LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all charges in the federal tax case against him, a surprise decision that avoids a potentially embarrassing trial for President Joe Biden’s son.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 16.
“Hunter put his family first today. And that was a courageous and loving act,” his attorney Abbe Lowell told reporters after the trial, saying the request helped avoid a “show trial.”
Biden did not speak to reporters, but issued a statement blasting prosecutors in special counsel David Weiss’ office who he said were “focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction.”
“I will not subject my family to further suffering, further invasion of privacy and further unnecessary embarrassment,” he said.
The plea to the nine criminal counts in federal court in Los Angeles The move comes after prosecutors opposed Biden’s attempt earlier in the day to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, where a defendant pleads guilty based on the strength of the case against him while maintaining his innocence.
The younger Biden instead ended up accepting what’s called an open plea, where a defendant pleads guilty to all charges and leaves his sentencing fate in the hands of the judge, without an agreed-upon recommendation from prosecutors.
“Mr. Biden will agree that the elements of each offense have been satisfied,” Lowell told the judge.
Federal Judge Mark C. Scarsi then swore Biden in to plead guilty. Prosecutor Leo Wise had to read the 56-page indictment in open court as part of the unusual plea process.
“Do you agree that you committed all of the elements of each crime in Counts 1 through 9 of the indictment?” the judge asked after the indictment was finished reading. “Yes,” Biden replied before pleading guilty to each count.
The Justice Department said in a press release Thursday that “Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison,” but noted that sentences are typically less than the maximum. The statement said the judge “will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”
Despite his client’s acceptance of responsibility, Lowell downplayed the case and the plea after the trial.
“This case was extreme and unusual for the government,” he said, adding that his client was being accused of something that “millions of Americans” do.
“We will now move to the sentencing phase while keeping open all options to raise the clear legal issues in this case on appeal,” Lowell said.
Weiss, whose office brought the case, declined to comment after the proceedings.
Lowell told Scarsi in court that a ruling barring Biden from citing past trauma as a reason for his drug addiction in his defense “played a role in his decision about what’s best for him.”
Scarsi had ruled that such information was irrelevant to whether Biden committed the crimes he was accused of.
In his statement Thursday, Biden said: “I failed to file and pay my taxes on time. I am responsible for that. As I said, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case. When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving.”
Some of the behavior Biden has been accused of — filing fraudulent returns — occurred while he was sober.
Lowell had told the judge earlier in the day that the younger Biden wanted an Alford plea and would “agree that … if he went to trial, there would be evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Wise said that was not enough, telling Scarsi that such a plea was “not in the public interest. It’s contrary to the rule of law and we think it’s an injustice.”
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” Wise said.
The dramatic developments come just before the start of jury selection in what would have been Biden’s second trial this year. The president’s only surviving son, Hunter Biden, is the first child of a sitting president to be tried on criminal charges.
The change of plea is not the result of an agreement with the government. Wise told the judge earlier Thursday: “This is the first we’ve heard of this.”
He later He told the judge: “I want to make this very clear: The United States opposes an Alford plea.” He also asked for some time for prosecutors to meet and discuss next steps.
Lowell said he believed “the court was bound to accept the plea” and that the details “could be resolved today.”
Scarsi was skeptical, saying, “I’ve never seen a case where I would have to take an Alford plea.” He added that he plans to ask both sides to file briefs outlining their legal arguments.
“I need a reason why I accept or reject a plea,” the judge said.
Lowell then said his client would simply plead guilty to the charges against him.
The president ignored reporters’ questions earlier in the day about the plea-change attempt. He has said previously that he would not use his presidential power to pardon his son or commute his sentence, and White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that was still his position. “It’s still no,” she said.
Biden, 54, was charged in December with three felony counts and six misdemeanor counts, alleging he failed to pay his taxes during a period when he said he was struggling with drug addiction, and after he stopped drinking.
The plea saves Biden in a public trial where prosecutors heard from more than two dozen witnesses, some of whom were expected to offer embarrassing and salacious testimony about Biden’s drug use and spending.
The indictment states that Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to evade paying at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from about January 2017 to about October 15, 2020, and to evade assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns around February 2020.”
The money was spent “on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything except his tax dollars,” the indictment says.
Prosecutors also alleged that the returns Biden ultimately filed were fraudulent, misrepresenting as business expenses money he paid to an escort, a strip club, a sex club membership, a pornographic website, and his daughter’s college tuition and rent.
A previous plea deal with prosecutors on similar charges in Delaware fell apart last year after a judge expressed skepticism about some of the terms. Under that deal, Biden would have pleaded guilty to tax crimes in exchange for a recommended sentence of six months of probation, while a felony charge related to buying a gun while using drugs would have been dropped after two years if Biden stayed out of legal trouble.
District Judge Maryellen Noreika had refused to sign the deal. “These deals are not straightforward and they contain atypical provisions,” Noreika said last year. One element of the deal could have shielded Biden from prosecution for other tax-related crimes.
Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors were unable to reach a revised agreement, leading special counsel David Weiss’ office to indict Biden on the firearms charges in Delaware and on expanded tax charges in California.
Evidence of Biden’s history of addiction was at the center of another case Weiss’s office prosecuted earlier this year in Delaware. Biden was ultimately convicted of three counts related to possession of a firearm while using narcotics.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in the case on Nov. 12 and has said he plans to appeal his conviction.
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