Hunter Biden, the son of the US president, formally pleaded guilty to tax fraud in a Los Angeles court on Thursday, a reversal that spares him a new trial after his conviction in June in a separate case.
“Guilty,” Hunter Biden, 54, replied when the judge listed the charges against him, the New York Timess.
This former lawyer and businessman, now a painter, was notably facing one count of tax fraud and two counts of false declarations for not having paid 1.4 million dollars in taxes over the last decade.
The judge set sentencing for December 16. Hunter Biden faces up to 15 years in prison.
Even before the trial began Thursday morning in Los Angeles, his lawyer Abbe Lowell told the judge that he was prepared to plead guilty, but using a specific feature of American law that allows him to accept being convicted while proclaiming his innocence.
The prosecution, however, refused this procedure, preferring that the trial take place.
Alas, Hunter Biden has told his lawyers that he has finally agreed to plead guilty in full, without agreeing with prosecutors to reduce his sentence but thereby avoiding an embarrassing new trial.
Already condemned
Because Joe Biden’s youngest son was already convicted this year of lying about his drug addiction when buying a gun — a crime in the Biden home state of Delaware. His sentence, which could carry up to 25 years in prison, has not yet been handed down.
During the hearings at this trial, Hunter Biden’s luxurious lifestyle, his failing marriage and his cocaine addiction had already been publicly exposed.
It was apparently to avoid these infamous details being heard again that he finally decided on Thursday to plead guilty.
On the merits of the case, to justify this non-payment of taxes, his lawyers have until now pleaded negligence during a chaotic period for Hunter Biden due to the deterioration of his addiction and the death of his brother Beau from a brain tumor.
Hunter Biden, who says he has been drug-free since 2019, has already paid back taxes owed and fines to authorities.
He had previously reached a plea deal that would have spared him a prison sentence, but that deal ultimately fell apart and, according to US press reports, the president’s son has since been trying to reach a new one.
Hunter Biden has become a favorite target over the years for Republicans seeking to portray the Democratic president as the head of a corrupt family.
However, Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race at the end of July in favour of Kamala Harris has caused the intensity of the opposition’s attacks to drop.