Mr. Biden took the unusual step of entering a so-called Alford plea, acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict him even as he expressed innocence toward the same charges.
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Hunter Biden is charged with evading a tax assessment, failing to file and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.
Hunter Biden on Thursday entered a surprise plea in a last-minute gambit before the start of his trial on tax charges to avoid the ordeal and expense that a wrenching public airing of his past misdeeds would entail.
A half-hour before jury selection began, a lawyer for Mr. Biden in the case, Abbe Lowell, took the unusual step of entering a so-called Alford plea, acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict him even as he expressed innocence toward the same charges.
The maneuver, named after a Supreme Court decision, is typically used to jump-start stalled plea negotiations, postpone a proceeding or avoid a trial altogether by leapfrogging straight to the sentencing process.
It is not clear if Judge Mark C. Scarsi, a Trump appointee who is presiding over the case, will accept the plea. He immediately recessed the case for two hours to give prosecutors a chance to respond — but also indicated that he was still prepared to proceed with interviewing 120 jurors before the end of the week.
Lawyers representing Mr. Biden, the president’s youngest son, believe that David C. Weiss, the special counsel in the case, had refused to engage in serious plea negotiations after being sharply criticized for signing a generous agreement with Mr. Biden on gun and tax charges that would have resulted in no prison time.
That agreement imploded during a chaotic hearing at the federal courthouse in Wilmington in July 2023, and Mr. Weiss subsequently indicted Mr. Biden on charges of lying on a firearms application in Delaware and on a range of tax violations in California, where he now lives.
Hunter Biden’s trial on tax charges in Los Angeles turned into a political afterthought the moment President Biden withdrew from the 2024 race in July. But the personal stakes for his son, who is staring down the possibility of prison time, have never been higher.
He is charged with evading a tax assessment, failing to file and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.
It is possible that the two top Weiss deputies handling the case, Leo J. Wise and Derek Hines, are tightening the legal screws as a prelude to driving a far tougher plea bargain than the earlier agreement that ultimately fell apart. But the government’s tone in filings that read as a moral judgment on Mr. Biden’s actions during a time when he was addicted to drugs and alcohol suggests otherwise to the defense.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons. More about Glenn Thrush
See more on: U.S. Politics, 2024 Elections: News, Polls and Analysis, Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden, David C. Weiss
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Source: nytimes.com
