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Convicted felon Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, submitted an Alford plea in federal court on Thursday as he seeks to avoid having the criminal case go to trial.
Hunter Biden was indicted last year by special counsel David Weiss on multiple tax-related crimes involving his failure to pay more than a million dollars in taxes. Nine charges were filed, three of which were felonies and six of which were misdemeanors.
Prosecutors strongly objected to Hunter Biden’s Alford plea, which would allow him to acknowledge the strength of the case against him, accept whatever penalties he is sentenced to, and maintain his innocence.
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CNN reported that the judge called for a break for a couple of hours to consider what would happen next. Jury selection in the trial was initially scheduled to start on Thursday.
David Weiss’s team with the Justice Department has OBJECTED and strongly disagrees with Hunter Biden taking an Alford plea, leaving the judge to decide whether to accept this deal. pic.twitter.com/pzZ9QyPCju
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 5, 2024
Hunter Biden was convicted in June on three felony counts of lying on paperwork for purchasing a revolver and owning the firearm while being a drug addict. The verdict, reached on the second day of jury deliberations, could land Hunter Biden in prison for up to 25 years and lead to fines as high as $750,000.
It is rare that the U.S. Department of Justice accepts Alford pleas as DOJ guidelines stipulate that they may only be used in “the most unusual of circumstances and only after recommendation for doing so has been approved by the Assistant Attorney General responsible for the subject matter or by the Associate Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, or the Attorney General.”
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Prosecutors have dozens of witnesses lined up to testify in the trial who were expected to deliver “embarrassing and salacious testimony” against the president’s son, The Washington Post reported.
The indictment against Hunter Biden stated that he blew his money on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.”
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