Yesterday, Hunter Biden was supposed to be sitting in a federal courtroom in California, beginning jury selection in his delayed trial on tax charges.

After the failed “sweetheart” plea deal in Delaware that would have tied these charges to his gun charges, and swept the entire thing under the rug – only stopped because Judge Maryellen Noreika smelled a rat – the special counsel was forced to deal with the tax charges separately, especially after whistleblower testimony to Congress from IRS agents talking about how they were prevented from pursuing serious charges against Hunter Biden.

Once Hunter was charged with tax evasion, including felony charges, his legal team successfully got the trial pushed back until September, as the gun trial in Delaware went forward this last June. It’s clear that the Biden family and Hunter’s legal team thought that they owned the town in Delaware, with the family making a big show of supporting Hunter from the front row. We openly speculated what effect this would have on the jury at the time. The answer was none, as Hunter Biden was convicted on all the gun charges.

In a way, the Delaware gun trial was a test balloon for Hunter Biden and his legal team. If a Biden could get convicted in Delaware, then there was no way that Hunter was going to walk away from the tax charges in California scot-free. That knowledge – and the fact that Kevin Morris, who has paid Hunter Biden’s back taxes and funded his lifestyle, is allegedly finally tired of the leech – and the fact that circumstances in the Biden family have radically changed since Hunter’s conviction in June, is likely what led to yesterday’s attempted courtroom shenanigans, where Hunter Biden tried to enter an Alford plea.

RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar was in the courtroom when this entire gambit went down.

Potential jurors had reported to the courthouse Thursday morning for jury selection, and testimony was anticipated to start on Monday, September 9. However, as proceedings began, Biden’s lead defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, informed the court that his client intended to enter an Alford plea, a type of plea in which he would not admit guilt but would agree that the government was going to present evidence that could lead a jury to find him guilty. After a two-hour break, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise told the court that prosecutors would not agree to any plea in which Biden did not admit guilt, while Lowell argued that the court had very little discretion in deciding to accept or not accept an Alford plea. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Scarsi told the parties his plan was to break until 9 AM Friday for the parties to brief that issue and proceed, but Lowell asked for time to confer with his client to see how he wanted to proceed.

At every turn, Lowell was trying to soften the blow for his client. Once it was apparent that the Alford plea was not happening, Lowell said that Hunter had agreed to plead guilty, but not like “GUILTY-guilty.”

Lowell argued that Biden had been attempting to resolve this case for over a year, and that the government was intent on “exacting not just a pound of flesh, but more than an ounce of blood” and had spent more than $3.5 million in that time frame to do so. Because of that, Lowell said, and after the evidentiary rulings handed down last week, Biden came to the conclusion that it’s in his best interest to enter an open guilty plea, “so he and his family can move forward from the things he did when he was a drug addict.”

Still, Biden would not be admitting that he did every act alleged in the indictment, Lowell said; Biden would, however, agree that he committed conduct that satisfied each of the elements of the crimes alleged.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wise was having NONE of that. If Hunter Biden was pleading guilty, then the court was going to hear EXACTLY what he was pleading guilty to doing. The judge agreed.

With that, Scarsi began the process of taking Biden’s guilty plea, a process that includes detailing the charges he’s pleading guilty to and the maximum punishment for each, ensuring that Biden understands what he is doing and the potential punishments, and that he’s gone over potential defenses with his attorneys and is satisfied with their services. Biden was informed that as a result of his plea, he is facing a maximum of 15 years in prison and a maximum fine between $500,000 and $1 million, and that since he was entering an open plea, he has no promise as to what that sentence will be.

That process also requires the government to state a factual basis for each charge. Wise had informed Lowell that if Biden pled guilty, Wise planned to read the entire indictment as the government’s factual basis, and followed through on that promise. Lowell objected and said they’d stipulate to the factual basis so the long document wouldn’t need to be read aloud, but Scarsi asked Wise to continue as a precaution to ensure there is appropriate transparency and sufficiency for the public interest.

The judge then informed Hunter that he was actually facing up to 17 years in prison and $1.35 million in fines, due to a calculation error. Sentencing is now set for December 16, 2024, for these tax felony convictions. Sentencing in the gun convictions are supposed to happen on November 13th in Delaware.

It’s safe to say that no one expected Hunter Biden to just plead guilty to these tax evasion charges, especially with no plea deal in place. The Alford plea was his legal team’s attempt to have it both ways, but fortunately, the court wasn’t having that sprung on them at the last minute. You know, for a highly paid and well-known defense attorney, Abbe Lowell really, really sucks at this. How he figured a last minute Alford plea was going to work out for his client, I have no idea. Professor Jonathan Turley referred to this as a “game of chicken,” and Hunter lost.

