On Thursday, September 5th, Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden pleaded guilty to around 9 charges in a federal tax evasion case. This move of son Biden is said to have surprised federal prosecutors as they planned to begin his trial.
Earlier, Hunter had refuted charges that he willfully avoided paying $1.4 million in income tax between 2016 and 2019. Biden, 54, first stated that he intended to enter a plea in which he would accept the allegations while maintaining his innocence. Still, prosecutors objected, and he just agreed to plead guilty simply.
As per the reports, 3 months ago, Biden was found guilty in another case related to gun possession and drug usage. He then became the first criminally convicted son of a serving US president.
The last-minute reversal in the tax case was declared in a Los Angeles court on Thursday, just as jury selection was about to begin. Over 100 potential jurors had assembled to start the process of selecting the panel.
Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, stated that his client sought to avoid a trial for the sake of private interest, preventing his friends and family from testifying about something that occurred when he was addicted to drugs. “I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment,” Hunter said in a statement to the media.
Judge Mark Scarsi stated that by pleading guilty, Biden potentially faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in jail and a fine ranging from $500,000 to $1 million. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 16th, a month after the White House election and a month before his father is scheduled to leave the office.
President Biden had already stated that he would not utilize executive power to pardon his son. The prosecution, representing the Biden administration’s justice department, claimed they were shocked by the proposed Alford plea (a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence) and were hesitant to agree to the setup that allowed Hunter Biden to maintain his innocence. They stated that the prisoner was “not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him”.
Lead prosecutor Leo Wise commented on the case and claimed that Biden was not innocent and that the authorities had come to the court to deal with the trial. In court on Thursday, September 5th, after prosecutors finished reading the 56-page indictment against Biden, the judge pondered whether Biden had agreed that he had committed every element of every crime charged. “I do,” Biden answered.
Biden previously attempted to have the case dismissed, claiming that the Justice Department’s probe was politically motivated and that he was targeted because Republican senators were seeking to impeach his father. However, he accepted all the nine charges imposed against him, pleading guilty.
Hunter Biden meanwhile also claimed that David Weiss, the special counsel in the case, was appointed unlawfully. But these reasons were rejected by Judge Scarsi, who was chosen by former President Trump. Biden was charged with three felony tax offences and six misdemeanours in December. These included failing to file and pay his taxes, evading taxes, and submitting a fake return.
The indictment outlined Biden’s $7 million in profits from overseas business dealings between 2016 and 2019. According to the accusation, he spent roughly $5 million on everything but his taxes during that time. Those purchases included narcotics, escorts, opulent hotels, fancy automobiles, and apparel, which Biden falsely claimed were business costs.
President Biden avoided commenting on the issue on Thursday. Hunter’s tax evasion prosecution is his second federal criminal case this year.
In June, he was convicted of three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a revolver in 2018 while suffering from drug addiction, as well as lying about his drug use on a federal form to obtain the gun.
