Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty to Tax Charges at the Last Minute, Aiming to Avoid Another Trial and Accept Sentence

Hunter Biden offered to plead guilty in his federal tax case on Thursday, Sept. 5, seeking to dodge a high-profile Los Angeles trial on the day that it was scheduled to begin, multiple outlets report.

Thirty minutes before jury selection kicked off, Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell said that the son of President Joe Biden would like to submit an Alford plea, which is also known as a “best interests plea,” per Cornell Law School. The plea means that Biden would accept a conviction on all nine of his federal tax charges while simultaneously maintaining his innocence.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi has not yet decided whether he will accept Biden's new plea offer, calling for a brief recess so that prosecutors can form a response and suggesting that jury selection may continue, according to The New York Times.

The new court drama comes about two months after a Delaware jury found Biden guilty of three charges in a federal firearm case related to how he unlawfully obtained and possessed a gun in 2018 while addicted to narcotics.

After his June conviction in the previous trial, Biden became the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of crimes. He currently faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines in that case, and will be sentenced this fall.

In January, Biden, 54, pleaded not guilty to the nine tax charges, which included three felony counts. Judge Scarsi, who was appointed by Donald Trump, was assigned to oversee the trial, which is expected to take about two weeks if it moves forward, per Politico.

A filing from December 2023 alleged that Hunter failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes, instead spending "millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle" — allegedly including drugs, escorts, luxury hotels and exotic cars. He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

Four of the nine charges are related to failure to pay taxes in instances that occurred from 2016 to 2019, while two alleged that he failed to file taxes in both 2017 and 2018. Then he has two felony charges of filing a false return with both instances taking place in 2018 and a third felony charge for tax evasion that same year.

Details of Hunter’s unruly behavior during those years were exposed during his previous firearm trial, which saw several people testify about his past substance abuse and infidelity. 

During pretrial in August, prosecutors claimed they have evidence that Biden was "lobbying and consulting business" with Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, who was under criminal investigation in his country at the time, with the intent to influence the United States' "policy and public opinion," according to a court document. 

The document further states that prosecutors believe Biden was concerned that his lobbying "might cause political ramifications" for his father, therefore he conducted the business under the guise of a real estate business. Prosecutors believe Biden received over a million dollars through the deal and an unnamed witness related to the deal was expected to testify during the trial. 

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President Biden, 81, previously said he will not use his presidential power to pardon his son.

The younger Biden is a father of five, having welcomed his first three children with ex-wife Kathleen Buhle; a daughter, Navy, with his onetime assistant Lunden Roberts; and his youngest son, Beau Jr., with his current wife, Melissa Cohen.