President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, has pleaded guilty to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.
Hunter Biden's decision to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father's political career.
It came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes, and instead spending wildly on strippers, luxury hotels and exotic cars.
The president's son was already facing potential prison time after his June conviction on felony gun charges in a trial that aired unflattering and salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction.
The tax trial was expected to showcase more unpleasant evidence as well as details about Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.
"I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment," Hunter Biden said in a statement after he entered his guilty plea.
"For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty."
"Hunter put his family first today, and it was a brave and loving thing for him to do," defense attorney Abbe Lowell told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Los Angeles.
The 54-year-old quickly responded "guilty" as the judge read out each of the nine counts.
He showed no emotion as he walked out of the courthouse holding his wife's hand, ignoring questions shouted at him by reporters before climbing into an SUV and driving off.
The charges carry up to 17 years behind bars, but federal sentencing guidelines are likely to call for a much shorter sentence.
He faces up to $1.35 million in fines.
Hunter Biden is set to be sentenced on December 16 in front of US District Judge Mark Scarsi, who was nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump.
He faces sentencing in the Delaware case on November 13 — the week after the general election.
Those charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.
More than 100 potential jurors had been brought to the courthouse on Thursday to begin the process of picking the panel to hear the case, which alleged a four-year scheme to avoid paying taxes while spending wildly.
Prosecutors were caught off guard when Hunter Biden's lawyer told the judge on Thursday morning that Hunter wanted to enter what's known as an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.
Special counsel David Weiss' team objected to such a plea, telling the judge that Hunter Biden "is not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him."
"Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty," prosecutor Leo Wise said.
After a break in the hearing, Hunter Biden's lawyers said he had decided to plead guilty to all nine charges.
Prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — "in short, everything but his taxes."
The charges in both the gun and tax cases stemmed from a period in Hunter Biden's life in which he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse before becoming sober in 2019.
His lawyers had been expected to argue that his substance abuse struggles affected his decision-making and judgment, so he could not have acted "willfully," or with intention to break the tax law.
"As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case," Hunter Biden said in a statement.
"When I was addicted, I wasn't thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving. But the jury would never have heard that or know that I had paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties."
