Hunter Biden has pleaded guilty in a federal tax case.
Update 8:33 a.m. ET Sept. 6: Biden told his attorneys he did not want to add to his family’s anguish and humiliation, The New York Times reported.
“I went to trial in Delaware not realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I will not put them through it again,” Biden said in a statement. He was referring to the trial on federal gun charges which he was also found guilty of earlier this year.
“There was only one path left for me,” he said, according to the Times. “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, and so I have decided to plead guilty.”
The guilty plea on nine charges did not come with a deal that would come with a reduced punishment.
Initially, his attorneys offered an Alford plea where he would acknowledge that there was enough evidence to convict but would still say he was innocent. Prosecutors would not accept those conditions, so Biden entered a traditional guilty plea.
He will be sentenced in December and is free on bond.
Biden’s father, President Joe Biden, has said he will not issue a pardon for his son for either the tax or gun case, ABC News and CNN reported.
Original report: Jury selection was scheduled to begin today in the trial where he was accused of trying to not pay $1.4 million in taxes while being paid millions of dollars from foreign businesses, The Associated Press reported.
The court went into recess after his attorney made her client’s decision known, NBC News reported.
CNN reported that with the offer, he would accept whatever sentence is handed down, but would also maintain his innocence. It is called an Alford plea meaning that Biden admits there is enough evidence for a conviction. This is not the same as a plea agreement where Biden would plead guilty to some charges so others may be dropped, Prosecutor Leo Wise said. The prosecution team only allowed the president’s son to plead guilty to all nine charges against him.
District Judge Mark Scarsi has to approve the change.
Initially, Biden’s attorney was expected to say that her client didn’t “willfully” not pay the taxes owed, partially blaming it on his drug and alcohol addiction, the AP reported. The judge rejected allowing the defense to have an addiction expert testify.
The defense also asked Scarsi to limit what prosecutors were allowed to say Biden spent his money on, saying that it was “character assassination” to say he paid strippers and pornographic websites. The judge said he would keep “strict control” over what the AP called “potentially salacious evidence.”
He had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges in the tax case if he would not be prosecuted in a gun case, but the judge questioned that deal which was then taken off the table, the AP reported.
He was convicted of three federal gun charges in June in Delaware, CNN reported.
Check back for more on this developing story.
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