, Biden wanted to submit an Alford plea, accepting a guilty verdict while maintaining he did nothing wrong. Prosecutors said it was the first time they were hearing of this, so the court went into recess.

Charges against Biden include three felonies and six misdemeanors, including tax evasion, failure to pay, failure to file, and filing a false return. 

According to prosecutors, the sitting president’s son “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” spending “millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”

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During this period, Biden served on the boards of Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the Chinese company CEFC China Energy Co Ltd. He faces a maximum of 17 years in prison if convicted. 

Meanwhile, Biden has been convicted on gun charges in Delaware, and may be sentenced to as much as 25 years in that case at a hearing scheduled for November, after the presidential election. He was found guilty of lying on a federal firearms purchase form about his cocaine addiction.

Last month, federal prosecutors submitted new evidence that Hunter Biden had worked as a lobbyist for a Romanian businessman, without registering with the federal government. They did not expand the charges to include violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), however.

In late July, Joe Biden bowed out of the presidential race and endorsed current Vice President Kamala Harris for the job. Biden was reportedly under pressure from the Democrats, who believed he was not physically and mentally well enough to run for re-election, but allowed him to stay in the White House until the end of his term in January. Hunter Biden’s legal woes were also seen as a potential liability for his father’s campaign.