Hunter Biden Avoids A Trial By Entering A Guilty Plea In A Federal Tax Case

In an unexpected turn of events, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to all the counts in the federal tax case involving him on Thursday, sparing him from an embarrassing trial. The anticipated date of sentence is December 16. “Today, Hunter prioritized his family.” After the plea, his lawyer Abbe Lowell told reporters, “And it was a courageous and loving thing to do,” adding that it avoided a “show trial.” While he refrained from speaking with reporters, Biden blasted special counsel David Weiss’s office’s prosecutors in a statement, claiming they were “centered not on justice instead on dehumanizing me over my actions at the time of my addiction.”

Biden Entered An Open Plea

“I won’t subject members of my family to any further pain, more intrusions of privacy & needless embarrassment,” he stated. Biden’s attempt earlier in the day to enter what is known as an Alford plea, where a defendant pleads guilty although asserting their innocence, was met with opposition from the prosecution, leading to the plea to the 9 criminal counts in the federal court of Los Angeles. Instead, the younger Biden entered what is called an open plea, in which the defendant enters a guilty plea to all charges and abstains from cooperating with the prosecution to determine the appropriate sentence.

Lowell informed the judge, “Mr. Biden will concur that the components of each offense are satisfied.” Biden was then sworn in by Mark C. Scarsi, the U.S. District Judge, to enter the plea. In an extraordinary plea deal, prosecutor Leo Wise was required to read the 56-page indictment aloud in public. After the reading, the judge questioned, “Do you agree you performed every element of each crime in counts one to nine in the indictment?” “Yes,” Biden replied, entering a guilty plea to each count.

“Hunter Biden receives a maximum punishment of 17 years in prison,” the Justice Department stated in a news release on Thursday, adding that sentences are usually shorter than the maximum. The announcement added the judge “will assess any sentence by considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines along with other statutory factors.” Biden made the following declaration on Thursday: “I did not file and settle my taxes timely. I am accountable for that. Addiction, as I’ve said before, is not a justification for my shortcomings in this instance, but it does explain some of them. I was more concerned with surviving than with paying my taxes while I was addicted.”

Younger Biden Requested An Alford Plea

Filing false taxes was one of the offenses Biden was accused of committing once he sobered up. The younger Biden requested an Alford plea, and Lowell had informed the judge previously in the day that he “would agree that if he went to trial there’s evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.” “Hunter Biden isn’t an innocent man. Hunter Biden is at fault,” declared Wise. There was no settlement with the government that led to the change of plea. “This is the first we’ve heard of this,” Wise informed the judge earlier on Thursday. “I want to make this crystal clear: The U.S. repels an Alford plea,” he subsequently told the judge. He also requested a meeting period for the prosecutors to discuss the next course of action.

According to Lowell, the details “can be resolved today” and “the court faced to give assent to the plea.” “I haven’t faced a case that tells me I have to approve an Alford plea,” Scari remarked, seeming doubtful. He stated that he would think about having briefs outlining each side’s legal position filed. “I require an explanation for accepting or declining a plea,” declared the court. According to Lowell, his client would merely enter a guilty plea to the accusations made against him.