Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine counts of tax evasion, including three felonies, after finally agreeing to admit the crimes on Thursday.
Judge Mark Scarsi told Hunter he could face up to 15 years in prison and $1 million in fines if convicted of three felonies and six misdemeanors, including lying on his tax returns and willfully failing to pay the IRS.
Lawyers for tax evader First Son abandoned their technical arguments seeking to have him plead not guilty, calling for an “Alford plea,” and instead agreed to let Hunter enter a standard guilty plea.
The change came after a heated exchange between the government and defense lawyers.
Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said the government was trying to “demand more than a pound of flesh, but also a drop of blood.”
Prosecutor Leo Wise said the suggestion was “offensive”, that “he is the one who triggered these effects” and that with regard to Hunter’s tax offences, “the truth matters”, asking that it be made clear that Hunter agreed he committed all the offences of which he is accused.
After dismissing the attempted Alford plea, Judge Mark Scarsi had Wise read the indictment so that all allegations against Hunter could be entered into the record.
The First Son is seen in a courtroom sketch entering a federal courtroom for jury selection for his trial.
Hunter Biden arrives in court with his wife Melissa Cohen by his side as his tax evasion trial begins in Los Angeles on Thursday
The indictment includes details of Hunter’s shady overseas dealings with Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, who has been convicted of bribery, and with Chinese oil giant CEFC, which has been linked to a Chinese government influence operation.
She also described how Hunter paid prostitutes and drug dealers and spent money on lavish living, instead of paying his taxes.
He also lied to deduct some of those illicit expenses as business costs on his tax return, which is a felony.
The judge asked Hunter if he understood the charges and was aware of the consequences of pleading guilty. Hunter said yes.
Among the standard questions the judge asked Hunter were: “Did anyone make any promises to you to get you to plead guilty?”
Hunter replied, “No.”
The response appears to mean that Hunter denies having received a promise from his father, President Joe Biden, that he would be pardoned if he pleads guilty rather than going to trial.
Wise wanted to ensure that by pleading guilty, Hunter would accept that he was guilty of every element of the charge, without any leeway.
“It should be perfectly clear what the factual basis is,” Wise said. “The defendant should have to make clear what he agrees with and what he doesn’t agree with.”
Judge Scarsi said that after sentencing, the probation and pretrial services group would meet with the defense and prepare a sentencing report with a recommendation on what punishment Hunter should receive for his crimes.
Scarsi added that the report was only “advisory” and that “the court can sentence him to a maximum sentence” of up to 15 years and a fine estimated at between $500,000 and $1 million.
Asked if he understood, Hunter said, “Yes, I understand.”
Federal prosecutors had refused to accept Hunter’s initial Alford plea following his stunning last-minute change of heart at his tax evasion trial in Los Angeles on Thursday morning.
In a stunning reversal ahead of jury selection, Hunter’s lawyers revealed he will now plead guilty to some of the charges.
Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, arrives at the U.S. Courthouse on First Street in Los Angeles on Thursday and informs the judge of the surprise reversal of the guilty plea as jury selection was set to begin.
Returning to the courtroom after a three-hour recess Thursday, U.S. prosecutors said they are strongly opposed to Hunter pleading guilty while maintaining his innocence.
“I want to make one thing crystal clear: The United States objects to an Alford plea,” Justice Department attorney Leo Wise told Judge Scarsi.
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty. He is not allowed any special conditions.”
Wise said allowing Hunter to plead guilty while maintaining his innocence would be “an injustice” and “contrary to the rule of law.”
Criminal defense attorney Abbe Lowell argued that under court rules, the judge has no choice but to accept Hunter’s plea of guilty while maintaining his innocence.
But Scarsi disagreed, telling Hunter’s attorney: “I don’t agree that the court should accept an Alford plea.”
The judge suggested that prosecutors could submit an “offer” listing all the facts they would have proven at trial, and then Hunter could plead guilty, without going into detail about which facts he believed to be true or not.
