CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Thursday that Hunter Biden intending to change his plea deal to guilty in the tax case against him is rarely ever seen in federal court.
Biden intends to change his plea from not guilty to guilty in the federal tax fraud case where he faces nine tax-related charges, three of which are felonies. Honig said most federal prosecutors do not accept this type of arrangement, which is known as an “Alford plea.”
“Essentially, what Hunter Biden is asking to do is go into the federal court and say ‘I’m not admitting my guilt, I’m not admitting that I’m guilty of these charges, instead, I acknowledge that the prosecution thinks they have the proof and I’m willing to take your sentence, Judge, based on the indictment as is. It’s very, very rare to see this type of plea or even an attempt to have this type of plea happen in federal court,” Honig said.
“So it is official Justice Department policy, and this is a DOJ federal case, that you do not as a prosecutor accept an Alford plea except for in extraordinary circumstances,” Honig continued. “I was a prosecutor for 14 years, [I] never accepted an Alford plea. Once in a while, a defendant or defense would call and say ‘hey, my guy’s willing to take an Alford plea’ and frankly, we’d laugh at them. We’d say ‘no way, we don’t do that. That’s a joke.'”
CNN’s Elie Honig says Hunter Biden changing his plea deal is rarely seen in federal court pic.twitter.com/sNIvpvubLk
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Honig said Biden the prosecution cannot stop him from admitting his guilt in the courtroom if the prosecution denies this Alford plea. He added it is “no surprise” that the Department of Justice (DOJ), who is prosecuting this case, is against this type of plea deal. (RELATED: Judge Delays Hunter Biden’s California Trial Until September)
Biden pleaded not guilty to the nine tax charges during a Jan. 11 hearing in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He faces up to 17 years in prison if found guilty of these charges.
Special counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing the case against Biden, charged the president’s son on Dec. 7 with multiple counts of failure to file and pay taxes and of filing false and fraudulent tax forms, according to the DOJ. The indictment alleges that Biden chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed between 2016 and 2019.
The president’s son also allegedly evaded the assessment of taxes in 2018 when he filed false returns, the DOJ claimed.
Biden’s attorneys attempted to have the case dismissed by alleging the prosecution is “vindictive” and politically motivated. Judge Mark Scarsi rejected all of the arguments to dismiss the charges in an Apr. 1 ruling.
A Delaware jury found Biden guilty on three felony gun charges on June 11, in which he was charged for purchasing a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018 while knowingly under the influence of drugs.
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