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NEW YORK — US President Joe Biden's troubled son, Hunter, has offered to plead guilty to tax evasion charges in a bid to stave off an embarrassing trial where his drug addiction and foreign business dealings could get an airing, his lawyers said in court.
As the trial began in a Los Angeles federal court on Thursday, his lawyer Abbe Lowell announced that his client was changing his claim of innocence to a guilty plea.
Hunter Biden is charged with not paying at least $1.4 million in taxes on earnings of millions in foreign business deals.
But his offer to plead guilty came with special terms: He would maintain his innocence while allowing his conviction to go forward only because he considered the evidence against him could lead to him being found guilty at trial.
Prosecutor Leo Wise opposed the special terms he sought, telling the court, "Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty."
But Judge Mark Scarsi, who did not decide immediately, said that the prosecutor's agreement was not needed for the court to accept it.
Hunter Biden was convicted in June on illegal gun purchase charges because he lied on documents that he was not addicted to drugs at that time, while he was, in fact, an addict.
He is awaiting sentencing in that case.
That case is linked to the tax trial because prosecutors had made a deal with Hunter Biden to drop the gun case if he pleaded guilty to a minor tax offence.
But it unravelled when the judge in the gun case refused to let the deal go forward.
At the tax trial, his drug addiction and high living could be brought up by the prosecution to show that he had the means to pay the taxes but instead frittered it away on other things.
A friend paid off the tax arrears, but that does not absolve him of the evasion charges.
Hunter Biden's legal problems have been an embarrassment for the President but he is under less pressure since he dropped his re-election bid.
Republicans have been trying to link the President Joe Biden with his son's foreign business dealings.