Sept. 5 (UPI) — Attorneys for Hunter Biden, the son of President joe Biden, offered to settle a range of federal tax charges against him with an “Alford plea” during a court appearance Thursday in Los Angeles.
The surprise offer came as proceedings began on Day 2 of Hunter Biden’s trial on nine felony and misdemeanor charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019, ABC News and the Washington Post reported.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi temporarily adjourned the trial, which is still in the pre-jury selection phase, after Biden’s attorneys caught prosecutors by surprise with the offer of an Alford plea. Under such a plea, defendants can admit that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction yet maintain they are innocent of the charges.
Prosecutors told Scarsi they were not informed in advance after Biden attorney Abbe Lowell announced the plea deal offer.
Special Prosecutor David Weiss, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and brought the charges in Biden’s tax case as well as a separate matter charging the president’s son with three felony gun counts, was seen quickly exiting an overflow viewing room after Lowell announced the plea offer.
The latest move comes after Biden’s legal team unsuccessfully sought to dismiss the tax case by citing a recent decision by a federal judge in Florida who throw out the classified documents case against Trump on the grounds that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional.
Scarsi, however, shot down that argument last month for being untimely and an attempt to relitigate an earlier decision quashing a previous attempt by Biden to have the case dismissed.
In addition to the current tax case, Biden is awaiting sentencing on three gun-related charges. He found guilty in June on charges stemming from his purchase of a handgun in 2018 when he was allegedly struggling with drug addiction. He faces up to 25 years’ imprisonment and hefty fines when sentenced.
Biden last year was poised to plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses, but the deal fell apart in July when the two sides could not agree on a separate gun offense.
Both cases against Hunter Biden have been blasted by Democrats as being politically motivated by Republican lawmakers as an effort to take the spotlight off of Trump’s many legal problems and to find an impeachable offense against Joe Biden.
Despite many months of seeking a link between Hunter Biden’s activities and his father’s actions in office, GOP investigators were unable to unearth any evidence showing the president took any direct actions favorable to his son.
