Hunter Biden enters surprise guilty plea to avoid federal tax trial

LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges Thursday in a surprise move that spares President Joe Biden and his family another likely embarrassing and painful criminal trial of the president’s son.

Hunter Biden’s stunning decision to guilty plea to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors 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.

Although President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election muted the potential political implications of the tax case, the trial was expected to carry a heavy emotional toll for the president in the final months of his five-decade political career.

“Enough is enough,” defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge before Hunter Biden entered his plea. “Mr. Biden is prepared, because of the public and private interest, to proceed today and finish this.”

Hunter Biden quickly responded “guilty” as the judge read out each of the nine counts. The charges carry up to 17 years behind bars, but federal sentencing guidelines are likely to call for a much shorter sentence. Sentencing is set for Dec. 16.

More than 100 potential jurors had been brought to the courthouse in Los Angeles on Thursday to begin the process of picking the panel to hear the case alleging a four-year scheme to avoid paying taxes while spending wildly on things like strippers, luxury hotels and exotic cars.

Prosecutors were caught off guard when Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the judge Thursday morning that Hunter wanted to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.

Prosecutors said they objected to such a plea, telling the judge that Hunter Biden “is not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him.”

“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.

Hunter Biden held hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, as he entered the courtroom on Sept. 5.

Hunter Biden walked into the courtroom holding hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and flanked by Secret Service agents. Initially, he pleaded not guilty to the charges related to his 2016 through 2019 taxes and his attorneys had indicated they would argue he didn’t act “willfully,” or with the intention to break the law, in part because of his well-documented struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.

Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses last year in a deal with the Justice Department that would allow him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. But the agreement imploded after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and he was subsequently indicted in the two cases.

His decision to change his plea Thursday came after the judge issued some unfavorable pre-trial rulings for the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert lined up to testify about addiction.

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

The judge barred attorneys from connecting his substance abuse struggles to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden from cancer or the car accident that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler.

The indictment alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”

Hunter Biden’s attorneys had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his expenses that they say amount to a “character assassination,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court papers that he will maintain “strict control” over the presentation of potentially salacious evidence.

Prosecutors had said they want to introduce evidence about Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings, which have been at the center of Republican investigations into the Biden family often seeking — without evidence— to tie the president to an alleged influence peddling scheme.

The special counsel’s team had planned to have a business associate of Hunter Biden's testify about their work for a Romanian businessman, who prosecutors say sought to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president.

Sentencing in Hunter Biden's Delaware conviction is set for Nov. 13. He could face up to 25 years in prison in that case, though he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.

3,300 Volunteers From 52 Nations Sign Up Coronavirus Vaccine Trials

Everyone has felt the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic’s effects across the entire globe.

You’ve witnessed the world’s economy come to a halt, seen 30-plus million Americans unemployed, felt the economy contract by nearly five percent in the first quarter of 2020, and stay-at-home orders being issued to curb the spread preventing hospitals from being overrun.

MORE NEWS: ‘Charmed’ Star Holly Marie Combs Blames Trump For Her Grandpa Dying Of COVID – Calls President A’ Disgrace To Humanity’

The results? The Coronavirus death curve has flattened for the US-based outbreak, even in New York City, which many called ground zero. Many feel that for most of the country, the roadmap to re-opening should occur as soon and as safely as possible.

WILL THERE BE SETBACKS?

Of course. The reason? We still don’t have a vaccine. But wait, now we are learning that more than 3,300 people from 52 nations — including at least two Stanford grads have signed up to be vaccinated and deliberately exposed to the new virus. The group 1DaySooner organized the campaign.

via Mercury News

The effort was launched by Josh Morrison of Brooklyn, New York, a Harvard-educated attorney who founded Waitlist Zero, a nonprofit organization that seeks to ease kidney donation. In 2011, he donated a kidney to a stranger, accepting a small risk of death to save a life. A readily available COVID-19 vaccine, he reasoned, could save far more lives.

Traditionally, a vaccine is proven effective after comparison of cases in hundreds or thousands of individuals who randomly receive vaccine or placebo. That process takes a long time, because it must wait for natural infection.

The premise of a “human challenge” study is to infect a smaller number of vaccinated people who are young and healthy, accelerating testing and giving manufacturing a head start. A “challenge” study takes advantage of the low death rate for those infected by SARS-CoV-2 — about 0.03% for 20-29 year olds and 0.085% for 30-39 year olds according to data from China — not negligible but very uncommon for those likely to be eligible to participate.

Such studies put volunteers at potential risk of disease and death. There is no “rescue” therapy to treat them if they get sick. The long-term effects are unknown.  Yet they’re willing to help anyway. [Mercury News]

MORE NEWS: Schiff And Pelosi Launch ‘Impeachment 2.0’

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THIS IS HEROIC

I assume this usually happens when a new vaccine is tested. This is especially heroic when dealing with a hazardous disease.

Who are these 3,000 people? You do know you’re going into a governmental trial, right! Meaning they can put a chip in you or do anything to you! I want to see all these lemmings.

Serious illness and death from Covid-19 in healthy individuals under 60 are rare, but it has happened. It is estimated that it can kill around 0.5% healthy individuals in this bracket.

Potentially sacrificing yourself for the welfare of others is called bravery, and hopefully, nothing wrong happens to these kids.

I tell you what I’ll struggle to listen to the advice of any medical expert in the media ever again after all this. Every possible wild option and scheme has been thrown out there by people who are supposed to be in the same field and had the same training.

WAYNE’S RECOMMENDATIONS

 

The post 3,300 Volunteers From 52 Nations Sign Up Coronavirus Vaccine Trials appeared first on The Political Insider.