LOS ANGELES (AP) — The legal saga surrounding Hunter Biden took an unexpected turn when he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges after prosecutors refused to budge in their opposition to a special plea that would have allowed him to maintain his innocence.
The twist, which came as jury selection was set to begin Thursday in the tax trial, nearly ends a years-long investigation into President Joe Biden’s son. The case has been marked by allegations from Republicans of favored treatment and accusations from his defense lawyers that prosecutors overcorrected and bowed to political pressure when two charges were filed after an earlier plea deal fell apart.
Hunter Biden now awaits punishment in both his June conviction by a jury on charges that he lied on a federal form about his drug use to buy a gun he had in his possession for 11 days, and in the tax case to which he pleaded guilty on Thursday.
Below is a look at the winding legal path that led to the surprise request.
The settlement that failed
Hunter Biden had initially agreed to plead guilty to a negotiated tax charge as part of a deal with the Justice Department. That deal would have seen the weapons charges dismissed in a diversion agreement as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years, and would have likely come with a recommendation that he not serve any prison time.
The deal collapsed last year after a federal judge in Delaware questioned several unusual aspects, including the way the agreement was packaged.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Delaware Attorney General David Weiss as special counsel a month later, in August 2023, giving the prosecutor broad authority to investigate and report its findings. Hunter Biden was subsequently charged in two separate cases: the Delaware weapons charges and the California tax charges.
Conviction for possession of weapons
In the months between the indictment and the trial in early June, Hunter Biden’s lawyers filed several unsuccessful motions to dismiss the weapons charges, challenging their constitutionality and challenging the appointment of the special counsel.
After less than six full days of testimony in June, a Delaware jury took less than three hours to convict Hunter Biden on gun charges.
Prosecutors sometimes unflinchingly presented personal details about his drug use, purchases and relationships — showing photos and texts from his ex-girlfriends and asking his eldest daughter if she could tell if he was sober — as family members, including first lady Jill Biden, watched from the gallery, some holding back tears.
After the conviction, prosecutors turned their attention to the California tax charges. Hunter Biden allegedly set up a four-year scheme to evade more than $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 through 2019, while living an extravagant lifestyle that included luxury hotels, payments to escorts and the purchase of exclusive cars.
While the political stakes of the second trial largely evaporated when President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid in July, weeks of wrangling between prosecutors and defense lawyers over what evidence to present to jurors suggested that California could see a repeat of the embarrassing public disclosure of personal details. It was unclear whether Hunter Biden’s daughters would be called as witnesses in the case, but both were listed in a glossary provided to court staff by prosecutors.
The last request
About a half hour before questioning of potential jurors was set to begin Thursday, Hunter Biden’s lawyers told a judge that they planned to enter what’s known as an Alford plea. The maneuver, named after a U.S. Supreme Court case, allows a defendant to acknowledge that prosecutors have enough evidence to convince a jury of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but also allows them to maintain their claim of innocence.
Prosecutors immediately opposed the idea. Chief Attorney Leo Wise told U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi that the government opposed an Alford plea, saying, “Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty.”
The prosecution does not have to agree to an Alford motion, but Scarsi agreed to give the government until the end of the day to file objections before deciding whether to accept the motion, likely after he reconvenes Friday.
Instead, Hunter Biden changed his plea to guilty on all nine tax charges. There was no offer from prosecutors to reduce those charges or propose a lighter sentence, and prosecutors read the charging documents aloud for more than an hour before asking him to enter the plea.
Hunter Biden released a written statement about his decision to plead guilty, saying, “I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy, and more needless embarrassment. For everything I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this.”
Hunter Biden will now face punishment in both cases. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison at his sentencing hearing on Nov. 13 in Delaware, though as a first-time offender he would likely receive a lesser sentence. He faces a maximum of 17 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.3 million for the tax charges at a scheduled sentencing on Dec. 16.
A spokesman for Joe Biden reiterated Thursday when asked that the president has no plans to pardon his son or commute his ultimate sentence. ___
Lauer reported from Philadelphia.
