LOS ANGELES – The legal saga surrounding Hunter Biden took an unexpected turn when he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax counts after prosecutors refused to budge in their opposition to a special plea that would have allowed him to maintain his innocence.
The twist that played out as jury selection was scheduled to start in the tax trial Thursday almost brings to a close a yearslong investigation of President Joe Biden's son. The case has been punctuated by Republicans' allegations of preferential treatment and accusations by his defense attorneys that prosecutors overcorrected and bowed to political pressure when two indictments were issued as a previous plea deal fell apart.
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Hunter Biden will now await sentencing in both his June jury conviction on charges that he lied about his drug use on a federal form to purchase a gun, which he possessed for 11 days, and the tax case he pleaded guilty to Thursday.
Here's a look at the winding legal road that led to the surprise plea.
The plea deal that collapsed
Hunter Biden had initially agreed to plead guilty to a negotiated misdemeanor tax charge as part of a deal with the Justice Department. That deal would have seen the gun charges dismissed in a diversion agreement as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years and likely would have come with a recommendation for no prison time.
The agreement collapsed last year after a federal judge in Delaware questioned several unusual aspects, including how it was packaged.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel a month later, in August 2023, giving the prosecutor broad authority to investigate and report out his findings. Hunter Biden was subsequently indicted in two separate cases: the gun charges in Delaware and the tax charges in California.
Conviction on gun charges
Hunter Biden's attorneys made several failed motions asking for the gun charges to be dropped — ranging from questioning their constitutionality to challenging the appointment of the special counsel — over the months between the indictment and trial in early June.
After not even six full days of testimony in June, a Delaware jury took less than three hours to convict Hunter Biden on the gun charges.
Prosecutors presented sometimes relentless personal details about his drug use, purchases and relationships — showing photos and texts from his ex-girlfriends and pressing his oldest daughter about her ability to tell if he was sober — all while family members including first lady Jill Biden watched from the gallery, some of them choking back tears.
After the conviction, prosecutors turned their focus to the California tax charges alleging that Hunter Biden had engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying more than $1.4 million in taxes for the years 2016 through 2019 while living a lavish lifestyle of top-tier hotels, payments to escorts and purchasing exotic cars.
Although the political stakes of the second trial largely evaporated when President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid in July, weeks of arguments between prosecutors and defense attorneys over what evidence could be presented to jurors indicated California could be a repeat of the painful airing of personal details. It was unclear if Hunter Biden's daughters would have been called as witnesses in the case, but both were listed in a glossary provided to court staff by prosecutors.
The latest plea
About a half-hour before the questioning of potential jurors was set to begin Thursday, Hunter Biden's attorneys announced to a judge that they would like to enter into 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 balked at the idea. Lead prosecutor 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.”
Prosecutors do not have to agree to an Alford plea, but Scarsi was prepared to give the government until the end of the day to file its objections before ruling on whether he would accept the plea, likely after reconvening Friday.
Instead, Hunter Biden changed his plea to guilty on all nine of the tax charges. There was no offer on the table from prosecutors to reduce those charges or to recommend a lesser sentence, and prosecutors read the charging documents aloud for more than an hour before he was asked to enter the plea.
Hunter Biden issued a written statement about his decision to plead guilty, saying: “I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment. For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this.”
Hunter Biden will now face sentencing in both cases. He faces up to 25 years at his Nov. 13 sentencing hearing in Delaware, though as a first-time offender he would likely receive a lesser sentence. He faces up to 17 years and a fine of up to $1.3 million on the tax charges at a scheduled Dec. 16 sentencing.
A spokesperson for Joe Biden reiterated when asked Thursday that the president had no plans to pardon his son or commute his eventual sentence. ___
Lauer reported from Philadelphia.