Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax evasion in California
Hunter Biden, 54, failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes over the past decade, instead choosing to spend on a life of luxury that included sex workers and drug addiction.
A Los Angeles court was preparing on Thursday to select a jury when Biden’s defense unexpectedly announced that their client was willing to plead guilty to nine counts of tax felonies, in an effort to reach a plea deal with the prosecution that would allow him to avoid trial and prison.
But the prosecution did not accept the offer, and Biden chose to plead guilty, thus avoiding the trial.
Biden, who was found guilty in another trial this year in Delaware for lying about his drug use to acquire a firearm, reportedly stated that he made the decision to “spare his family” from this ordeal.
“I went to trial in Delaware without realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I won’t put them through that again,” Biden said in a statement.
This legal process, for which he awaits a sentence that could be up to 25 years in prison, brought to light his extravagant lifestyle, the collapse of his marriage, and his heavy crack consumption.
If the tax evasion process in California had continued, Biden risked sordid details of his private life emerging, of which his family, including the president, has been aware for a long time.
Judge Mark Scarsi set December 16 as the date for sentencing in California, which could be up to 17 years in prison, in addition to a fine of up to one million dollars.
Joe Biden could commute his sentence with a presidential pardon, but the president has been adamant that he would not do such a thing.
“It remains a ‘no’,” said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday.
“Surviving”
His defense argued that tax evasion was a lapse amid a chaotic life due to drug addiction and the trauma of losing his brother Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.
This is something Biden defended in the statement released on Thursday. “When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving,” he wrote.
Hunter Biden has paid his tax debts as well as the fines.
To avoid trial and prison, he attempted to strike a deal with the justice system last year, which did not materialize.
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Since then, he had been trying to reach another agreement, and his offer on Thursday was his last attempt.
Hunter Biden has been a frequent target of his father’s opponents, who have – without evidence – tried to portray the family as a group of criminals who gained power and wealth through the political career of the current president.
Joe Biden’s decision to step back from the re-election campaign has reduced interest in the controversy surrounding his son, now that Republicans have to contend with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Hunter Biden, a Yale-trained lawyer turned painter, lives in coastal Malibu, and claims to have stopped using drugs and alcohol since 2019.