[UPDATED] Hunter Biden Cops a Plea Deal in Federal Tax Evasion Case

Update 4:40 p.m.: In yet another update, Hunter Biden has decided to plead guilty to the tax charges against him. Rather than a special Alford plea as mentioned before, Hunter is just going to go with a plain old, "Yeah, I did it" guilty plea.

Too bad. A trial would have likely given us a glimpse into the First Son's skanky world of shagging spendy prostitutes after hoovering Electric Kool-aid (crack) with bribe money he took from China, Ukraine, Russia, and God knows where else.

This story will be updated as many times as Hunter changes his plea.

Update 4:14 p.m.: Things have been moving quickly today. Jennifer Van Laar is now reporting that Hunter Biden has agreed to a plea deal in his federal tax evasion case.

🚨BREAKING: Hunter Biden pled guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday afternoon to all of the charges brought against him in a federal indictment related to failure to pay income taxes and tax evasion from 2016-2019. In accepting the plea, US District Court Judge Mark Scarsi…
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) September 5, 2024

Hunter Biden pled guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday afternoon to all of the charges brought against him in a federal indictment related to failure to pay income taxes and tax evasion from 2016-2019. In accepting the plea, US District Court Judge Mark Scarsi told Biden that he faces a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison and a fine of between $500,000 and $1 million.
Sentencing will be held at a later date, after court officials, prosecutors, and the defense team present their recommendations to the court. At the request of Scarsi, Assistant US Attorney Leo Wise is currently reading the entire indictment as a factual basis for the plea.

Update 3:12 p.m.: Jennifer Van Laar at our sister site RedState is at the trial and reports that there has been no plea agreement yet in the Hunter Biden tax evasion case:

UPDATE from Hunter Biden's trial - there is NO PLEA AGREEMENT. There is NOT an agreement between the government and Biden. Here are my quick and dirty notes. Court is in a 30 min recess.

· Biden wants to either enter an open or Alford plea; he does not plan to admit guilt
·…
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) September 5, 2024

Here's the full text of the tweet so you don't have to click away:

UPDATE from Hunter Biden's trial - there is NO PLEA AGREEMENT. There is NOT an agreement between the government and Biden. Here are my quick and dirty notes. Court is in a 30 min recess.
· Biden wants to either enter an open or Alford plea; he does not plan to admit guilt
· Biden’s counsel maintains that [Judge Mark] Scarsi has to accept the Alford plea; [Prosecutor Leo] Wise says under 9th circuit law the judge does not have to accept it. Scarsi agrees that he does not have to accept it and that there are issues of public interest related to transparency that have to be satisfied. Scarsi said a detailed proffer of evidence from the government could satisfy that and give him the factual basis he needs to accept the plea.
· Wise wants time to brief the issue of whether the [sic]
· Scarsi: “I haven’t seen a case that says I have to accept an Alford plea.”
· [Defense attorney Abbe] Lowell says Hunter Biden isn’t seeking to have any special privileges, but to have the same opportunity any other criminal defendant has.
· Lowell argues that it’s error for Scarsi to not accept an Alford plea.
· Scarsi says to satisfy Rule 11 he will need to hear a factual proffer of the evidence from the government, and then Biden would agree that while he’s not admitting guilt he agrees that the evidence proffered could lead a jury to find him guilty.
· Wise: “We will not under any circumstances agree to an Alford plea. We think it’s an injustice.”
· “If we go forward today, we will read the entire indictment into the record as being the evidence that we would prove at trial.”
· Wise urges Scarsi to reject the Alford plea.
· Scarsi says he wants to hold over until 9 AM Friday; government to brief their argument as to why he should reject the Alford plea and defense will brief why he should accept it, assuming that he has discretion to reject or accept.
· Lowell asks for 30 minutes to discuss.

Original story:

Hunter Biden has pulled the bat chute on his tax evasion defense and has decided to plead guilty to tax evasion, sort of...

Shortly before jury selection began, Hunter's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told the court that Hunter plans to enter what's called an Alford plea.

FACT-O-RAMA! An Alford plea means the defendant does not admit guilt but recognizes the prosecution has the necessary evidence to prove guilt. It usually results in a reduction in sentence. In West Virgina, it is referred to as a "Kennedy plea."

The indictment included three felonies and six misdemeanor charges involving taxes on $1.4 million, which has since been paid.

According to Jennifer Van Laar at our sister site RedState:

At a pre-trial motions hearing on August 21, it became clear that as the evidence was presented, it would be quite embarrassing for the First Family, as prosecutors would be forced to call witnesses and introduce documentation to prove that millions of dollars in expenses were business expenses and not personal. That meant that women Hunter had allegedly paid for sex would testify, and receipts from an online dating site would be brought before the jury and the American public.

Special counsel David Weiss, who tried to sneak in a sweet plea deal for Hunter that a judge rebuffed, alleges that Hunter Biden "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."

Weiss further stated that Hunter "subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions from the company outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform."

According to the indictment, Hunter's “business expenses” included: