XPost: alt.los-angeles, law.court.federal, talk.politics.guns
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics

LOS ANGELES -- After hours of legal wrangling on Thursday, Hunter Biden
pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges in a last-minute bid to avoid a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial, abandoning an earlier proposal
to plead guilty while maintaining his innocence on the underlying conduct.

U.S. Judge Mark Scarsi accepted Hunter Biden's guilty plea to his nine-
count tax case. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Scarsi clarified that Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1.35 million.

"Do you agree that you committed every element of every crime alleged...in
the indictment?" Judge Scarsi asked.

"Yes," Hunter Biden said before pleading guilty to each count of the indictment.

It was perhaps the most stunning twist in a legal drama that has for years
been defined by unexpected turns - and immediately raised the specter of a presidential pardon, despite President Joe Biden's previous assurance that
he would not grant his son clemency.

Prosecutors accused Hunter Biden in December of engaging in a four-year
scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs and luxury hotels.

Hunter Biden had originally pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment
that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.

But on Thursday, just moments before prospective jurors were to be
summoned into the Los Angeles courtroom where his trial was scheduled to
begin, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, announced his intention
to submit a so-called "Alford plea," which would allow Hunter Biden to
plead guilty on all counts but preclude him from acknowledging guilt on
the underlying conduct.

When prosecutors opposed that path - and Judge Scarsi expressed some
hesitation in granting it - attorneys for Hunter Biden said he would enter
a traditional guilty plea.

"Mr. Biden is prepared to proceed today and finish this," Lowell said
Thursday afternoon in court.

In pleading guilty to the tax charges, Hunter Biden managed to avoid what
was expected to be a grueling and potentially embarrassing weekslong
trial, during which prosecutors had planned to examine interludes from his
time suffering drug addiction and his overseas business ventures.

Attorneys in special counsel David Weiss' office had planned to introduce
more than two dozen witnesses, including Hunter Biden's ex-wife and her
sister.

Dressed in a dark suit and thick-rimmed glasses, Hunter Biden on Thursday addressed the court to acknowledge that he understood the potential consequences of a guilty plea. His voice showed little emotion and he occasionally glanced into the gallery, where his wife, Melissa Cohen
Biden, was seated.

Prosecutor Leo Wise, who earlier in the day called the Alford plea
proposal "an injustice," then read the entire 56-page indictment aloud in
court to establish a factual record.

Thursday's court appearance comes three months after Hunter Biden was
convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his
purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His
sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.

What did prosecutors allege?
In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden
willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company's own payroll
system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money
to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.

"[T]he 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," the
indictment alleged.

Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden
received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange
for "almost no work."

Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and
penalties with the help of a third party, Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.

"Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden's state of mind
at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes," Scarsi wrote in an order last week.

Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor
offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received
in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial
diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.

Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation
for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the
terms of his diversion agreement.

However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.

By September, the special counsel had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a
firearm in 2018.

The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in
December.

https://6abc.com/post/jury-selection-will-begin-hunter-bidens-federal-tax- trial-los-angeles-months-after-gun-conviction/15270050/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)