PLOT TWIST: Hunter Biden changes plea as jury selection was set to begin in tax trial

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From NBC News: LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden intends to change his plea in the federal tax-related charges against him, his attorney Abbe Lowell said on Thursday.

The reversal was made shortly before jury selection was expected to begin in what would have been Biden’s second trial this year. The only surviving son of President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden is the first offspring of a sitting president to stand trial on criminal charges.

Shortly after the announcement, the court went into recess.

The conditions of the plea were not immediately disclosed nor whether the judge will accept his attempt to avoid a trial and move straight to sentencing.

According to the indictment, Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020.”

NBC News noted that the trial was expected to include embarrassing and salacious testimony about Hunter Biden’s drug use and lavish spending, including $1.6 million in ATM withdrawals, $683,000 on “various women” and $188,000 on “adult entertainment.”

The indictment says Hunter spent the 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.”

Prosecutors said that in the tax returns Hunter did eventually file, he falsely claimed that money he spent on an escort, a strip club, a sex club membership fee, a pornographic website and his daughter’s college tuition and rent was all “business expense.”

Hunter is now reportedly planning to file an “Alford plea,” which allows a defendant to maintain their innocence while pleading “guilty.”

If the judge accepts Hunter’s “guilty” plea, he will now be spared the humiliation of a public trial where two dozen witnesses were lined up to testify against him, and embarrassing and salacious details were expected to be revealed.  The matter would then be scheduled for sentencing instead.

Multiple political commentators have speculated Thursday morning about the likelihood that Joe Biden might pardon his son before leaving office. Therefore, some have commented that it wouldn’t matter what the sentence was if he is indeed pardoned or his sentence is commuted by his father.

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