Updated September 05, 2024 at 19:54 PM ET
President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, pleaded guilty Thursday to tax charges in a surprise move just before jury selection was set to start in his federal criminal trial in Los Angeles.
The last-minute change of plea headed off what would likely have been a painful legal and personal ordeal filled with sordid details of the younger Biden's life when he was addicted to crack cocaine.
The case centered on Biden's failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, even as he spent millions of dollars on what prosecutors described as an “extravagant lifestyle" replete with escorts, luxury hotels and a sex club membership.
In court Thursday, U.S. district judge Mark Scarsi asked Hunter Biden whether he committed every element of every crime charged in the indictment, to which Biden replied, "yes."
Scarsi then asked, count by count, how the president' son pleaded. Biden answered "guilty" to each one. The judge accepted the plea and scheduled sentencing for Dec. 16.
The guilty plea comes three months after a jury in Delaware convicted Hunter Biden of federal gun charges. His sentencing in that case is slated for Nov. 13.
Both cases were brought by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss.
In a statement, Biden said he didn't realize the anguish the trial in Delaware would cause his family, and said he would not put them through that again.
"When it became clear to me that the same prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction, there was only one path left for me," he said. "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 change of plea came as a shock to prosecutors, who only learned of it when Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, announced the decision just minutes before potential jurors were to be called in.
The court ordered a break to allow prosecutors to look at the case law and decide how they wanted to proceed—and whether the judge could accept or reject the plea.
After the break, prosecutor Leo Wise and Lowell sparred over the details of the potential plea. Wise opposed allowing Biden to enter what's known as an Alford plea, an unusual move in which the defendant pleads guilty but maintains his or her innocence.
In the end, Biden entered an open plea, which is a guilty plea without an agreement with the government.
Political impact
Hunter Biden's two federal criminal prosecutions were once viewed as a possible political liability for President Biden in the middle of a tight 2024 reelection campaign.
Now, with the elder Biden no longer seeking reelection, the potential political impact of his son's legal troubles has faded.
It resurfaces the question, though, of whether Hunter Biden might receive a pardon from his father. The president said after the gun conviction that he wouldn't pardon his son.
On Thursday, the White House press secretary said the president's stance hasn't changed.
"It is still very much a no," Karine Jean-Pierre said.
"An extravagant lifestyle"
Hunter Biden was facing nine counts in the Los Angeles case: three felony counts for tax evasion and filing false returns, plus six misdemeanor counts.
On Thursday, Wise, the prosecutor, read the 56-page indictment into the record as the factual basis for Biden's guilty plea.
The indictment spells out in detail how Hunter Biden cheated on his taxes over a four-year stretch and instead spent millions "on an extravagant lifestyle."
"The defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes," according to the indictment.
The period of the alleged offenses corresponds to the time when Hunter Biden was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine following the death of his brother, Beau Biden.
The indictment also said the president's son claimed personal expenses as business expenses to reduce his tax burden.
The indictment includes a long list of alleged falsely claimed business expenses, including $11,500 for an escort to spend two nights with Hunter Biden; tens of thousands of dollars for luxury hotels during his crack addiction; nearly $20,000 in rent payments for the New York residence of one of his daughters; and some $27,000 to an online pornography website.
Almost avoided trial
A year ago, Hunter Biden appeared on the verge of avoiding trial entirely.
He had a tentative deal with prosecutors under which he would plead guilty to tax charges and enter in a diversion agreement on the gun offenses — which would pause criminal proceedings as long as he met certain conditions. The deal would have allowed him to avoid trial.
But the deal collapsed in front of a federal judge in Delaware who voiced concern about how the agreement was structured. Biden's lawyers and prosecutors were unable to cobble it back together.
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