Convicted felon Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, released a statement on Thursday following his decision to plead guilty to nine tax counts, saying that he wanted to spare his family the pain of going through another criminal trial.
Hunter Biden pled guilty to three felonies and six misdemeanors in a Los Angeles federal court on Thursday and did so without having any deal with prosecutors to reduce the penalties that he now faces, which includes a maximum prison sentence of 17 years and a maximum fine of more than $1 million — penalties that are separate from the penalties he faces after being convicted of three firearm-related felonies in June.
“I went to trial in Delaware not realizing the anguish it would cause my family, and I will not put them through it again,” Hunter Biden said in a statement in reference to the media spectacle that he faced during the gun trial earlier this summer.
“I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment. For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty,” he said. “Like millions of Americans, I failed to file and pay my taxes on time. For that I am responsible. As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case.”
He said he could never repay his family for being there for him and helping him through his darkest moments.
“But I can protect them from being publicly humiliated for my failures,” he said. “For anyone now going through the scourge of addiction, please know there is a light at the end of that seemingly endless tunnel. I was where you are now. Don’t quit right before the miracle.”
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