*UPDATE* Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty in Federal Tax Case
Hunter Biden faces nine new tax charges, including three felony counts and six misdemeanors, for allegedly not paying $1.4 million in federal taxes.
*UPDATE 5:51 PM* Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in his federal tax case:
“Do you agree you committed every element of every crime in the indictment?” [Los Angeles federal Judge Mark] Scarsi asked Hunter after prosecutors finished a 90-minute marathon reading of the entire indictment.
“Yes,” Hunter responded, before saying “guilty” when asked how he pleaded to each charge.
He will be sentenced on Dec. 16, more than a month after the 2024 presidential election.
“We were as shocked as anyone in the courtroom this morning,” prosecutor Leo Wise said early in the day after Biden first tried to plea. “I don’t know how the defendant could maintain his innocence and agree the facts are true.”
Hunter faces 17 years in prison.
Sentencing takes place on December 16, 2024.
*UPDATE 12:10 PM* The Associated Press reported that Hunter Biden wants to change his plea to guilty in his federal tax case:
Hunter Biden plans to change his not guilty plea in his federal tax case, his defense attorney said Thursday just as jury selection was set to begin.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell announced Hunter Biden’s plans to change his previous plea, just months after the president’s son was convicted of gun charges in a separate case, but did not provide further details.
Many of us have stated for months that the failure to plead guilty by Hunter was utter insanity. https://t.co/YmhGVd8bHR This is the problem when defense counsel tell prosecutors to "just rip it up" when a plea deal goes bad.https://t.co/rLDf6W9sGV
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 5, 2024
…The best time for a plea deal was months ago when you had something to trade. This is a logical as waiting for the water to reach the deck of the Titanic and then ask about swimming lessons. It put Hunter in the worst possible position in minimizing the benefits of a plea.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 5, 2024
***Previous reporting…
Jury selection begins today in Hunter Biden’s tax trial in California.
Special Counsel David Weiss investigated Hunter for years.
A Los Angeles grand jury indicted Hunter with nine new tax charges, including three felony counts and six misdemeanors, for allegedly not paying $1.4 million in federal taxes.
Hunter pleaded not guilty to all charges in January.
“The Defendant 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,” according to the indictment from Weiss.
The charges include failure to file and pay taxes, evasion of assessment, and filing a fraudulent form.
“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 but his taxes,” wrote Weiss.
The prosecution brought receipts that show Hunter had enough money from 2016 to 2019 to pay his taxes.
Opening statements should begin on Monday.
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innocent until proven innocent
speaking of prisons:
All 135 are Nicaraguan citizens who were unjustly detained, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Those released were taken to Guatemala, where they arrived on Thursday morning local time, and will be given the chance to apply to move to the US.
and will be given the chance to apply to move to the US.
and will be given the chance to apply to move to the US.
and will be given the chance to apply to move to the US.
no telling how many more ms13 ( or whatever they call them) etc will be in that mix
Just breaking Hunter is going to change his plea. A deal is currently being negotiated.
The plea is purely political.
He is guilty and would have been proven guilty.
The trial would have the details, reported every day for the many days of trial.
Without out the trial, the entire story will never be published.
Plea deal, heh?
New description for Joe Biden = President Biden, father of convicted felon Hunter Biden.
What’s interesting is since I made that comment, FNC producers who were in the courtroom have reported that the announced change in plea caught prosecutors at the table completely off-guard. They told the judge that this was the first they were hearing anything about a change in plea.
Legal commentators on Fox think this may not be close to a done deal. Hunter wants something known as an ‘Alford’ plea, which is essentially a guilty plea where the defendant doesn’t really admit guilt. These pleas are tough to come-by in the 11th hour. We’ll have to wait and see exactly how this plays out.
Yeah … I had never heard about this, before. It sounds … illegal. It is, essentially, lying to the court with the complicity of the court. Guilty pleas must be accompanied by admissions of guilt, otherwise they are tantamount to perjury.
I heard the reasoning by Jonathan Hunt – that one acknowledges that he probably would have been “found guilty by a jury” but that he is not guilty. It sounds completely illegal, to me. These are the sorts of inane perversions that crop up in our judicial processes that serve to weaken and destroy the system.
Generally, Alford Pleas are only accepted for cooperating defendants. That is to say defendants that have provided material help to the prosecution in someone else’s trial or perhaps some kind of help in providing restitution to the victim. Hunter Biden wouldn’t be a typical Alford Plea recipient.
