Hunter Biden intends to change his plea to not guilty in his federal tax case, his defense attorney says

Hunter Biden (center) and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive at federal court for jury selection for his tax crimes trial on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

LOS ANGELES – Hunter Biden plans to change his plea to not guilty to avoid a federal tax evasion trial, his defense attorney said Thursday, appearing to surprise prosecutors and judges as jury selection was about to begin.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge that the evidence against Hunter Biden was “overwhelming” and that the president's son wanted to settle the case with a confession rather than go to trial a second time, just months after being convicted of a serious weapons offense in another case.

Hunter Biden is proposing to enter what is known as an Alford plea, an unusual plea in which the defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict, Mark Geragos, another of Hunter Biden's lawyers, said in a text message.

“There is overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt,” Lowell told the judge. “That can be resolved today. It's not a complicated matter.”

The Justice Department has charged Hunter Biden with a misdemeanor and a felony. Prosecutors believe he evaded at least $1.4 million in taxes over a four-year period while also collecting millions of dollars from foreign companies. He already faces possible prison time after a Delaware jury found him guilty in June of lying on a 2018 federal form to buy a gun he owned for 11 days.

The defense's announcement appeared to surprise prosecutors and the judge in federal court in Los Angeles, where more than 100 potential jurors were brought in for questioning on Thursday. Opening arguments in the case were expected on Monday.

A last-minute confession would allow Hunter Biden to avoid a trial that would shine a spotlight on his foreign business dealings, which Republicans have spent years scrutinizing to accuse his father – without evidence – of corruption related to his son's work abroad.

The potential political impact of the trial coming weeks before the presidential election may have faded somewhat since President Biden's decision in July to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. But the president is deeply concerned about his son's well-being, so a trial would likely weigh heavily on him in the final months of his five-decade political career.

Hunter Biden entered the courtroom holding the hand of his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and accompanied by Secret Service agents. He initially pleaded not guilty to charges related to his taxes from 2016 to 2019, and his lawyers have indicated they will argue he did not act “willfully” or with the intent to break the law, in part because of his well-documented problems with alcohol and drug addiction.

Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to minor tax offenses last year as part of a deal with the Justice Department that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. But the deal fell through after a judge questioned unusual aspects of the agreement, and he was subsequently charged on both counts.

His decision to change his plea on Thursday came after the judge made a number of decisions in the run-up to the trial that were unfavorable to the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert witness to testify on the subject of addiction.

Scarsi, who was appointed judge by former President Donald Trump, also placed some restrictions on what jurors could hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden's family, friends and lawyers say led to his drug addiction.

The judge barred lawyers from linking his struggle with drug addiction to the 2015 cancer death of his brother Beau Biden or the car accident that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler.

The indictment alleges that Hunter Biden lived a lavish life while violating tax law by spending his money on things like strippers and luxury hotels – “in short, everything except his taxes.”

Hunter Biden's lawyers had asked Scarsi to also prevent prosecutors from highlighting details of his spending that they said amounted to a “character assassination campaign,” including payments to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court documents that he will “strictly control” the presentation of potentially offensive evidence.

Prosecutors had said they wanted to present evidence about Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, which were at the heart of Republican investigations into the Biden family, which often tried – without evidence – to link the president to an alleged influence scheme.

The special counsel's team had planned to have one of Hunter Biden's business associates testify about her work for a Romanian businessman who, according to prosecutors, tried to “influence U.S. government policy” when Joe Biden was vice president.

Sentencing in the Hunter Biden case in Delaware is scheduled for November 13. He faces up to 25 years in prison, but as a first-time offender he will likely receive a much shorter sentence or avoid prison altogether.

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.