While Alford pleas are rare, it’s even rarer for a defendant to straight-up plead guilty to every single count they’re charged with and without any concessions from prosecutors on punishment – especially when that defendant could face 17 years in prison and $1.35 million in fines.
So why would Hunter Biden do such a thing? Obviously, he has one huge advantage that other defendants don’t have: his father is the sitting President of the United States and has the power to pardon him.
But Hunter could have availed himself of that option even if he’d gone to trial and been convicted, though that might not have gone over well in the court of public opinion after two-plus weeks of detailed, sordid testimony about Hunter’s debauchery was presented.
Hunter was able to keep his full bacchanalia story out of his gun case in Del…