In a shocking twist, Hunter Biden upends tax trial and pleads guilty to all tax charges
In a surprise decision on his part, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon to all counts in a nine-count indictment, including three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. There was no plea agreement.
Judge Scarsi accepted his guilty plea and scheduled Biden’s sentencing for December 16, 2024.
Last year, Biden agreed to a guilty plea to reduced charges plus even having some charges being dismissed, but that deal evaporated on the day he was to begin trial. Since then, he’s been trying to make a new deal with the prosecution for reduced charges – which makes his decision yesterday to plead guilty to all charges so shocking.
According to The Associated Press, Biden issued a written statement about his decision to plead guilty, saying: “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.”
According to the indictment, Biden engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns. As alleged in the indictment, to further this scheme, Hunter Biden:
- subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company by withdrawing millions outside of the payroll and tax withholding process;
- spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills;
- in 2018, stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015;
- willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes;
- willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns, on time; and
- when he did finally file his 2018 returns, included false business deductions in order to reduce the very substantial tax liability he faced as of February 2020.
At his upcoming December 16 sentencing, Biden faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Reportedly, when U.S. President Joe Biden was asked if he would pardon his son or commute his sentence, the President said that he had no plans to do so.
In pleading guilty to the tax charges, Hunter Biden managed to avoid what was expected to be a grueling and potentially embarrassing weekslong trial, during which prosecutors had planned to examine interludes from his time as a drug addict and his overseas business ventures, according to ABC News.
Biden’s drug and alcohol abuse was in fact one of the key points used in his defense as to why he didn’t pay his taxes on time.
“After watching prosecutors exploit his family’s pain during the Delaware trial and realizing they were planning to do it again here in California, Hunter decided to enter this plea to protect those he loves from unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation,” said Abbe Lowell, Defense Attorney for Hunter Biden, as quoted by ABC News.
For more on Hunter Biden’s offer to plead guilty to all charges, see the video below.
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(Source: Special Counsel David C. Weiss)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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