Harris Breaking News. Moments ago, Hunter Biden, son of the President Of The United States, has changed his plea to guilty in his Tax Trial that was set to begin next week. The development comes as Jury Selection was just getting underway today in Los Angeles. The president s son is charged with nine counts of tax fraud, three of those are felonies, maximum prison time at this point would be 17 years. Word is they are talking about it behind the scenes. Hes got a little bit of leverage by Pleading Guilty. This is outnumbered. Im Harris Faulkner with Kayleigh Mcenany and Emily Compagno. Also joining us, Anchor And Executive editor of The Story, martha mccallum. Former Deputy Assistant Attorney general, Uc Berkeley Law professor, former Law Clerk for Clarence Thomas in first timer on the outnumbered couch, John Yoo. At least first timer in 2024. Jonathan hunt is in Los Angeles. We will start with him. Jonathan. Harris, i am so happy that you have John Yoo, one of my favorite people in the world, on the Couch Today because this seems complex, the first indication we got this morning that this might be an unusual day was the fact that Hunter Biden, for the first time during any of these hearings that he has been present at this downtown l. A. Courthouse, arrived publicly. Instead of being driven into the underground garage as he has every other time ive been here, he arrived out Front Today and walked into the court. He was with his Wife Melissa flanked by abbe lowell, one of his lead attorneys. Then we thought, whats going on . This is extremely unusual. Just about 10 minutes ago we got word that he has decided, Hunter Biden, to change his plea on those nine Tax Evasion charges, three of which as you rightly Point Out, are felonies, to guilty. As we understand and this is where the expertise of John Yoo will be so valuable, this is whats called and offered plea. The person accused of the crimes admits but yet at the same time search their innocence. To a layperson like me and most of our viewers, that sounds completely contradictory but john will explain exactly how that works. One of the thing we understand that has to go up the chain at the doj, possibly all the way up to Attorney General Merrick Garland for approval. All the details apparently are now being worked out. Court is in recess until 11 00 a. M. Local time, thats 2 00 p. M. Eastern. One very important fact i think we should Point Out is that the Lead Prosecutor in this when they were told that the guilty plea was being entered, they said this is the first we are hearing of this. Apparently there is no effort to make a deal beforehand. Hunter bidens team just decided unilaterally that they would change the plea to guilty. Im going to hand it back to you and the valuable, invaluable John Yoo to break that all down. Harris your introduction of john was so much better than mine. Jonathan hunt, thank you so much. John, i want to get your initial reaction to all of this. I dont think its a shocker. I dont believe those attorneys would have even thought it was possible. There were some things that were different today, like he showed up. John im actually surprised because it looked like they were going to Go To Trial. Harris really . John looked like hunter was going to Go To Trial because he wasnt willing to plead guilty. Usually the Justice Department will offer you a pretty sweet deal if you played but if you Go To Trial they will throw the book at you. This is a political context where on this day the special counsel is going after trump all guns blazing despite being smacked back as hard as you could be by the Supreme Court and youre going to see Hunter Biden maybe get a very sweet Plea Deal from the very same Justice Department. I think its all an effort to remove laffaire as a political issue by the bidenharris administration. Harris let me talk about the potential for Plea Deals and Sweetheart Deals. He has seen this fall apart at least in one case with his gun trial. 17 years potentially would become what . John i think you could say one to three years. I would be surprised if the Justice Department let him get away with no time served at all. Someone who didnt pay A Million dollars in taxes. You mentioned the sweet Plea Deal he got for the Gun Charges. Theres another 20 million. Whistleblowers say came from foreign sources and to hunter he still could be investigated for being a foreign agent. Theres lots of things he could still be investigated for. Harris that door was open on the foreign agency. Is also possible under whoever wins the next election. Thats why i think he might be as jonathan said, and thanks again, jonathan the wonderful things. My first time on the show and he put all this pressure on me. Harris when i question about how surprised he would be, nothing surprises me about this man. Kayleigh, we were talking about it off camera, this guy has ability to what . Kayleigh to stun. We didnt think he was going to show up for his Capitol Hill parents. Then he showed up. Harris the