Update: Hunter Biden pleaded guilty on Thursday to all nine charges in his federal tax case, and the judge accepted his plea. Sentencing is scheduled for December 16, following the November presidential election, a timing the prosecution did not oppose.
Earlier, Biden had pursued an “Alford plea” in his federal tax evasion case in California, which would have allowed him to maintain his innocence while accepting punishment. However, in a surprising move Thursday, Biden’s legal team shifted strategy, opting for an “open plea” in which he admitted to conduct that met the elements of the tax offenses charged.
The charges against Hunter, who is facing his second criminal trial this year, include three felonies and six misdemeanors related to his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes and falsifying information on his IRS returns. Among the evidence presented is documentation of Hunter's lavish spending on prostitutes, drugs, hotel stays, porn site subscriptions, and even a Lamborghini rental, all of which he allegedly claimed as business expenses.
This trial follows his recent legal defeat in Delaware, where a jury found him guilty of lying about his crack cocaine addiction to purchase a firearm in 2018. The same federal prosecutors, Leo Wise and Derek Hines, who secured the earlier conviction, are leading the case against Hunter once again.
Hunter is now hoping for a more favorable outcome, as a conviction in this case could result in up to 17 years in prison and fines totaling $750,000. He has replaced his previous lead attorney, Abbe Lowell, with high-profile Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos, known for defending celebrities such as Chris Brown, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Michael Jackson.
Geragos has argued that prosecutors plan to use sensational details to “slime” Hunter Biden in front of the jury. In earlier pre-trial hearings, Hunter’s legal team faced setbacks, including a failed attempt to have psychological experts testify. Geragos had hoped to argue that Hunter's history of drug addiction, combined with the trauma of losing his mother and sister in a car accident in 1972 and his brother Beau to brain cancer in 2015, contributed to his behavior and alleged tax evasion.
Both of Hunter's criminal cases have been brought by Special Counsel David Weiss following a five-year investigation into his personal life and overseas business dealings.
