In a dramatic turn of events, Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, changed his plea to guilty on federal tax charges just as jury selection was set to begin in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The move caught federal prosecutors off guard, with special counsel David Weiss’s team telling the judge that it was the first they had heard of the change.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, made the unexpected announcement in federal court just as Hunter’s trial started.
The charges, brought by special counsel Weiss, include three felonies and six misdemeanors related to $1.4 million in unpaid taxes.
The indictment alleges a “four-year scheme” from 2016 to 2019, during which Biden reportedly failed to pay federal income taxes and filed false tax reports.
Prosecutors said he “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.”
In “furtherance of that scheme,” prosecutors said Hunter “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions … outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform.”
This case follows Hunter Biden’s recent conviction in Delaware on gun charges, where he was found guilty of making false statements during a firearm purchase and possession of a firearm while being a drug addict.
The sentencing for those charges, which could carry up to 25 years in prison, is scheduled for November 13.
The tax trial, presided over by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, has faced several pretrial rulings limiting the scope of evidence. Judge Scarsi barred the defense from connecting Biden’s substance abuse struggles to family tragedies and rejected expert testimony on addiction.
Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, particularly with a Romanian businessman, would have still featured prominently in the prosecution’s case.
The sudden guilty plea comes after a controversial “sweet heart” plea deal collapsed in July 2023 under judicial scrutiny. That deal would have potentially prevented both the tax and gun cases from proceeding to trial.