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Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to an assortment of tax charges in California on Thursday, forestalling a criminal trial that threatened to air embarrassing information about US President Joe Biden’s son and the first family.
Biden’s surprise plea in Los Angeles federal court came as jury selection was set to begin, and was unusual in that it was entered without an agreement with prosecutors. That means the president’s son will have no assurances about what sort of punishment prosecutors will seek when he is sentenced in December.
Earlier in the day, Biden had attempted to enter a so-called Alford plea, in which he would acknowledge the weight of evidence against him and accept punishment but not acknowledge guilt. Prosecutors objected.
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty. He is not permitted to plead guilty on special terms,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.
“Hunter decided to enter his plea to protect those he loves from unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation,” Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell told reporters after the hearing. “This plea prevents that kind of show trial that would have not provided all the facts or served any real point in justice.” He said the plea preserved the option for Biden to raise the “many clear issues with this case” on appeal.
Biden’s legal travails have for years been a source of anguish, as well as a political headache, for his father and his family.
In June, the president’s younger son was convicted in Delaware on three felony counts for lying on a federal background check when he purchased a handgun in 2018.
That weeklong trial featured excruciating testimony about Biden’s years-long crack cocaine addiction, as well as his romantic relationship with his late brother’s widow.
Republicans have long tried to pin those failings, as well as Hunter Biden’s questionable business dealings, on his father. Yet with his father’s decision in July to drop out of the presidential race, his legal problems no longer had the same kind of national consequence.
Biden was accused of evading $1.4mn in taxes, some of that through inappropriate business deductions. Much of the money was allegedly spent on an extravagant lifestyle including hotels, cars, drugs and prostitutes while he was in the throes of addiction.
The charges carry a maximum of 17 years in prison, although the actual sentence would likely be much less.
Karine Jean-Pierre, a White House spokesperson, declined to comment on Thursday on Biden’s plea. The president has previously stated that he would not pardon his son.
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