Hunter Biden ready to plead guilty, lawyer says as judge pauses LA tax trial – Daily News

By FRED SHUSTER

Shortly before jury selection began in the tax evasion trial against Hunter Biden in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, a lawyer for the president’s son indicated that Biden was ready to plead guilty in the case.

Attorney Abbe Lowell’s announcement prompted U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi to adjourn the hearing for two hours. Attorneys are scheduled to discuss the possibility of a settlement and then reconvene in a downtown courtroom late Thursday morning.

Lowell indicated that Biden, 54, of Malibu, was willing to plead guilty, although he would continue to maintain his innocence. It remained unclear which charges Biden was willing to plead guilty to, if not all.

Biden is charged with nine tax counts – three felonies and six misdemeanors – for failing to pay more than $1.4 million in taxes. Prosecutors allege in the indictment that Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle instead of paying his tax bills,” the indictment states.

According to documents filed in federal court in Los Angeles, defense attorneys believe the case was brought “as a direct response to political pressure.”

Hunter Biden’s lawyers said the defendant has repaid the government $2 million in back taxes and penalties. He is accused of evading a tax assessment, failing to file and pay taxes and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.

His trial is expected to last two weeks, with opening arguments expected to take place Monday in the courtroom of Scarsi, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Evidence that the younger Biden was partying during a time when he admitted to using crack cocaine and allegedly willfully failing to pay more than $1.4 million in taxes could become part of the trial, federal prosecutors suggested.

Scarsi had previously rejected Hunter Biden’s attempt to dismiss the case after the defendant argued that David Weiss, the special counsel overseeing the prosecution, had been improperly appointed.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Biden’s request to reinstate the dismissal of the charges against him.

As for the tax charges, the 56-page indictment alleges that between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the defendant “spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything except his taxes.”

Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, veteran Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, unsuccessfully requested that the court allow testimony that the defendant neglected his tax obligations due to the deaths of his mother and sister in a car accident in 1972 and the death of his brother from cancer in 2015.

This is Hunter Biden’s second federal criminal case in 2024. In June, the president’s son was convicted of three serious felonies in another case in Delaware involving his 2018 gun purchase. Hunter Biden was found guilty of lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he would not use or be addicted to illegal drugs – although he later admitted to being addicted to illegal narcotics at the time.

According to court documents, the verdict against Hunter Biden in the Delaware gun trial is scheduled for November 13, the week after the presidential election.

Hunter Biden is described in the indictment as a Georgetown and Yale-educated lawyer, lobbyist, consultant and businessman. At the time of the tax charges, he sat on the board of a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate and a Chinese private equity fund.