LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, pleaded guilty Thursday to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.
Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father’s political career. It came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
The president’s son was already facing potential prison time after his June conviction on felony gun charges in a trial that aired unflattering and salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction. The tax trial was expected to showcase more potentially lurid evidence as well as details about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.
“I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment,” Hunter Biden said in an emailed statement after he entered his plea. “For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty.”
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