Hunter Biden has pleaded guilty to tax charges after the foolish rejection of a “sweetheart” deal last year, a former federal prosecutor has said.
The president’s son pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles, just as he was about to go on trial.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Newsweek that Biden had the opportunity last year to easily dispose of both his California tax case and his Delaware gun case, but disagreed with prosecutors about the terms of the deal.
He said that Biden had “foolishly and greedily” ended “the sweetheart diversion deal that David Weiss offered before he was made special counsel.”
Weiss was appointed to oversee Hunter Biden’s federal cases in August 2023. It was one month after a Delaware judge heard that both sides could not reach agreement on the conditions of the deal being offered to Biden.
“It was a no-time misdemeanor deal that would have avoided the felony prosecutions and the embarrassment of a trial,” Rahmani said.
Newsweek sought email comment from Hunter Biden’s attorney on Friday.
Hunter Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden failed to agree a sweetheart deal, says former prosecutor.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“Substantively, this is a very difficult case to defend. Hunter Biden didn’t file returns for certain years and he wrote off expenses for escorts and drugs that were clearly not business expenses,” Rahmani added.
In a plea agreement announced in June, 2023, Hunter Biden was to accept two misdemeanor counts for failing to pay his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018.
He would also agree to illegal possession of a gun and agree to drug treatment.
In July, 2023, a deal agreement had “dramatically fallen apart,” the BBC reported at the time.
The breakdown occurred in the courtroom of Delaware federal judge Maryellen Noreika. Both sides had different opinions about how much immunity Biden would be granted from other potential charges.
Noreika refused to sign it as questions still remained and gave both sides 14 days to reach a new deal, but they were unable to do so.
Biden was indicted in California last December on three felony counts of tax evasion and filing a false return and six misdemeanor counts of failure to return, far more serious changes than those contained in the plea agreement.
In June, 2024, Biden, went on trial after pleading not guilty to charges of making false statements on a federal form while purchasing a firearm and of illegal gun possession while being a drug user.
A jury found him guilty and he is due to be sentenced on those charges on November 13.
