Hunter Biden has pleaded guilty to all nine charges in his federal tax evasion case, surprising federal prosecutors who were ready to begin his trial on Thursday.
The son of US President Joe Biden had previously denied allegations that he intentionally avoided paying $1.4m (£1m) in income tax from 2016-19.
Initially Biden, 54, said he wanted to enter a plea where he would accept the charges while maintaining his innocence, but then he agreed to simply plead guilty after prosecutors objected.
Once prosecutors finished reading aloud the entire 56-page indictment against him to the court, the judge asked Biden if he agreed that he had “committed every element of every crime charged.”
“I do,” Biden said.
His last-minute reversal, first announced in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday as jury selection was about to start, is his second criminal conviction this year.
Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said his client wanted to forego a trial “for the sake of private interest”, sparing his friends and family from testifying about something that happened “when he was addicted to drugs”.
Judge Mark Scarsi said that in pleading guilty to all nine counts Biden faced a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and fines ranging from $500,000 to $1m.
He is due to be sentenced on 16 December, a month after the White House election but a month before his father leaves office.
President Biden has previously said he would not use his executive power to pardon his son.
There is a portrait of the president in each federal courthouse in the country, and Biden, accompanied by his wife, lawyers and Secret Service detail, had to walk by the picture of his father on the way to court.
The prosecution – representing President Biden’s justice department – said they were “shocked” by the suggested Alford plea and reluctant to agree to the deal if it allowed Hunter Biden to maintain his innocence.
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” lead prosecutor Leo Wise said in court.
“We came to court today to try this case.”
Biden previously sought to have the case thrown out, arguing that the justice department’s investigation was motivated by politics and he was targeted because Republican lawmakers are working to impeach his father.
He also argued that the special counsel on the case, David Weiss, had been appointed unlawfully.
These arguments were dismissed by Judge Scarsi, a Trump appointee.
The president’s son was charged with three felony tax offences and six misdemeanour offences in December. These include failure to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return.
According to the indictment, Biden earned $7m in income from his foreign business dealings between 2016-19.
The indictment also said he spent nearly $5m during that period on “everything but his taxes”.
Those purchases included drugs, escorts, lavish hotels, luxury cars and clothing, according to the indictment, which Biden allegedly falsely labelled as business expenses.
Prosecutors said Biden’s actions amounted to “a four-year scheme”.
“In each year in which he failed to pay his taxes, the defendant had sufficient funds available to him to pay some or all of his outstanding taxes when they were due,” the indictment said. “But he chose not to pay them.”
His tax evasion trial marks the second federal criminal proceeding for Biden this year.
In June, he was found guilty of charges related to gun possession and drug use, becoming the first criminally convicted son of a sitting US president.
Specifically, Biden was convicted on three felony charges connected to his purchase of a revolver, in 2018, while battling a drug addiction, and lying about his drug use on a federal form to buy the gun.
After the gun and tax charges were first brought, Biden struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors that then fell apart.
He did not get anything in exchange for pleading guilty on Thursday, except for avoiding a public trial.
