Biden's son pleads guilty to tax fraud charges
September 06, 2024 08:52
United States President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden pleaded guilty
to all nine charges in his federal tax case on Thursday, and District
Judge Mark Scarsi in Los Angeles has accepted his plea, CNN reported.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 16, notably after November's presidential election.
The
President's son has now officially pleaded guilty to one count of
felony tax evasion, two counts of felony filing fraudulent tax returns,
four misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes, and two misdemeanor
counts of failing to file tax returns, as per CNN.
The
guilty plea came in a convoluted all-day hearing on the same day that
his trial was supposed to begin with jury selection in Los Angeles.
About
120 prospective jurors waited in a sequestered assembly room throughout
the day, while prosecutors and Hunter Biden's lawyers haggled in court
over how to move forward.
According to CNN,
the plea also came hours after Hunter Biden offered an 'Alford plea',
where he would've maintained his innocence, skipped a trial, and
accepted any punishment at sentencing.
But
Biden's team backed away from that plan after prosecutors raised
forceful objections, and the judge said he'd want to study the matter
and reconvene Friday morning.
The guilty plea
was a unilateral move by Hunter Biden, called an 'open plea' because it
was done without a pre-arranged plea bargain with prosecutors.
It's rare for a high-profile defendant to plead guilty to crimes without a leniency deal with prosecutors.
"We were as shocked as everyone else in the courtroom this morning," prosecutor Leo Wise said.
But
in a surprising turn Thursday afternoon, Biden's team changed course
and instead said he is prepared to enter an 'open plea' and admit that
his conduct satisfied the elements of the tax offences with which he had
been charged.
Biden said under oath in federal
court in Los Angeles Thursday that nobody made him any promises, to
convince him to plead guilty in his tax case. The President's son also
testified that nobody pressured him to plead guilty in any way.
After
prosecutors read the full 56-page indictment during the plea
proceeding, which took nearly 90 minutes, Scarsi asked Hunter Biden
standard questions that are part of every pea deal.
"Do you agree that you committed every element of every crime?" Scarsi asked.
"Yes," Hunter Biden responded.
The
resolution of the tax case came on the brink of a trial in downtown Los
Angeles. This would have been Biden's second criminal trial this year,
after he was convicted in June on three federal gun charges in
Wilmington, Delaware.
According to CNN,
prosecutors alleged that Biden failed to pay $1.4 million in federal
taxes and evaded taxes by filing tax returns with fraudulent business
deductions.
The president's son eventually paid
roughly $2 million in back taxes and penalties after learning of the
investigation and getting sober, following a years-long struggle with
drug addiction and alcoholism. -- ANI
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