Hunter Biden upends tax trial with last-minute bid for guilty plea

September 5, 2024

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 03, 2024 in Wilmington, Del. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

(LOS ANGELES) — After hours of legal wrangling on Thursday, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to nine tax-related charges in a last-ditch bid to avoid a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial in Los Angeles.

The president’s son initially offered a so-called “Alford plea,” in which he would agree to a guilty plea on the counts but maintain his innocence on the underlying conduct of the charges. But when prosecutors opposed that path – and U.S. Judge Mark 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,” Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said Thursday afternoon in court.

Wise had accused Hunter Biden of seeking special treatment with the proposed Alford plea.

Prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden had engaged 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. He had originally pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.

All back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris.

Thursday’s court appearance comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on 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.

What did prosecutors allege?

In their 56-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, Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the 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.

Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to 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, the plea deal fell apart during 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.

ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.

Extreme heat, bone-dry vegetation and human misconduct prompting intense wildfire season

A firefighter works as the Nixon Fire burns with evacuation orders in the area on July 29, 2024 near Aguanga, Calif. — Mario Tama/Getty Images

(REDDING, Calif.) — It’s only August, but already the U.S. wildfire season has burned more than 4.4 million acres, up a staggering 278% from last year, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Thursday.

Fueled by record high temperatures, including prolonged heat waves that have left many parts of the West with bone-dry vegetation, firefighters were battling 93 large active wildfires on Thursday in 13 states, including 28 fires that have prompted evacuations, according to the fire center.

With precipitation in the West below normal for July, some of the largest fires in U.S. history have ignited, especially in California and Oregon where a combined 44 fires were burning on Thursday, according to the fire center.

“Warming temperatures, drier conditions, and shifts in precipitation are contributing to an increase in the frequency of large wildfires and acres of land burned in the U.S. each year,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A prime example is the Park Fire in Northern California, which was deliberately set on July 24 and rapidly spread through dry vegetation to become the largest active fire in the nation and the fifth-largest wildland blaze in California history.

“Year-to-date annual acres burned for the U.S. is above the 10-year average at 123% of normal,” according to a statement from the center.

The fire center added, “In comparison to the outlook issued a month ago, larger areas of the West are expected to experience above normal significant fire potential in August and September.”

And just because most of the wildfire activity is happening in the West, thatdoesn’t mean the rest of the country is immune from the effects.

“Western wildfires account for about half of the smoke that the rest of the contiguous U.S. experiences each year,” according to Climate Central, an independent group of scientists that researches climate change.

The average number of heat waves major U.S. cities experience each year has doubled since the 1980s, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment. In the United States, summer minimum nighttime temperatures are warming nearly twice as fast as summer maximum daytime temperatures, according to Climate Central.

No state has experienced a worse wildfire season than California. The number of acres consumed by flames in the Golden State as of Thursday is 768,137, an increase of 2,905% from 2023, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The 4,696 wildfires that have erupted in the state this year have destroyed more than 700 structures, including homes and commercial property, according to Cal Fire.

Here are some of the largest fires burning in the West:

The Park Fire in California

Firefighters battling the Park Fire in Northern California, the largest active fire in the nation, made significant progress in the past three days, increasing containment lines on the blaze to 22% as of Thursday night, according to Cal Fire.

The Park Fire, which officials said was deliberately started on July 24 and spread through Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties in Northern California, has grown to 394,953 acres. The blaze leapfrogged this week over the 2020 Creek Fire, which tore through Central California’s Sierra National Forest, to become the fifth largest wildfire in state history, officials said.

The Park Fire has destroyed at least 540 structures and damaged another 50, according to Cal Fire. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.

More than 3,800 people have been evacuated due to the Park Fire, Cal Fire said.

Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, has been accused of starting the blaze and was arrested on a charge of felony arson with an enhancement of special circumstances. On Thursday, Stout made his second court appearance this week. His arraignment was continued to a later date to allow his public defender to review the case reports and determine a plea, according to ABC affiliate station KRCR in Redding, California.

