{"id":7403,"date":"2024-09-06T10:14:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=7403"},"modified":"2024-09-06T10:14:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:14:26","slug":"judge-accepts-hunter-biden-plea-change-staving-off-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=7403","title":{"rendered":"Judge accepts Hunter Biden plea change, staving off trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all nine federal tax charges he faced, staving off his second criminal trial this year just before it was set to begin, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a stunning and last-minute twist, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi accepted the plea change on the same day jury selection was scheduled to get underway in Los Angeles federal court. Biden admitted to withholding at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years in the throes of his addiction to cocaine, spending it instead on a lavish lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden initially offered an arrangement called an \u201cAlford plea,\u201d \u2014 where he would formally admit guilt while still maintaining his innocence and accept the judge\u2019s eventual sentence \u2014 but prosecutors forcefully objected, prompting the traditional guilty plea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike millions of Americans, I failed to file and pay my taxes on time. For that I am responsible,\u201d Biden said in a statement. \u201cAs I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case. When I was addicted, I wasn\u2019t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guilty plea comes just months after Biden was convicted on gun charges for lying about his use of illicit drugs on a federal gun purchase form. It marked the first criminal conviction of a sitting U.S. president\u2019s child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 120 Californians were summoned to the Los Angeles federal courthouse Thursday as prospective jurors in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before their questioning could begin, Biden attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge that the government had \u201coverwhelming\u201d evidence against his client, who wished to resolve the case ahead of trial with a rare Alford plea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prosecutor with special counsel David Weiss\u2019s team contended that Biden is \u201cnot entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him\u201d \u2014 a claim Biden\u2019s attorneys disagreed with but ultimately conceded by entering a traditional guilty plea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By pleading guilty to the three felony and six misdemeanor counts, Biden averted another potentially embarrassing trial that was expected to drag his addiction back into the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s attorneys accused the government in court filings of attempting \u201ccharacter assassination\u201d on the president\u2019s son through salacious evidence, which prosecutors insisted spoke to his state of mind as he avoided paying taxes between 2016 and 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowell said in a statement that Biden\u2019s decision to plead guilty was hinged on his desire to protect his family, suggesting prosecutors sought to \u201cexploit his family\u2019s pain during the Delaware case and\u2026were planning to do it again in California for this trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the gun trial, Biden\u2019s family members including his ex-wife, his late brother\u2019s widow and his daughter were forced to take to the stand to testify about his drug use. Other family members, including first lady Jill Biden, attended the trial daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his statement, Biden said he went to trial in Delaware \u201cnot realizing the anguish\u201d it would cause his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will not put them through it again,\u201d Biden said, claiming that prosecutors were focused \u201cnot on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment,\u201d he continued. \u201cFor all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of the tax trial, Scarsi issued a series of rulings that complicated Biden\u2019s defense. The judge said that Biden could not connect his addiction to his brother\u2019s 2015 brain cancer death or the 1972 car accident that the brothers survived but his mother and infant sister did not. He also said a defense expert could not testify about addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden also claimed in the statement that the jury would \u201cnever have heard\u201d how his addiction played a role in his conduct, nor that he paid back \u201cevery penny\u201d of his taxes, plus penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden previously agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses last year in a deal with federal prosecutors that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution in the gun case, but that fell apart after a federal judge based in Delaware questioned unusual aspects of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden already faces up to 25 years behind bars in the gun case and is set to be sentenced on Nov. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His tax case sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16. Those charges carry up to 17 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines will likely suggest a shorter sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Biden has repeatedly vowed not to pardon his son, promising after the gun conviction that he would \u201ccontinue to respect the judicial process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked again Thursday by The Associated Press if the president would pardon his son, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: \u201cStill no.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all nine federal tax charges he faced, staving off his second criminal trial this year just before it was set to begin, according to The Associated Press. In a stunning and last-minute twist, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi accepted the plea change on the same day jury selection was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[728,2511,2698],"class_list":["post-7403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-biden","tag-guilty","tag-plea"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge accepts Hunter Biden plea change, staving off trial - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=7403\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge accepts Hunter Biden plea change, staving off trial - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all nine federal tax charges he faced, staving off his second criminal trial this year just before it was set to begin, according to The Associated Press. 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