Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
07-09-2024
WASHINGTON: Hunter Biden has pleaded guilty to all nine charges in his federal tax evasion case, catching federal prosecutors off guard as they prepared to begin his trial on Thursday.
The son of US President Joe Biden had previously denied allegations that he intentionally avoided paying $1.4m (£1m) in income tax from 2016-19.
Initially Biden, 54, said he wanted to enter a plea where he would accept the charges while maintaining his innocence, but then he agreed to simply plead guilty after prosecutors objected.
Once prosecutors finished reading aloud the entire 56-page indictment against him to the court, the judge asked Biden if he agreed that he had “committed every element of every crime charged.”
“I do,” Biden said.
The last-minute reversal, first announced in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday as jury selection was about to start, is his second criminal conviction this year.
More than 100 potential jurors had gathered to begin the process of selecting the panel.
Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said his client wanted to forego a trial “for the sake of private interest”, sparing his friends and family from testifying about something that happened “when he was addicted to drugs”.
Judge Mark Scarsi said that in pleading guilty, Biden faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and fines ranging from $500,000 to $1m.
He is due to be sentenced on 16 December, a month after the White House election and a month before his father leaves office.
President Biden has previously said he would not use executive power to pardon his son.
There is a portrait of the president in each federal courthouse in the country, and Biden, holding hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden along with his lawyers and a Secret Service detail had to walk by the picture of his father on the way to court.
The prosecution representing President Biden’s Justice Department, said they were “shocked” by the suggested Alford plea and reluctant to agree to the deal if it allowed Hunter Biden to maintain his innocence.
They said the defendant was “not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him”.
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” lead prosecutor Leo Wise said in court.
“We came to court today to try this case.”
Biden previously sought to have the case thrown out, arguing that the Justice Department’s investigation was motivated by politics and that he was targeted because Republican lawmakers are working to impeach his father.
Prosecutors had said they wanted to introduce evidence about the defendant’s overseas business dealings, which have been the focus of Republican lawmakers’ investigations into alleged influence-peddling by the Biden family, which the White House denies.
Hunter Biden also argued that the special counsel on the case, David Weiss, had been appointed unlawfully.
These arguments were dismissed by Judge Scarsi, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Biden was charged with three felony tax offences and six misdemeanor offences in December. These include failure to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return. (Int’l News Desk)