I see … but it still doesn’t make sense to me. Any credit that the defendant would get for helping in other places could just be argued to the court to justify the “lenient” plea deal … but I don’t see where the court can argue, ever, for the idea that a defendant is allowed to claim that a court’s guilty verdict is incorrect (which it appears this sort of plea deal to be).
I just don’t understand how any court could allow this, ever. It is the court admitting that a guilty verdict that that court is likely to incorrectly reach a guilty verdict before the trial even starts. I mean … that just sounds crazy to me – crazy for the court to agree to, no matter what the circumstances.
Everything you’ve outlined is exactly why it’s so rare. Judge Jannine was just on Fox News and said that in the 40K+ cases she was involved in as a prosecutor, she can only remember one Alford plea. You really only see it in RICO or other really complicated and sprawling interconnected cases where the Court and the state are incentivized to get the cooperation of a defendant.
How about “UN-indited co-conspirator”?
Now Joe can pardon him
Exactly. Doesn’t matter what the terms of the plea bargain are if you get pardoned.
My tinfoil hat greatly desires to know what hidden crimes would be uncovered by discovery that make pleading guilty to three felonies (as an already convicted felon) the safer option.
Henry– they have probably already been discovered. What Hunter (and his dad) avoid is having the details of the case displayed in vivid, living color, all under penalty of perjury, for the public to see. This would most likely make the laptop matter look like small potatoes.
If the guarantee of a pardon was not there, this plea would never have happened.
Sure, Joe has said he would not pardon him, but that is the same guy who said he was running for President and no one could keep him from it.
The next day he threw in the towel.
the paper work is already filled out
for all members of the Biden clan
and probably Obama and Clinton too
smh
How is it easier for Joe to pardon him now than it was before?
Because you can’t be pardoned if you haven’t been found or pleaded guilty. If the verdict wasn’t in before Joe’s term ended then he wouldn’t be able to pardon him.
Now that he has pleaded guilty he doesn’t have to wait for sentencing to be pardoned by daddy.
This will be too messy though…they will just have the judge give him a light sentence.
Sorry, not true.
Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (1866)
9. The power of pardon conferred by the Constitution upon the President is unlimited except in cases of impeachment. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. The power is not subject to legislative control.
10. A pardon reaches the punishment prescribed for an offence and the guilt of the offender. If granted before conviction, it prevents any of the penalties and disabilities consequent upon conviction from attaching; if granted after conviction, it removes the penalties and disabilities and restores him to all his civil rights. It gives him a new credit and capacity. There is only this limitation to its operation: it does not restore offices forfeited, or property of interests vested in others in consequence of the conviction and judgment.
Amazing the change of heart when your father is no longer the most important man in the United States but still holds the power to pardon you for crimes committed on his behalf.
Folks, make no mistake: if it weren’t for the victory in the genetic lottery, Hunter Biden would be drooling on the sidewalk on Skid Row in L.A. or Mass & Cass in Boston. He’s a junkie, a pedophile and a dozen other moral failings.
What he was was his father’s bagman for all the loot that he extorted from around the world in his days as a Senator, Vice President and finally President.
Trump should make it a point to prosecute all of the Biden’s for the crimes they have committed and ensure that all prison sentences are robust and restitution to the American people is complete.
I think that Irish gladiator has it right – Hunter has to get this all finished before Dad leaves office; can’t get a complete pardon until you’re convicted, you know,,,
And there might be a wind indicating Dad won’t last until January, or even mid-November. So they want the pardon out of the way before it gets too complicated to sign with the auto-pen.
That is not true at all. You don’t even have to have been charged. That’s solid law, going all the way back to the Washington administration.
In fact you don’t even have to be suspected! The president can pardon you now, for all crimes you may have committed up to that moment, and if the authorities ever discover that you committed a crime before that date they can’t charge you with it.
The only thing the president can’t pardon you for is offenses you haven’t yet committed.
(And of course state offenses, which are no different from offenses committed in another country. He’s no more the president of Pennsylvania than he is the president of France.)
“The only thing the president can’t pardon you for is offenses you haven’t yet committed.”
Ironically, that’s what Hunter asked his judge to do as part of his first plea bargain, but she read the fine print and said no.
Change plea, don’t air the family’s dirty laundry, wait for The Big Guy™ to pardon him immediately after the election. He just has to hope The Big Guy lives (and remains in office) until then.
When you plead guilty, don’t you have to elocute?
