Hunter Biden suddenly changes plea moments before trial in tax case, to the surprise of prosecutors sitting next to him

Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, attends a Medal of Honor Ceremony in the East Room at the White House in Washington on July 3, 2024 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA/ AP Images).

Hunter Biden has changed course and offered to plead guilty in his tax evasion case in California. According to CNN , President Joe Biden’s son offered to plead guilty to nine tax offenses in federal court on Thursday.

The acknowledgment of guilt is a reversal of sorts from what Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell had said in court just hours earlier on Thursday, when he said that his client intends to enter an Alford plea, the Washington Post reported . While not quite admitting guilt, an Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that the evidence presented would like lead to a guilty verdict.

Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi that they had no advance notice of the plea change and that they would need time to consider it, the Washington Post story said. Scarsi then adjourned the proceedings for several hours so the federal government could consider the plea and negotiate with Biden’s lawyers, the report added.

Prosecutors had said they would object to the Alford plea, CNN reported.

The plea change comes shortly before Biden’s trial was set to start; jury selection was scheduled for Thursday, with opening arguments planned to kick off on Monday.

He was charged in 2023 on nine tax-related accounts, including an accusation that he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019.

As Law&Crime previously reported , Biden was convicted in June of three felonies relating to gun possession dating back to 2018.

In 2023, it had appeared that Biden’s tax and gun charges would be resolved by a plea agreement , but when that deal fell apart, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel, soon after leading to separate indictments on the West Coast and East Coast.

Matt Naham contributed to this report.

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