Hunter Biden offers plea in tax case, in effort to avoid second trial
LOS ANGELES - President Joe Biden’s son Hunter tried to resolve his federal tax case Thursday morning as jury selection was about to begin, offering an Alford plea in which he maintains he is innocent but acknowledges that the prosecution’s evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict.
Prosecutors said they needed to confer about the proposal, which they had not been told of in advance. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi adjourned the court proceedings until 11 a.m. Pacific time so that those discussions could take place.
Special Counsel David Weiss charged Biden last year on nine tax-related counts, accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019. Three charges were felonies and six were misdemeanors. They include failing to file and pay taxes, tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
Weiss separately charged Biden last year with three felony gun counts in Delaware. A jury convicted Biden on all three charges in June, and he is scheduled for sentencing in November.
The indictments came after a lengthy investigation into Biden’s business dealings while his father was vice president, which Republican lawmakers and former president Donald Trump have tried to use as evidence of corruption within the Biden family. No evidence has been surfaced publicly to suggest any wrongdoing by Joe Biden.
The younger Biden has said he has undergone treatment for addiction and is no longer using drugs. While his addiction to crack cocaine was a central theme of his gun trial, the Los Angeles case is expected to delve into Biden’s lavish spending and sex life during that period - much of which he chronicled in his 2021 memoir. Among the accusations laid out in the nine-count indictment is that Biden wrote off money he paid sex workers as business expenses on his tax forms.
An Alford plea, named after a case North Carolina v. Alford, is a way for a defendant to register a formal admission of guilt toward federal charges they are facing while simultaneously maintaining their innocence. It is up to a judge and prosecutors whether to accept the plea.
United States attorneys are only able to consent to Alford pleas “in the most unusual of circumstances” and have to gain approval from top officials at the Department of Justice, according to federal prosecution guidelines.
Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, made the motion at the start of the trial on Thursday morning. Opening arguments were expected to start Monday, after a jury was seated.
Political interest in Hunter Biden’s legal troubles has waned somewhat since his father dropped out of the upcoming presidential race. But the trial still loomed large for the close-knit Biden family.
The president, who has made clear he thinks the criminal charges against his son are politically motivated, will have to decide before leaving office whether to pardon Hunter Biden’s criminal convictions.