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Presidential son Hunter Biden tried to offer a no-contest plea Thursday to avoid trial in California on tax charges, while federal prosecutors objected to the move.
Biden’s attorneys stood in court in Los Angeles and said their client wanted to enter an Alford plea, in which he wouldn’t admit to wrongdoing in open court but would acknowledge enough evidence exists to convict him.
He would be at the mercy of the court at sentencing.
Prosecutors objected to the idea because federal courts typically don’t accept these types of pleas.
“I want to make something crystal clear — the United States oppose an Alford plea,” said prosecutor Leo Wise, a member of special counsel David Weiss’ team. “Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty. He is not permitted to plead guilty on special terms.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi ordered both sides to submit briefs and said he would decide the matter at a later date.
More than 100 potential jurors had been brought to the courthouse to begin the process of picking the panel that would decide whether he’s guilty of misdemeanor and felony charges over what prosecutors say was a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while pulling in millions of dollars from foreign business entities, even as he engaged in a lavish lifestyle.
A last-minute plea would allow Hunter Biden to avoid a second criminal trial in just months. He was convicted in June in Delaware of three felony charges over a gun he bought in 2018.
The tax trial was expected to put a spotlight on his foreign business dealings, which Republicans have spent years scrutinizing to accuse his father — without evidence — of corruption in connection with his son’s work overseas.
The sordid details of Biden’s troubles were complicating his father’s reelection bid, though the issue dropped out of view when the president dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the plea situation.
She said Mr. Biden still does not plan to pardon his son or commute any sentence.
“It’s no, it’s still no,” she said.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
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