Documentary Crew and the whole thing. Kayleigh i am stunned by today. He just randomly decides to change his plea and we heard Jonathan Hunt say this was a unilateral decision. Seems like a bold one. You have failure to pay taxes, failure to file, i imagine your Lawyers Wouldve said youre going to get charged and youre going to get the book thrown at you. You need to do something. Why today make that change unilaterally . I dont know. John shows you how unbreakable hunter is. Hes not listening to his lawyers. His Lawyers Wouldve said get a Plea Deal early, never Go To Trial. Offer up something in exchange for a short amount of jail time. Thats the best he could possibly do now. Harris but this is spectacle hes got a documentary to film reportedly. Martha im just sitting here nodding listening to your wise input. Great to be with you in person, john, as well. Hunter loves drama. He has been doing this to his family his whole life. He thrives on this. I dont know if he woke up this morning or if he planned this a few weeks ago but he may have listened to the same legal podcast i listened to which basically said hes going to be convicted. He had a terrible case here. Mike gaddis, having covered this, is hes been pushing back. Not settling, not looking for a deal, not guilty. Then he realized he is likely to get a very long sentence. When its a choice between a very long sentence on a shorter sentence but youre talking jail time, i think he probably decided he would go with a shorter sentence. He also has the potential to be commuted by his father, who said clearly that he wouldnt do that. He is now in a different boat. Hes not running for president anymore. We know how much he loves his son. We know there was a tremendous amount of stress on the current president over this issue, that he worries about his son. The man has been worrying about his son for how many years . These issues hes dealt with over the course of his life. I think there is drama. Theres hope of a shorter sentence potentially a commuted sentence. And maybe some leniency in these other cases if he comes forward and says i have paid what i on i want to do my time. Harris lets talk about Commutation Versus Pardon then and any of this can happen. You get talking point. Wouldnt be a convicted felon if he was going to jail on these charges. We dont know about the Gun Case yet. Emily i dont foresee a pardon. It would be important for President Biden to maintain at least publicly that he believes in taking responsibility for ones actions. A commutation would be far more likely. I have spent dozens and dozens, likely hundreds of hours and minimum Security Detention facilities. The longest sentences among that group are ones who went to trial for Tax Evasion. When hates paying taxes. People hate more the guys that didnt pay them. We all pay hours. The ones who have those tolerable substances are ones that took the plea. Their duration is taken hunter to accept that plea speaks to his hubris. Im sure he thought somehow daddy would get him out or somehow he would escape responsibility as he has entire life but up until the 11th hour, thats when these defendants really start sweating when they understand whats facing them. He said fine. Im surprised by the Alford Plea. Its reserved for more physical criminal crimes. Usually used in Death Penalty Avoidance cases. I have seen it also with inmates who are obviously innocent, who now the d. A. Says we will retry it and they say just get me out. They taken Alford Plea and they say fine, im taking the guilty plea because it allows me to accept freedom. Ive never seen a privileged text case defendant. An Alford Plea is the same as the actual plea of guilt. It enables him to save face in his cocktail parties. Final point, thanks to President Trump, that means after a certain amount you are eligible for a much greater reduced sentence in the form of the volume of days that you were in the past number one, number two you have to have a minimum sentence that triggers your eligibility for those sentence reductions. I foresee that he at least gets 24 months and one day because that will trigger his eligibility to be able to be released sooner and to be able to participate in those prison programs. Does a lot of math and logistics now involved. Welcome, Hunter Biden, to the bureau of prisons. You will not have assigned an inmate number. Kayleigh wow at on that note, lets bring in Fox News Contributor and constitutional scholar, professor turley, how often do you see a case where a client is charged with failure to pay in three years. 