Hunter Biden and his legal team shocked the news world on Thursday after changing his plea from ‘Not Guilty’ to ‘Guilty’ in his $1.4 million dollar tax evasion case in Los Angeles.
“Mr. Biden intends to change his plea this morning,” Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell told the judge in a Los Angeles federal courtroom Thursday morning.
Following the ‘Guilty’ plea, Hunter Biden released a statement saying he wanted to spare his family further humiliation.
“I went to trial in Delaware not realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I will not put them through it again,” Biden said. “When it became clear to me that the same prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction, there was only one path left for me.”
“I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment. For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty,” he added.
“Like millions of Americans, I failed to file and pay my taxes on time. For that I am responsible. As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case. When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving,” Biden continued.
“But the jury would never have heard that or know that I had paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties.I have been clean and sober for more than five years now because I have had the love and support of my family. I can never repay them for showing up for me and helping me through my worst moments. But I can protect them from being publicly humiliated for my failures,” he said.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a separate statement that “this plea prevents a show trial that would not have provided all the facts or served any justice.”
“There is no doubt this case was an extreme and unusual one for the government to bring. Unlike millions of Americans, Hunter was charged with felonies for his failures that occurred during the depths of his addiction to drugs and alcohol, and which he has since rectified by paying his overdue taxes in full with interest and penalties years before he was charged. In fact, he actually overpaid his taxes in the year he is charged with tax evasion,” Lowell added.
Hunter remains free on bond until the sentencing date on Dec. 16.
More over at Fox News:
Hunter Biden says he pleaded guilty to 'spare' his family the 'humiliation' of a trial after addiction battles https://t.co/juerCdvopJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 6, 2024