周四，经过最后一刻的辩护和数小时的法律争论，亨特·拜登对九项与税收有关的指控认罪，避免了对乔·拜登总统的儿子进行漫长而可能令人尴尬的审判。
美国地区法官马克·斯卡西接受了亨特·拜登在去年12月被起诉后面临的所有与税收有关的指控。此案的宣判定于12月16日。
法官斯卡西说，年轻的拜登面临最高17年的监禁和高达135万美元的罚款。
“你是否承认你犯下了所有被指控的罪行...起诉书里?”斯卡西法官问他。
“是的，”亨特·拜登在对起诉书中的每一项指控认罪之前说。
这可能是多年来意外转折定义的法律戏剧中最令人震惊的转折，并立即提高了总统赦免的可能性，尽管拜登总统此前保证他不会赦免他的儿子。
去年12月，检察官指控亨特·拜登参与了一项为期四年的计划，以逃避缴纳140万美元的税款，同时在外国汽车、服装、伴游、毒品和豪华酒店上花费数十万美元。
亨特·拜登最初对一项指控表示不服罪九项指控这包括六项未能支付的轻罪指控，加上一项逃税重罪指控和两项提交虚假申报表的重罪指控。
但周四，就在潜在陪审员被传唤到洛杉矶法庭开始审判的前一刻，亨特·拜登的律师阿贝·洛厄尔(Abbe Lowell)宣布，他打算提交所谓的“阿尔福德抗辩”，允许亨特·拜登对所有指控认罪，但排除他对潜在行为的认罪。
当检察官反对这条道路时——斯卡西法官在同意这条道路时表示有些犹豫——亨特·拜登的律师说他将进行传统的认罪答辩。
洛厄尔周四下午在法庭上说，“拜登先生准备今天着手完成这件事。”
在对税务指控认罪的过程中，亨特·拜登成功避免了预计将会是一场紧张且可能令人尴尬的长达一周的审判，在此期间，检察官计划调查他吸毒和海外商业冒险的插曲。
特别顾问魏红星办公室的律师计划介绍20多名证人，包括亨特·拜登的前妻和她的妹妹。
周四，身着深色西装、戴着厚框眼镜的亨特·拜登在法庭上承认，他理解认罪的潜在后果。他的声音几乎不带感情，偶尔瞥一眼坐在他妻子梅丽莎·科恩·拜登座位上的旁听席。
检察官利奥·怀斯(Leo Wise)在当天早些时候称阿尔福德的认罪提议是“不公正的”，然后在法庭上大声宣读了整个56页的起诉书，以建立事实记录，之后亨特·拜登提出了认罪。
听证会后，洛厄尔在法庭外告诉记者，亨特·拜登决定认罪是为了保护他所爱的人。
洛厄尔说:“在看到检察官在特拉华州审判期间利用他家人的痛苦，并意识到他们计划在加利福尼亚州再次这样做后，亨特决定提出这一请求，以保护他所爱的人免受不必要的伤害和残酷的羞辱。”
洛厄尔批评政府的案件——认为这将导致“一种审判秀”,并将其等同于数百万美国人迟交税款——并表示亨特·拜登“保持开放”他的上诉选择。
“亨特今天把家庭放在第一位，对他来说，这是一件严肃而充满爱心的事情，”洛厄尔说。
洛厄尔拒绝回答美国广播公司新闻频道的佐琳·沙阿关于亨特·拜登是否和他父亲谈过赦免的问题。
拜登总统在6月份排除了赦免他儿子的可能性，在面试中ABC新闻的大卫·穆尔。总统随后决定不寻求连任，这可能会最大限度地减少180度转变的政治影响。
在他们的56页的起诉书检察官指控亨特·拜登故意通过破坏公司自己的薪资系统来逃避纳税，尽管他有钱，但他没有按时纳税，而且他在2018年的纳税申报单中包含了虚假信息。
起诉书称，“被告将这笔钱用于毒品、陪护和女友、豪华酒店和租赁物业、进口汽车、服装和其他私人物品，简而言之，除了他的税收以外的一切。”。
检察官还强调，亨特·拜登从乌克兰、中国和罗马尼亚的海外企业那里获得了数百万美元，而交换条件是“几乎没有工作”
尽管亨特·拜登最终在第三方的帮助下偿还了所有的欠税和罚款ABC新闻确认该第三方是亨特·拜登的密友凯文·莫瑞斯——法官斯卡西阻止辩护律师向陪审团介绍这一信息。
斯卡西在上周的一份命令中写道，“逾期付款的证据与拜登先生涉嫌犯下指控罪行时的精神状态无关。”。
在听证会后发表的一份声明中，亨特·拜登说，“我在特拉华州接受审判时没有意识到这会给我的家人带来痛苦，我不会让他们再经历一次。...这些年来我让他们经历了这么多，我可以让他们免受这种折磨，所以我决定认罪。”
“我已经戒了五年多了，因为我得到了家人的爱和支持，”他在声明中说。“我永远无法报答他们在我最困难的时候出现在我身边，帮助我度过难关。但我可以保护他们不会因为我的失败而被公开羞辱。”
去年六月，亨特·拜登同意认罪两项轻罪，承认他没有为2017年和2018年的收入缴税。这笔交易还允许他达成审前转移协议，以避免与他2018年购买枪支有关的刑事指控。
如果交易成功，亨特·拜登可能会因税务犯罪面临缓刑，如果他坚持他的转移协议的条款，他的枪支指控也会被撤销。
然而认罪协议破裂了在美国地区法官Maryellen Noreika举行的有争议的听证会上，他对该交易的结构提出了质疑。
截至9月，特别顾问在特拉华州启封了一份起诉书，指控亨特·拜登在2018年购买枪支时在联邦表格上撒谎。去年12月，洛杉矶联邦法院对税务犯罪提起公诉。
亨特·拜登随后被被特拉华州陪审团定罪三项重罪指控与他在2018年购买枪支有关，据称他吸毒成瘾。他在该案中的判决定于11月13日。
Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax charges, will avoid trial
After an eleventh-hour plea followed by hours of legal wrangling Thursday,Hunter Bidenpleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges, avoiding a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial for President Joe Biden's son.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi accepted Hunter Biden's guilty plea on all the tax-related charges he faced after being indicted last December. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 16.