The guilty plea allows Hunter Biden – ostensibly – to “take responsibility” for his actions. At least, that’s what his statement says. Did Hunter write this? Nope, this went through a few paralegals and junior lawyers before Lowell took a look at it, had Hunter read it, and then sent it out to the press. Apparently, we are supposed to believe that the guilty plea was some kind of noble act by Hunter Biden to “spare” his family.
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1831824297029255661
The full statement reads:

“I went to trial in Delaware not realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I will not put them through it again. When it became clear to me that the same prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction, there was only one path left for me. I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment. For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty.

Like millions of Americans, I failed to file and pay my taxes on time. For that I am responsible. As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case.

When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving. But the jury would never have heard that or know that I had paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties.

That I have been clean and sober for more than five years now because I have had the love and support of my family.

I can never repay them for showing up for me and helping me through my worst moments. But I can protect them from being publicly humiliated for my failures.

For anyone now going through the scourge of addiction, please know there is a light at the end of that seemingly endless tunnel. I was where you are now. Don’t quit right before the miracle.”

Wow. That is someone who really believes that he is the hero of his own story. Let’s fisk this self-aggrandizing statement a bit, shall we?

The first paragraph is really a kick. He, and the whole family, knew what they were doing in Delaware. They tried a bit of jury intimidation – “no one f**ks with a Biden” – and lost. They also all know what Hunter was doing with all the money he was earning without paying taxes – HE WROTE AN ENTIRE BOOK ABOUT HIS PROBLEMS, not to mention THE LAPTOP which the FBI has now admitted is authentic. (It only took them how many years to admit that??) To now say that these revelations would be “more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment” is beyond hilarious. Hunter recorded himself doing drugs, banging hookers, being an asshole to anyone and everyone because of his name and money, and then wrote a book about it all. There was no shame in it when there was a dollar to be made. But now, this would be “an invasion of privacy.” Spare me.

As this statement progresses, he blames his addiction for his failure to pay taxes, but also claims to have “paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties.” DUDE. YOU DIDN’T PAY THAT. Your “sugar brother” Kevin Morris covered THOSE bills. Now, the IRS doesn’t care who pays the bills, so long as the bill gets paid. But to claim YOU paid it? The arrogance is gag-inducing.

Hunter says he’s “been clean and sober for more than five years.” No comment on how cocaine got into the White House, or why the Secret Service was so incurious and willing to just dispose of evidence under the previous director. For Hunter Biden’s own sake, I hope he IS “clean and sober.” But I would not place money on that bet.

He winds down the statement by acknowledging his family’s support. The Biden family’s fortunes have risen and fallen on Hunter’s ability to sell access to Joe, and by his own acknowledgement, he’s been “paying for everything” for a long time. Sure, the family is hanging together – because if they didn’t, they might hang separately.

But let’s be completely honest about what is happening here. If this case had gone to trial, then Hunter Biden’s sins – the prostitutes, the drugs, the using an employee for sex – would have been on full display, along with the fact that he probably should be prosecuted under FARA (the Foreign Agents Registration Act) for his financial connections to China, Ukraine, and Romania. Those facts would spill over onto Joe Biden, who is experiencing a slight resurgence in popularity after dropping out of the presidential race. Anything remotely FARA-linked would inevitably pull in Joe Biden and his phone calls about the weather from Hunter, or the special dinners that Hunter put together at Cafe Milano when Joe just “happened” to swing by. With Joe Biden being thrown out a window by the Democrats, the Biden family is now focused on protecting his image and his “legacy” – which would get tarnished fast if FARA charges came to light.

And let’s be honest about why Hunter pleaded guilty without a plea deal – because he will never serve a day in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 13th in Delaware, and December 16th in California – after Election Day. If (and that’s a very big if) he actually gets any jail time for the gun charges, his attorneys would likely ask that the sentence be delayed until after the sentence in California is handed down. And after the California sentencing, there’s just a little over a month before Inauguration Day. The only reason Joe Biden, who is cognitively gone and spends his time lounging on beaches, is still sitting in the Oval Office right now is because his signature has to be on either a pardon or communtation for Hunter by January 20, 2025. Joe is absolutely mentally incapable of being president right now, and yet Kamala Harris and the rest of the Democrats are leaving him in office instead of using the 25th Amendment. Why? Joe is going to save Hunter, and when he goes back on his word, the blowback will be on him, “the loving father,” and not Kamala Harris (if she wins). Pleading guilty now means sentencing before Inauguration Day. All Joe has to do is sign on the dotted line before the next president puts a hand on the Bible. And then he will claim that he just loves his son and wants him by his side in his declining years, and the press will collectively shrug and talk about what a loving father he has always been.

It’s easy to plead guilty when you know you won’t be punished for it. And Hunter Biden wants us to think he’s a hero for doing it. Anyone who falls for this “self-sacrificial” act is a fool who wants to be deceived.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click