LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Hunter Biden plans to plead guilty in his federal tax evasion trial — a bombshell decision his lawyers announced Thursday morning just before jury selection was about to kick off.
“Mr. Biden intends to change his plea this morning,” Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell told the judge in a Los Angeles federal courtroom.
Lowell made the shocking disclosure that his client planned to take the rare Alford plea — a legal maneuver in which a person pleads guilty while maintaining innocence — just 15 minutes after proceedings began, surprising prosecutors.
“This is the first we’ve heard of this,” a lawyer responded from the prosecutors’ table, before Lowell made the announcement.
Judge Mark Scarsi then told everyone to come back at 11 a.m. to proceed with the guilty plea.
Jury selection had been scheduled to start Thursday morning before the surprise announcement.
President Biden’s son, who arrived at court hand in hand with wife Melissa Cohen, was facing his second trial in just a few months after he was convicted in June of illegally owning a gun while hooked on drugs.
The younger Biden was facing the new trial on nine federal charges for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes for the years 2016 through 2019.
If convicted at the second trial, the 54-year-old Biden would have faced up to 17 years behind bars.
The embattled first son also faces 25 years behind bars when he’s sentenced in the gun case in November.
Before the sudden decision to plead guilty, Scarsi told the parties he had 120 potential jurors in the building ready for jury selection, which was supposed to take up the court day on Thursday.
The judge explained how the selection process would play out, including questioning the prospective panelists with just the lawyers, Hunter and the judge present because they didn’t have enough space in the courtroom for the jury pool and members of the public.
“We don’t have room for any spectators or press,” Scarsi said, after Lowell asked why Hunter’s wife, Melissa Cohen, wasn’t permitted inside.
Los Angeles trial lawyer and former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Post that with an Alford plea, “You are not admitting guilt but you admit the government can prove the charges against you.”
Rahmani explained that prosecutors don’t often offer such a plea unless they are eager to resolve a case.
“It’s not standard at all and it’s not something that is typically offered,” Rahmani said.
And in this case, if prosecutors weren’t aware of the move, then no agreement has been struck and Hunter would need to plead guilty to the whole indictment — instead of typical plea agreements in which a defendant will only admit to part of the charges faced.
And Scarsi would also have to sign off on it.
“It could absolutely fall apart,” Rahmani warned.
