Hunter Biden offered to plead guilty to federal tax evasion charges as jury selection was scheduled to begin in Los Angeles on Thursday. The president’s son’s offer was met with surprise and opposition by federal prosecutor Leo Wise.
On Thursday, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, indicated that the president’s son intends to change his plea to guilty after initially pleading not guilty, according to The New York Post. The New York Post reported that Lowell said Hunter Biden was prepared to offer an Alford plea, which would allow him to plead guilty while maintaining his innocence.
In response to the sudden change from Hunter Biden, Wise said, “This is the first we are hearing about this.” A source with knowledge of Special Counsel David Weiss’ team told Fox News that Hunter Biden’s plea offer is not set in stone and currently remains only an offer put forward by the defense.
Prior to Thursday’s court developments, The New York Post reported that Hunter Biden’s lawyers had planned to argue that the president’s son was too drunk or too high to pay his taxes.
Following a recess on Thursday, Wise told Judge Mark Scarsi that the prosecution wanted the Alford plea offer to be rejected.
“We were as shocked as anyone in the courtroom this morning,” Wise said, according to The New York Post. “I don’t know how the defendant could maintain his innocence and agree the facts are true.”
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While Hunter Biden’s lawyer admitted that there was “overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt” in the federal tax evasion case, he suggested that the issue could be “resolved today” and claimed it was “not a complicated issue.”
After Wise asked Scarsi to give him until Friday to submit an argument regarding why the plea deal should be denied, Lowell said, “I don’t know why the government wants to punt. I don’t know why it needs more time. We should be able to get this done.”
Regarding Hunter Biden’s plea offer, the Justice Department’s manual states that prosecutors cannot accept an Alford plea “except in the most unusual of circumstances.”
According to Fox News, Weiss charged Hunter Biden with three felonies and six misdemeanors over $1.4 million in taxes. While the taxes have been paid, the special counsel has claimed that Hunter Biden did not pay his federal income taxes for multiple years.
Weiss has argued that Hunter 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.”
