Hunter Biden intends to change his plea of ​​not guilty in his federal tax case, defense attorney says – NBC New York

Hunter Biden plans to change his plea to not guilty in his federal tax case, his defense attorney said Thursday just as jury selection was about to begin.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge about Hunter Biden’s plans to change his earlier plea, just months after the president’s son was convicted on gun charges in a separate case, but provided no further details.

The latest case accuses Hunter Biden of a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while obtaining millions of dollars from foreign business entities. He already faces possible prison time after a Delaware jury found him guilty in June of lying on a 2018 federal form to purchase a gun he possessed for 11 days.

Hunter Biden entered the courtroom hand-in-hand with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and flanked by Secret Service agents. He initially pleaded not guilty to charges related to his taxes from 2016 to 2019 and his lawyers have indicated they will argue that he did not act “willfully” or with the intent to break the law, in part because of his well-documented problems with alcohol and drug addiction.

Last year, Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses in a deal with the Justice Department that would allow him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. But the deal fell apart after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and he was subsequently charged in both cases.

A Delaware jury found Hunter Biden guilty of three felony gun charges.

His decision to change his plea came after the judge issued some pre-trial rulings unfavorable to the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert from testifying about addiction.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, placed some restrictions on what jurors could hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden’s family, friends and lawyers say led to his drug addiction.

The judge barred attorneys from linking his substance abuse problems to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden from cancer or the car crash that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler.

The indictment alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while violating tax laws, spending his money on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”

Hunter Biden’s lawyers asked Scarsi to also block prosecutors from highlighting details of his spending that they say constitute “defamation,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court papers that he will maintain “strict control” over the introduction of potentially lurid evidence.

Prosecutors may have presented more details of Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, which have been at the center of Republican investigations into the Biden family that often seek, without evidence, to link the president to an alleged influence-peddling scheme.

The special counsel’s team has said it wants to tell jurors about Hunter Biden’s work for a Romanian businessman, who they say tried to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president.

The defense accused prosecutors of publishing details about Hunter Biden’s work for the Romanian in court documents to boost media coverage and taint the jury pool.

Hunter Biden’s sentencing for Delaware conviction is set for Nov. 13. He could face up to 25 years in prison, but since this is his first time offending, he’s likely to receive a much lighter sentence or avoid prison altogether.