Lowell told the judge that all Hunter would be doing by pleading guilty is accepting that the prosecution has enough evidence to convince a jury of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, without accepting all of the facts the government asserts.
But Wise was not happy with Lowell’s attempt to allow Hunter to maintain his innocence.
Law enforcement officers and reporters gathered outside the U.S. Courthouse as Hunter arrived at the Los Angeles courthouse.
“I don’t know how he could maintain that he was innocent and at the same time admit that the facts of the indictment are true,” the Justice Department lawyer said.
“I don’t know how the defendant could say that the facts about his mental state are true and yet claim to be innocent.”
Wise asked for the afternoon to file a response and for the jury to return to court tomorrow morning in case the defense’s plea plan fails.
Judge Scarsi has not yet made any ruling on the lawyers’ arguments, but said he needed to weigh “public interest factors” in not having a public trial, including the need to “seek the truth in transparent proceedings” and not “obfuscate the truth” by going straight to a guilty plea.
But he added that the matter could be “calmed down” if the government were to submit a detailed report laying out all the evidence against the First Son.
Lowell said an Alford plea, in which Hunter still maintains his innocence, was normal. “All over America people do this,” he said, adding that his client is simply asking to have “the same rights as everyone else.”
He asked the judge to approve the plea today, but Wise disagreed.
“It’s not the case that Alford suits occur all over the country,” he said. “Alford suits are rare, they occur in exceptional circumstances.”
“There’s no way to rush this at this point, and it shouldn’t be rushed,” Wise told the judge.
Lowell attempted to downplay the difference between a regular guilty plea and an Alford plea.
“You’re going to tell Mr. Biden that his plea is a guilty plea, and that’s what the headlines are going to say,” Lowell told Judge Scarsi.
“And the government will say that if they went to trial, this is what they would prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
But he added that Hunter does not have to accept all of the government’s allegations and plead guilty at the same time.
The court took a half-hour recess to allow Lowell to confer with Hunter, and also said he would “hold this off until tomorrow,” bring back the 120 potential jurors at 9 a.m. and offer to let the defense and government file more briefs to argue their respective sides.
The case marks the second high-profile criminal trial this year for Hunter, who faces multiple charges of evading $1.4 million in taxes.
Scarsi also said that despite Wise’s objection to Hunter’s desire to maintain his innocence, the decision was solely up to the judge.
“The court does not need the government’s agreement to accept an Alford plea,” he said.
“The defendant himself is not required to give a full explanation (and) accept that everything the government says is true,” Lowell said.
“I don’t know why the government wants to delay this. I don’t know why they think they need more time,” Hunter’s lawyer added. “We should be able to resolve this.”
Wise said if he had to present all his evidence today, he would simply read the indictment and let Hunter dispute the facts.
“If we move forward today, I will read the indictment into the record as all the evidence we have proven. It is up to them to refute what they believe we could not prove,” he said.
Prosecutors had indicated before the recess that they might object to Hunter’s plea and would prefer to move forward with the trial.
They were given until 11 a.m. PDT to research past legal cases and confer with their boss, special prosecutor David Weiss, after requesting time to review the case in light of the defense’s shocking decision.
Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, announced the surprise reversal of the plea Thursday morning in front of the judge as 120 potential jurors waited nearby to be selected for the criminal trial.
Lowell cited legal cases and precedents suggesting that, in entering a guilty plea, the judge would have to decide the facts of the case rather than a jury, and the judge could only use material that had already been presented in the case.
The surprising U-turn is an apparent desperate strategy by the defense to try to prevent damaging and embarrassing evidence from being presented to the jury.
Hunter’s attorneys did not clarify whether he was pleading guilty to all nine charges, including three felonies, or just some of them.
“We’ll have to wait and see what they do,” Hunter’s lead attorney, Mark Geragos, told DailyMail.com outside the courtroom.