LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, pleaded guilty Thursday to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.
Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father’s political career. It came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
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Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Abbe Lowell, left, an attorney for Hunter Biden, makes a statement after Biden pled guilty to federal tax charges, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Hunter Biden leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after he pled guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
In this courtroom sketch, judge Mark C. Scarsi presides during a hearing in federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, where Hunter Biden pled guilty to federal tax charges. (William T. Robles via AP)
In this courtroom sketch, Hunter Biden, left, talks to attorney Mark Geragos, during a hearing in federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, where he pled guilty to federal tax charges. (William T. Robles via AP)
Hunter Biden, center, leaves federal court after pleading guilty in his felony federal tax case, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden leaves federal court with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden after pleading guilty in his felony federal tax case, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
In this courtroom sketch, Hunter Biden, right, appears for a hearing in federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, where he pled guilty to federal tax charges. (William T. Robles via AP)
Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
A police officer inspects the exterior of a federal courthouse with the aid of a canine at the start of Hunter Biden's trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
This courtroom sketch shows Hunter Biden entering a federal courtroom for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (William T. Robles via AP)
Hunter Biden arrives in federal court under police and secret service protection for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden arrives in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, right, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden arrives in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, right, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, right, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, center, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
FILE - Hunter Biden departs from federal court June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The president’s son was already facing potential prison time after his June conviction on felony gun charges in a trial that aired unflattering and salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction. The tax trial was expected to showcase more potentially lurid evidence as well as details about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.
“I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment,” Hunter Biden said in an emailed statement after he entered his plea. “For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty.”
Although President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election muted the potential political implications of the tax case, the trial was expected to carry a heavy emotional toll for the president in the final months of his five-decade political career.
“Hunter put his family first today, and it was a brave and loving thing for him to do," defense attorney Abbe Lowell told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Los Angeles.
Hunter Biden, 54, quickly responded “guilty” as the judge read out each of the nine counts. He showed no emotion as he walked out the courthouse holding his wife’s hand. He ignored questions shouted at him by reporters before climbing into an SUV and driving off.
The charges carry up to 17 years behind bars, but federal sentencing guidelines are likely to call for a much shorter sentence. He faces up to $1.35 million in fines. Sentencing is set for Dec. 16 in front of U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who was nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump.
He faces sentencing in the Delaware case on Nov. 13 — the week after the general election. Those charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.
More than 100 potential jurors had been brought to the courthouse Thursday to begin the process of picking the panel to hear the case alleging a four-year scheme to avoid paying taxes while spending wildly on things like strippers, luxury hotels and exotic cars.
Prosecutors were caught off guard when Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the judge Thursday morning that Hunter wanted to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.
Special counsel David Weiss' team objected to such a plea, telling the judge that Hunter Biden “is not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him.”
“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.
After a break in the hearing, Hunter Biden's lawyers said he had decided to plead guilty to all nine charges.
Last year, it had looked like he was going to be spared prison time under a deal with prosecutors that would have allowed him to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. Prosecutors would have recommended two years of probation and he would have escaped prosecution on a felony gun charge as long he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the agreement imploded after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and Hunter Biden was subsequently indicted in the two cases. The defense has accused special counsel Weiss of caving to political pressure to indict the president’s son after Trump and other Republicans blasted what they described as a “sweetheart deal.”
The indictment brought last year grew out of an investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes that began in 2018 under the Trump administration. Hunter Biden confirmed the existence of the investigation in December 2020 — the month after his father won the election — saying he learned about it for the first time the previous day.
Prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”
The charges in both the gun and tax cases stemmed from a period in Hunter Biden's life in which he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse before becoming sober in 2019. His lawyers had been expected to argue that his substance abuse struggles affected his decision-making and judgment, so he could not have acted “willfully,” or with intention to break the tax law.
“As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case," Hunter Biden said in a statement. “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.”
His decision to plead guilty came after the judge issued some unfavorable pre-trial rulings for the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert lined up to testify about addiction. Scarsi had also placed some restrictions on what jurors would be allowed to hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden’s family, friends and attorneys say led to his drug addiction.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his expenses that they say amount to a “character assassination,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites.
Prosecutors had also planned to introduce evidence about Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, including his work for a Romanian businessman who prosecutors said in court papers sought to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president.
Lauer reported from Philadelphia. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed from Washington.
Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Abbe Lowell, left, an attorney for Hunter Biden, makes a statement after Biden pled guilty to federal tax charges, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Hunter Biden leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after he pled guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
In this courtroom sketch, judge Mark C. Scarsi presides during a hearing in federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, where Hunter Biden pled guilty to federal tax charges. (William T. Robles via AP)
In this courtroom sketch, Hunter Biden, left, talks to attorney Mark Geragos, during a hearing in federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, where he pled guilty to federal tax charges. (William T. Robles via AP)
Hunter Biden, center, leaves federal court after pleading guilty in his felony federal tax case, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden leaves federal court with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden after pleading guilty in his felony federal tax case, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
In this courtroom sketch, Hunter Biden, right, appears for a hearing in federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, where he pled guilty to federal tax charges. (William T. Robles via AP)
Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
A police officer inspects the exterior of a federal courthouse with the aid of a canine at the start of Hunter Biden's trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
This courtroom sketch shows Hunter Biden entering a federal courtroom for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (William T. Robles via AP)
Hunter Biden arrives in federal court under police and secret service protection for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden arrives in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, right, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden arrives in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, right, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, right, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hunter Biden, center, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive in federal court for jury selection for his trial on felony tax charges Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
FILE - Hunter Biden departs from federal court June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Denver (AP) — Investigators were trying to figure out Friday what led an elevator to malfunction at a former Colorado gold mine, killing one person, injuring four others and leaving 12 people trapped for hours at the bottom of the tourist attraction 1,000 feet (305 meters) beneath the surface.
The elevator was descending into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near the town of Cripple Creek in the mountains near Colorado Springs on Thursday when it had a mechanical problem around 500 feet (152 meters) beneath the surface, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said.
What exactly caused the visitor’s death was not immediately provided. The victim has yet to be identified.
Eleven other people, including two children, who were riding the elevator were rescued. Four had minor injuries including back pain, neck pain and arm pain, the sheriff said.
Twelve adults from a second group were trapped for about six hours Thursday below ground. They had access to water and used radios to communicate with authorities, who told them there was an elevator issue, Mikesell said.
Elevator accidents at mines are extremely rare, said Steven Schafrik, a University of Kentucky associate professor of mining engineering. They have been used by the industry to carry people and material since the mid-1800s, he said, and modern elevators are equipped with fail-safe devices that prevent them from falling far if there's a cable break.
“Stupid safe,” Schafrik said of mining elevators.
He declined to comment directly on the Colorado accident.
Mines that operate as tourist attractions in Colorado must designate someone to inspect the mines and the transportation systems daily, according to the state Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. Mikesell said he didn’t know the date of the last inspection at the Mollie Kathleen Mine. Records of the inspections weren’t immediately available online.
Changes to the elevator were made in 1988 after the mine came under new ownership, according to the mine's website. A second elevator that could carry nine people was suspended below the existing elevator, and a new motor was installed to accommodate the increased weight, the website says.
On Thursday night, engineers worked to make sure the elevator was working safely again before bringing the stranded visitors back up. That included sending the elevator down empty to the bottom of the shaft to make sure it could get back up without issues. The elevator ride typically takes about two minutes, according to the mine’s website.
The 12 stranded tourists were hoisted up in groups of four over a half-hour period, the sheriff's office said in a news release. They had been prepared to bring them up by rope if necessary, had the elevator not been usable.
The incident, which was reported to authorities at about noon, happened during the final week of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine season before it shuts down for the winter, Mikesell said.
Cripple Creek is a town of about 1,100 in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Colorado Springs.
The mine opened in the 1800s and closed in 1961, but still operates tours. Its website describes a one-hour tour. It says visitors can see veins of gold in the rock and ride an underground tram.
A woman named Mollie Kathleen Gortner discovered the site of the mine in 1891 when she saw quartz laced with gold, according to the company’s website.
The mine’s phone was not accepting messages and no one immediately responded to a message submitted through its website.
Emergency personnel stage outside the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek, Colo., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, after one person died in an equipment malfunction during a tour of the mine according to the Teller County Sheriff's Department. (Arthur Trickette-Wile/The Gazette via AP)
A winch brings up trapped mine visitors Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek, Colo. (Arthur Trichett-Wile/The Gazette via AP)
First responders work the scene Thursday, Oct. 9, 2024, at Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek, Colo. (Arthur H. Trickett-Wile/The Gazette via AP)
A police officer moves a barrier for an emergency vehicle Thursday, Oct. 9, 2024, at Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek, Colo. (Arthur H. Trickett-Wile/The Gazette via AP)