The son of the President of the United States, Hunter Biden, pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine tax crimes he is accused of in Los Angeles. In June, he had already been convicted of illegally purchasing and possessing a weapon in Delaware. The admission of guilt is not the result of a defense agreement to reduce the sentence, but rather a decision by his lawyers in the face of the strong evidence that existed against Hunter Biden.
The ruling came just as jury selection was set to begin Thursday and after prosecutors opposed a request by his lawyers that Hunter Biden take advantage of an unusual figure — known as an Alford plea — that would allow him to maintain his innocence while being punished. “Hunter Biden is not innocent, he is guilty. And he does not deserve to plead not guilty in a unique situation that can only apply to him,” said David Weiss, the special prosecutor.
Hunter Biden capped five years of a process that began with a meticulous investigation into his businesses while his father was vice president. Plus, he spared his family from having to see him in the dock again just two months after he did so in Delaware. The occasion was already particularly painful for the Bidens because Hunter Biden revived the ghosts of his addiction. The same prosecutor who charged Hunter Biden in this case, David Weiss, is also the one who charged him with the nine tax crimes in Los Angeles for evading at least $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019.
On December 16, a month after the presidential election, Judge Mark Scarsi will issue the verdict. In the meantime, Joe Biden’s son has been released on bail. The maximum sentence he faces is up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to $1 million. His father, President Biden, has already said repeatedly that he will not use his power to pardon him.
Before the sentence in the Los Angeles case is known, the sentence in the other case, in which Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison for lying about his drug addiction when buying a gun in Delaware, will be made public in November.
With Joe Biden out of the presidential race, his son’s cases have faded in notoriety, but they continue to pose a problem for the president’s image. When he was still a Democratic candidate, Donald Trump used this case and the illegal gun purchase case to attack and accuse Joe Biden of corruption. However, no evidence has been established linking the president to the crimes committed by his youngest son.
Now, the trial threatens to tarnish the final months of Joe Biden’s presidency. That possibility has not completely disappeared, since the judgment in this case and in the Delaware case will come before Joe Biden leaves the White House in January.
Ahead of the trial, which will not take place, prosecutors had prepared a lot of evidence that would have also forced Hunter Biden and his family to relive painful details of the past once again. Among the information they planned to present were the services rendered to a Romanian businessman, Gabriel Popoviciu, who hired him to gain better access to the US government. This type of detail, which Republicans have used to attack Joe Biden, would also have endangered the image of the Democratic administration. Something that, in turn, could have also harmed Kamala Harris’ campaign.
At the August court hearing, Hunter Biden’s defense accused prosecutors of trying to take credit for putting the son of a president in the dock for the first time. At that hearing, the defense also complained that prosecutors wanted to expose Hunter Biden’s lifestyle of luxury, alcohol, drugs and sex while he evaded taxes during those four years. His drug addiction has been a hot-button issue for the Bidens, who have already shown their full support for Hunter during the Delaware trial. “I’m president, but I’m also a father. “Jill and I love our son and we’re very proud of the man he is today,” Biden said during the sentencing announcement in the Delaware case, referring to Hunter’s struggle to overcome his addiction.
