LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Joe Biden’s son Hunter pleaded guilty in a tax evasion trial on Thursday, without reaching the deal he had sought with prosecutors, in a case that has been an embarrassment for the United States (US) president.
The 54-year-old admitted nine counts related to failing to pay USD1.4 million in taxes over the past decade, money that prosecutors said he splurged instead on luxury living and a drug habit.
The pleas came on the day jury selection for a trial had been due to start, and hours after Biden had offered to plead guilty in the hope of striking a deal that might keep him out of prison.
But no deal materialised and Biden made the pleas in open court.
US District Judge Mark Scarsi set sentencing for December 16. Biden faces up to 17 years in prison and a fine in excess of USD1 million.
A trial had been expected to re-hash sordid details of a life that the defendant and his family – including the president – have long acknowledged had gone off the rails.
“I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment,” US media reported Biden saying in a statement.
“Prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction.”
Biden has already spent a chunk of 2024 in court, having been convicted in Delaware of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun – an act that is a felony. He has yet to be sentenced for that crime, and could face up to 25 years imprisonment.
President Biden has the power to pardon his son, but has said he would not do so.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday that his position had not changed.
“It is still very much a ‘no’,” she said.