Tell in open court what you did criminally?
Biden wants to invoke what’s known as an ‘Alford Plea.’ That’s a plea where the defendant maintains his innocence which essentially avoids the court’s demand to allocute.
That’s only if the DOJ accepts the plead, which they normally don’t do. They want the party to plead guilty and provide details of their guilt.
But the Left owns the DOJ, so they will do as they are told.
Subotai Bahadur
The judge is claiming he doesn’t need DOJ approval to accept an Alford plea. Many lawyers who have federal criminal practices say the judge is law on the law. But, here we are.
Joe promised no pardons for Hunter. What to do? Wait for the election. If Harris wins, she can pardon Hunter. Joe’s promise kept. If Trump wins, Joe can break his promise, with no harm done to Harris (having already lost the election).
You’re expecting JOE to remember a promise? He can’t even remember when his other son passed away.
Except that Kamala’s smart move politically is to throw all the Bidens under the bus.
At this point he should take it to a jury and they would more than likely let him go free.
But dirty laundry could be aired. The plea prevents that possibility. This isn’t about whether Hunter would have won or lost at trial, this is about concealing the family’s dirt. It’s damage control.
Tax evasion charges are some of the hardest charges to beat. Juries HATE tax cheats.
But democrats love tax cheats. Especially when they cheat taxes in order to commit treason.
Bold move Cotton
Which is comical, because the case was entirely open-and-shut.
I want to know how much in federal funds Weiss ran up for these “years” of “investigating” an open-and-shut case (that he tried to shut without opening until one decent judge got a whiff of the criminal insanity)??
They should just put bars around the courtroom and imprison the whole lot of them. They are ALL guilty – all of the defense and all of the prosecution.
On the other hand, investigating Hunter Biden is like investigating the X Files. Your superiors want to put on a good show but they are also determined to prevent you from succeeding.
If we remember the first deal, it included a non prosecution for crimes not enumerated. There’s more stuff out there and they are now “Trump proofing” Hunter’s future. They don’t want the political fallout from a “blanket” pardon but rather just one for the taxes. Hunter is the weak link that leads back to everyone else.
I wonder if there’s something concerning about Daddy’s health, and they don’t think he’ll make it to November? So, do the plea (without airing the laundry) and get a pardon before someone else is President (well before next January)?
Justice Department now opposing the change in plea. They apparently don’t want to accept an Alford Plea…which I understand is really rare in federal criminal cases. They simply don’t like that kind of plea, for obvious reasons.
I don’t see the Feds being able to accept anything but a plea where H Biden will elocute to the CT his crimes. Not at this point judicially or politically.
None of this matters. Hunter will get his pardon November 6th.
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2024/09/05/breaking-hunter-biden-to-plead-guilty-to-federal-tax-evasion-charges-n2178949
When proceedings reconvened in Hunter Biden’s federal tax fraud trial at 11 AM Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise told District Court Judge Mark Scarsi that the government does not have a plea deal with Biden, and that they argue the court should not accept an Alford plea from him.
And the Judge agreed, but said the defense and prosecution can work on a deal that will itemize the evidence that would have been use—- defense would not go for that
At the moment, it appears the judge believes it’s within his authority to accept an Alford plea even without the approval of DOJ. There are a number of lawyers on X saying that this is incorrect and prohibited by 9th circuit jurisprudence. But, I’m not sure what the government’s options are here. The fix to keep Biden from having to allocute to crimes that may implicate his father seems to be in.
Judge refused the Alford; Biden plead guilty to all 9 counts
Sentencing scheduled for mid-December (16th, I believe) which means Biden has the luxury of pardoning him after the Election, obviously. Allocution will never have to happen even without the Alford plea.
Does anyone know if you’re pardoned before sentencing, can you have your record expunged? (pardon does not typically mean expungement)
Pleaded guilty, or pled guilty? 🙂
I don’t care, as long as he’s
hung hanged.No Biden will pay any price. No democrat will pay any price for covering it all up. The FBI won’t pay any price for colluding in the coverup. Facebook, Twitter et al., won’t pay any price in cooperating with the president of the United States to throttle free speech and suppress the story. Will this era, and it was a long one, even be catalogued in a history book? Amazon probably wouldn’t sell the book.
And the crimes likely resulted in Biden being elected president in the first place. History changed, wars were started, the country was set back many years, people lost their lives and livelihoods, and we’re left with guilty pleas on almost irrelevant charges where the defendant will be pardoned.