Hunter Biden set to plead guilty in US federal tax case
Al Jazeera
President’s son is accused of avoiding at least $1.4m in taxes while enjoying lucrative income from business dealings.
Hunter Biden, son of United States President Joe Biden, will plead guilty to federal tax evasion, as his lawyers seek a speedy resolution to the election-year case.
At a federal courthouse in Los Angeles on Thursday, Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell told the judge he would change his plea from “not guilty”.
Instead, Biden is expected to offer an Alford plea, a kind of guilty plea in which the defendant accepts the court’s judgement but maintains their innocence.
“There is overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” Lowell told the judge. “This can be resolved today. It’s not a complicated issue.”
The change comes shortly before jury selection was scheduled to begin in the case. The judge overseeing the case, Mark Scarsi, has yet to accept the plea, and federal prosecutors in the case have indicated they oppose the Alford plea.