Stout, who remains in jail without bail, was allegedly spotted just before 3 p.m. PT on July 24 pushing a burning car down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, near Chico, sparking the Park Fire, prosecutors said.

The Nixon Fire in Southern California

California firefighters were also confronting the Nixon Fire that Monday off Richard Nixon Boulevard in Riverside County, northeast of the town of Aguanga, according to Cal Fire.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Nixon Fire had grown to 5,222 acres and was 18% contained, according to Cal Fire.

At least four structures in the fire zone were destroyed, according to Cal Fire.

The Alexander Mountain Fire in Colorado

Colorado firefighters were also trying to get the upper hand on the Alexander Mountain Fire, which was first reported Monday morning, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. The fire burning in a remote mountainous area near Roosevelt National Park grew to 8,134 acres by Thursday night, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire was 5% contained, according to the Forest Service.

Stone Canyon Fire in Colorado

The Stone Canyon Fire west of Rabbit Mountain and the town of Lyons and about eight miles from the Alexander Mountain Fire had burned 1,553 acres as of Thursday night, according to the Boulder Office of Disaster Management.

The blaze was 30% contained, officials said.

The remains of a person were recovered from a home in the area of the Stone Canyon Fire on Wednesday, according to Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson. But Johnson released few details on the circumstances of the death.

University of Idaho murder trial: Venue will be moved, judge rules

Kai Eiselein-Pool/Getty Images

(BOISE, Idaho) — The venue will be changed in the University of Idaho quadruple murder trial, Judge John Judge has ruled.

The judge said, “Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case, and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating ‘a reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County. Thus, the Court will grant Kohberger’s motion to change venue for presumed prejudice.”

The new location was not immediately clear. The decision will be left up to Idaho’s highest court.

Lawyers for the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, pushed to move the trial to Boise, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity.

Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found that the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” that the venue couldn’t be impartial.

The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, which is about 300 miles south of Moscow.

The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.

The relatives of victim Kaylee Goncalves said they’re “incredibly disappointed” that the venue will be changed.

“As victims’s families you are left to just watch like everyone else and really you have little rights or say in the process and at the same time you are the most vested in the outcome,” the family said in a statement on Monday. “We have always felt that a fair and impartial jury could be found in Latah County and still believe that is where the trial deserves to be held to help the community heal.”

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said in a statement in August that, if the case stayed in Latah County, “I firmly believe people would be able to set aside any personal feelings they have … set aside any information they may have read or heard … and make a determination of guilt or not guilty based on the evidence presented in the courtroom and deliberate according to the instructions provided to them.”

The trial is set to begin on June 2, 2025, and run until Aug. 29, 2025. The judge said in June that if the venue changed, the trial date would still hold.

Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time.

Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.

A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Suspect identified after abandoned newborn found crying near Houston dumpster: Police

Obtained by ABC News

(HOUSTON) — A suspect has been identified after an abandoned newborn was found crying by a dumpster in Houston, police said Wednesday.

A person called 911 early Sunday afternoon reporting that they had heard a baby crying near a dumpster at an apartment complex, according to Houston Police Department spokesperson Jodi Silva.

First responders found the infant in the dumpster area, Silva said. Video captured by a bystander showed first responders rescuing the baby from the dumpster and appearing to swaddle him in a blanket.

The newborn was transported to a local hospital and is believed to be in good health, Silva said.

Child Protective Services has since taken custody of him, she said. It is unclear how long the infant was by the dumpster.

Police have been investigating the incident, including checking surveillance footage, to identify who placed the newborn there and any potential witnesses, Silva said.

Police have since identified a suspect and “are continuing to work through the investigation,” Silva said.

No additional details on the suspect have been released at this time, including their alleged connection to the incident. The name of the suspect will not be released until charges have been filed, Silva said.