Hunter Biden offered a plea on Thursday to accept responsibility for tax evasion and other tax crimes as his trial was scheduled to begin, Politico reports. The six-year federal investigation of Biden was expected to culminate this week. The president’s son was convicted this summer on gun charges. In the new trial, he faces allegations of criminal tax evasion. A judge has excluded one of his key lines of defense, Politico reports. Prosecutors planned to tell a story greed, decadence and entitlement. Biden’s lawyers argue it’s actually a tale of addiction and redemption. The political stakes of the trial, which was expected to last two weeks, have lessened with Joe Biden not running for reelection. Still, evidence would be expected to highlight his son’s foreign business dealings, a centerpiece of Republican attacks on the Biden family.
The case revisits the younger Biden’s past struggles with drug abuse. Prosecutors argue that, while he was dodging taxes, Biden was spending lavishly on drugs, strip clubs, and sports cars. Defense lawyers may face an uphill battle. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi has issued a series of rulings unfavorable to the defense. Perhaps most critically, Biden wanted to tell jurors that, after he got sober, he belatedly paid all the taxes he owed. Scarsi has blocked the defense team from making that argument. The president has said he wouild not pardon his son or commute a prison sentence. Biden is scheduled to be sentenced in November in the gun case, where sentencing guidelines recommend up to 21 months in prison. In the tax case, prosecutors said he intentionally avoided paying $1.4 million in taxes owed for 2016 through 2019. The federal probe started in late 2018, when an IRS agent began investigating him for apparent financial crimes.
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