Hunter Biden is set to plead guilty in his federal tax case, his attorney Abbe Lowell announced on Thursday.
This change came just before jury selection was set to begin in Los Angeles, NBC News reports. President Joe Biden’s son originally pleaded not guilty to the tax-related charges.
Biden plans to enter an Alford Plea, Lowell said in court. This means he will plead guilty and accept his sentencing while still maintaining that he is innocent. This change in plea is not the result of a deal with prosecutors, according to NBC News.
“This is the first we’ve heard of this,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.
Meanwhile, Lowell has argued that the judge “is required to accept the plea,” and that the details of the arrangement could be ironed out today, NBC News reports.
Biden was indicted on nine tax-related criminal charges in December, three of which are felony counts. Prosecutors argued he made millions from 2016 to 2020 and engaged in an “extravagant lifestyle” all while skipping out on more than $1.4 million in taxes.
Prosecutors said Biden avoided his taxes and instead spent the cash on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature.”
The president’s son initially tried to have the charges dismissed — however, Scarsi sided with the prosecution and denied his request in April.
If the judge accepts his plea, Biden will avoid a trial, during which salacious and embarrassing testimony from more than two dozen witnesses could have come to light, NBC News reports.
His tax trial was originally slated to begin June 20, but his legal team advocated for a delay, arguing that they were struggling to prepare as he faced another trial on gun charges in Delaware.
Biden was convicted earlier this year of three felony gun charges in June, marking the first time a sitting president’s child has been found guilty of a crime. Special counsel David Weiss brought three gun-related charges against him last year, claiming Biden unlawfully purchased a firearm by lying on a federal gun form about his drug use.
He is set to be sentenced in September.
