In a surprise move Thursday, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to all nine federal tax charges he faced, derailing a weekslong trial as jury selection was scheduled to begin and avoiding the embarrassment of delving into an period of his life when he was addicted to crack cocaine.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi set sentencing for Dec. 16. Scarsi had balked at an earlier offer from Biden to plead guilty under what is called an Alford plea. The plea is when a defendant accepts sentencing by acknowledging the prosecution has enough evidence to convict him, even if he doesn’t admit wrongdoing.
Justice Department special counsel David Weiss’ team opposed an Alford plea, arguing that Biden should be forced to admit his guilt.
But Ultimately Biden pleaded guilty to three felonies and six misdemeanors, on charges he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019.
Biden said in a statement that “like millions of Americans” he failed to pay his taxes on time and “for that I am responsible.”
“As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case,” Biden said. “When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving period. But the jury would never have heard that or know that I have paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties.”
The tax charges carry a maximum sentence of 17 years, although Biden’s sentence would likely be lower. Biden was convicted in June of three federal gun charges for lying about using drugs when he bought a handgun in 2018. The gun charges carry a maximum 25-year sentence.
The plea derailed a trial that promised to revisit a period of Biden’s life when he has acknowledged an addiction to crack cocaine. His former wife and other romantic partners offered wrenching testimony during the gun trial about their concerns about his drug use
“I went to trial in Delaware not realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I will not put them through it again,” Biden said. “When it became clear to me that the same prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction, there was only one path left for me. I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment.”
Prosecutors have argued with the tax charges that Biden spent extravagantly on travel, drugs and escorts while ignoring his taxes. Biden paid the back taxes and penalties in 2021, and his lawyers blamed the missed payments on his chaotic lifestyle while using drugs.
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A television monitor shows the verdict in the Hunter Biden trial in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 11, 2024. A jury found Hunter Biden guilty on federal gun charges in a historic first criminal prosecution of the child of a sitting U.S. president. The 54-year-old son of President Joe Biden was convicted on all three of the federal charges facing him, CNN and other U.S. media reported.
The plea comes more than a year after previous plea agreement that would have resolved tax and gun charges against him fell apart. Biden had offered to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and to enter a pretrial program over the gun charges that could have left him without prison time.
But Republicans blasted the previous plea deal as a “sweetheart deal” for the president’s son. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected it because of a disagreement between prosecutors and defense lawyers about whether it covered potential future charges.
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President Joe Biden, who declined to seek reelection as his son fought the charges, has said he wouldn’t pardon him. “It’s still a no,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.