Judge Scarsi said the younger Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1.35 million.
"Do you agree that you committed every element of every crime alleged ... in the indictment?" Judge Scarsi asked him.
"Yes," Hunter Biden said before pleading guilty to each count of the indictment.
It was perhaps the most stunning twist in a legal drama that has for years been defined by unexpected turns -- and immediately raised the possibility of a presidential pardon, despite President Biden's previous assurance that he would not grant his son clemency.
Prosecutors accused Hunter Biden in December of engaging in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs and luxury hotels.
Hunter Biden had originally pleaded not guilty to anine-count indictmentthat included six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.
But on Thursday, just moments before prospective jurors were to be summoned into the Los Angeles courtroom where his trial was scheduled to begin, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, announced his intention to submit a so-called "Alford plea," which would allow Hunter Biden to plead guilty on all counts but preclude him from acknowledging guilt on the underlying conduct.
When prosecutors opposed that path -- and Judge Scarsi expressed some hesitation in granting it -- attorneys for Hunter Biden said he would enter a traditional guilty plea.
"Mr. Biden is prepared to proceed today and finish this," Lowell said Thursday afternoon in court.
In pleading guilty to the tax charges, Hunter Biden managed to avoid what was expected to be a grueling and potentially embarrassing weekslong trial, during which prosecutors had planned to examine interludes from his time as a drug addict and his overseas business ventures.
Attorneys in special counsel David Weiss' office had planned to introduce more than two dozen witnesses, including Hunter Biden's ex-wife and her sister.
Dressed in a dark suit and thick-rimmed glasses, Hunter Biden on Thursday addressed the court to acknowledge that he understood the potential consequences of a guilty plea. His voice showed little emotion and he occasionally glanced into the gallery, where his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, was seated.
Prosecutor Leo Wise, who earlier in the day called the Alford plea proposal "an injustice," then read the entire 56-page indictment aloud in court to establish a factual record, after which Hunter Biden entered his guilty plea.
Speaking outside court after the hearing, Lowell told reporters that Hunter Biden decided to plead guilty to protect his loved ones.
"After watching prosecutors exploit his family's pain during the Delaware trial and realizing they were planning to do it again here in California, Hunter decided to enter this plea to protect those he loves from unnecessary hurt and cruel humiliation," Lowell said.
Lowell criticized the government's case -- arguing it would have led to a "kind of show trial" and equating it to the millions of Americans who file their taxes late -- and said that Hunter Biden was "keeping open" his options for appeal.
"Hunter put his family first today, and it was a grave and loving thing for him to do," Lowell said.
Lowell refused to answer questions from ABC News' Zohreen Shah regarding whether Hunter Biden had spoken to his father about a pardon.
President Biden ruled out a pardon for his son in June,during an interviewwith ABC News' David Muir. The president subsequently decided not to seek reelection, which could potentially minimize the political fallout of an about-face.
In their56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company's own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.
"[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes," the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for "almost no work."
Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party -- identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris -- Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to a jury.
"Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden's state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes," Scarsi wrote in an order last week.
In a statement issued following the hearing, Hunter Biden said, in part, "I went to trial in Delaware not realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I will not put them through it again. ... For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty."
"I have been clean and sober for more than five years now because I have had the love and support of my family," his statement said. "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."
Last June, Hunter Bidenagreed to plead guiltyto two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.
Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.
However, theplea deal fell apartduring a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.
By September, the special counsel had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018. The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.
Hunter Biden was subsequentlyconvicted by a Delaware juryon three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.
