LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden intends to change his plea from not guilty to accepting a sentencing that would come from a guilty verdict in the federal tax case against him, his attorney Abbe Lowell said Thursday.
The reversal was made shortly before jury selection was expected to begin in what would have been Biden’s second trial this year. The only surviving son of President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden is the first offspring of a sitting president to stand trial on criminal charges.
The change of plea is not the result of an agreement with the government. Prosecutor Leo Wise told the judge, “This is the first we’ve heard of this.”
Lowell told the judge his client wants to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, where a defendant formally admits guilt and acknowledges the strength of the case against them, while also maintaining their innocence.
Shortly after the announcement, the court went into recess to allow prosecutors and Biden’s lawyers time to confer.
No conditions to the plea were disclosed and it was not clear whether the judge would accept Biden’s attempt to avoid a trial and move straight to sentencing.
Lowell said he believes “the court is required to accept the plea,” and that the particulars “can be resolved today.”
The news came after Biden and his attorneys had a private meeting before court on Thursday with U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who is presiding over the case.
Biden, 54, was indicted in December on three felony and six misdemeanor counts alleging that he failed to pay his taxes during a period when, he has said, he was in the throes of drug addiction, and after he got sober.
If accepted by the judge, the guilty plea would spare Biden from a public trial where prosecutors had over two dozen witnesses, some of whom were expected to offer embarrassing and salacious testimony about Biden’s drug use and spending.
The indictment said Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020.”
The money was spent “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,” the indictment said.
Prosecutors also alleged that the returns Biden eventually filed were fraudulent, and falsely claimed as business expenses money he paid to an escort, a strip club, a sex club membership fee, a pornographic website, and his daughter’s college tuition and rent.
An earlier plea deal with prosecutors on related charges in Delaware fell apart last year after a judge expressed skepticism over some of the terms. Under that agreement, Biden would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses in return for a recommended sentence of six months probation, while a felony charge related to buying a gun while using narcotics would have been dismissed in two years if Biden stayed out of legal trouble.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika had refused to sign off on that deal. “These agreements are not straightforward and they contain some atypical provisions,” Noreika said last year. One component of the deal could have protected Biden from prosecution on other tax-related crimes.
Biden’s attorneys and prosecutors were unable to reach a revised deal, which led to special counsel David Weiss’ office indicting Biden on the gun charges in Delaware and on expanded tax charges in California.
Evidence of Biden’s history of addiction was at the center of a separate case prosecuted by Weiss’ office earlier this year in Delaware. Biden was eventually convicted on three felony counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced in that case on Nov. 12, and has said he plans to appeal the conviction.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
