Hunter Biden attorney on plea flip: He didn't want to put his family through 'horrible parade'

Mark Geragos, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said Friday that the president’s son pleaded guilty in his federal tax case due to him not wanting to put his family through the "parade" that a trial could bring.

“He pled open because … his defense was eviscerated, and he did not want to further put his family through a horrible, horrible kind of parade for no reason, basically,” Garagos told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.” “It was salacious for no reason.”

The younger Biden pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. Previously, he had proposed an “Alford Plea” arrangement in which he would formally admit guilt but still maintain innocence, as well as go along with a later sentence from the judge. However, prosecutors pushed back, resulting in a traditional guilty plea.

“Why did we spend, as taxpayers, over $4 million for a case where no harm, no foul? That's the question I can opine on,” Geragos said.

Biden said in a statement that similar to “millions of Americans, I failed to file and pay my taxes on time.”

“As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case. When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving.”

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Justice and the United States District Court for the Central District of California. 

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.