Hunter Biden on Thursday offered a surprise plea in a last-minute gambit shortly before the start of his trial on tax charges to avoid the ordeal and expense that a weekslong public airing of his past misdeeds would entail.
A half-hour before jury selection began, a lawyer for Mr. Biden in the case, Abbe Lowell, entered a so-called Alford plea, acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict him even as he professed innocence toward the same charges.
The maneuver, named after a Supreme Court decision, is typically used to jump-start stalled plea negotiations, postpone a proceeding or avoid a trial altogether by leapfrogging straight to the sentencing process.
It is not clear if Judge Mark C. Scarsi, a Trump appointee who is presiding over the case, will accept the plea. He immediately recessed the case for two hours to give prosecutors a chance to respond, but he also indicated that he was still prepared to proceed with interviewing 120 jurors before the end of the week.
“The court wants to stay out of plea discussions,” Judge Scarsi said after prosecutors opposed the plea.
Lawyers representing Mr. Biden, the president’s son, believe that David C. Weiss, the special counsel in the case, had refused to engage in serious plea negotiations after being sharply criticized for signing a generous agreement with Mr. Biden on gun and tax charges that would have resulted in no prison time.
