Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, leaves federal court in Los Angeles, California, US on Sept 5. - REUTERS/David Swanson
LOS ANGELES: Joe Biden's son Hunter pleaded guilty in a tax evasion trial on Thursday, without reaching the deal he had sought with prosecutors, in a case that has been an embarrassment for the US president.
The 54-year-old admitted nine counts related to failing to pay US$1.4mil in taxes over the past decade, money that prosecutors said he splurged instead on luxury living, sex workers and a drug habit.
The pleas came on the day jury selection for a trial had been due to start, and hours after Biden had offered to plead guilty in the hope of striking a deal that might keep him out of prison.
But no deal materialised and Biden made the pleas in open court.
US District Judge Mark Scarsi set sentencing for Dec 16. Biden faces up to 17 years in prison and a fine in excess of US$1mil.
A trial had been expected to re-hash sordid details of a life that the defendant and his family -- including the president -- have long acknowledged had gone off the rails.
"I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment," US media reported Biden saying in a statement.
"Prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanising me for my actions during my addiction."
Biden has already spent a chunk of 2024 in court, having been convicted in Delaware of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun -- an act that is a felony.
He has yet to be sentenced for that crime, and could face up to 25 years imprisonment.
President Biden has the power to pardon his son, but has said he would not do so.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that his position had not changed.
"It is still very much a 'no'," she said.
- Political battle -
Lawyers for Biden have said he was only being brought before the court because of who he is.
"They want to slime him because that is the whole purpose," Biden's attorney Mark Geragos reportedly said during an August hearing in which he accused prosecutors of attempted character assassination.
Biden's defense team has argued that the non-payment of taxes was an oversight in a life wrought chaotic by a spiraling drug addiction and the trauma of losing his older brother, Beau, to a brain tumor in 2015.
Biden has paid the back taxes, as well as penalties levied by authorities, and had previously reached a plea deal that would have kept him out of jail.
That agreement fell apart at the last minute, and Biden is understood to have been trying to reach another since then.
That has been difficult for prosecutors, whose every move in this election year is being scrutinized by Republicans, who charge the defendant is being treated leniently because he is the president's son.
Hunter Biden has for years been a foil for his father's political opponents, who have sought -- without producing evidence -- to smear the family as a group of criminals who have gained wealth and power because of Joe Biden's career.
The elder Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race in favor of Kamala Harris has taken much of the zeal out of the Republican drive to make an example out of his son.
Nevertheless, prosecutors appeared unwilling to cut him any slack.
An attempt on Thursday morning by Hunter Biden to enter a so-called "Alford plea," whereby he would admit guilt because of the high probability of conviction but maintain his innocence, was rebuffed.
"I want to make crystal clear: the US opposes an Alford plea," prosecutor Leo Wise told the court. "Hunter Biden is not innocent, he is guilty."
In his statement, Biden, who lives in Malibu, said his drug addiction was "not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case."
"I have been clean and sober for more than five years 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." - AFP