16 come 17, 18. Failure to file. Two Felony Counts of filing a false return. Pretty easy to prove. But reject any Plea Deal, Go To Trial. Litigated and then bam, you change your Plea Deal, you change your plea, how often does that happen. Its not uncommon to see Plea Deals occur before transmitting this case, many of us have been writing for months that Hunter Biden was perfectly insane not to plead guilty. Timing is important. You can get a better deal if you plead early rather than late. Its sort of like waiting for the water to reach the deck on the titanic before you ask about swimming lessons. Its a little bit late for some of those options. He really has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position in terms of a plea. Its a penalty for a lawyer standing in federal court in telling prosecutors just rip it out. Thats what happened when the judge raised concern about this Sweetheart Deal and the prosecutor admitted they had never seen a deal like this being offered to a defendant. In the defense to the table over and said we are not going to cooperate. Department of justice later said that they still wanted to get a plea with hunter but they blamed the defense for its position. There is a lack of intelligence design. In some ways you can say its a game of chicken. By Pleading Guilty on the eve of the trial, you dont have much to trade away. Kayleigh heres whats interesting. The Incentive Structure is for Hunter Biden to plead guilty with this Plea Deal before the trial date. A normal defendant would have taken that. Maybe a normal defendant whose father wasnt President Of The United States. When something is inexplicable, you look for the most rational thing you can conclude. Is he having behindthescenes conversations with President Biden who says no, im not commuting. Im not pardoning could you better do whats best for your future. And im asking you to speculate but this is really inextricable. This is a very long learning curve. They were repeating the same defenses that collapsed in delaware. This defense that i was a Drug User and therefore i did all these things, from Gun Charges to Tax Evasion for years, really didnt pass the Smell Test with jurors. Having more difficult time in this case. The chance they had was the Gun Case and dialer which is a limited period of time. In this case, you have Hunter Biden hitting up people for millions, Influence Peddling, citing his father, even threatening people that his father was sitting next to him. Those tapes, those communications did not look like some junkie on the street trying to score another hit. They looked like a very sophisticated businessman in what may be one of the largest Influence Peddling schemes in history. Kayleigh will this have any bearing on those three convictions . Is a totally separate, inability to fix those in any way, shape, or form . This is another problem with waiting too long. He is now convicted a convicted person. Hes going to go into sentencing with a record. That never helps. I think it would be very strange the department of justice after all of this history not to seek some jail time and if they seek jail time, theyll get it very likely from this judge. That may ultimately prompt the president to pursue a pardon or commutation. Will have to see. The odds at this Point Favor Jail time. They didnt win the Justice Department was still in favor of a Plea Agreement after it collapsed. I failed to see why this Defense Strategy was in mind. It does not seem to have worked out particularly well for Hunter Biden. Kayleigh if this is an Alford Plea, wouldnt have to get approval from the highest levels of the department of justice. That would mean Attorney General Merrick Garland. He would. I would expect would likely get it. How that would play out in the politics of the moment is rather uncertain. As youve noted, i think youre correct that most people really dont see that he wants. Im entirely convinced that if he reserved the right to appeal he has anything to appeal on. His defenses were a series of Hail Mary plays that just missed by a mile. I dont see any real appellate issue. This Tax Cases open and shut which is my back in 2023, i said you truly have to have a legal Death Wish not to plead guilty to these charges. Its easiest type of case to bring. As you noted, jurors dont look kindly on very wealthy people not paying their taxes. Because they pay their taxes. Kayleigh professor turley, thank you very much. What a day. Thank you. Harris we are going to bring in Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn who has been with us for all of this Breaking News for the last plus hour. We are waiting to see what this is going to turn out like and you are probably listening to jonathan turley, this is my favorite part of what he said. He mustve had a legal Death Wish to even get this far. Time served, which Emily Compagno mentioned, and the money that was spent on this which martha hinted on the drama this guy brings to his family. This could have bent over in a few minutes had he just said yeah, i did this thing. He ended up saying yeah, i did this thing. Thats right. High drama. Hunter biden is at it again, that was the first thought ahead, similar to martha what i saw the guilty plea. I think the drama is going to continue this afternoon and heres why. Department of justice does not like when things are sprung on them. According to our producer inside the courtroom, leo weiss, the Lead Prosecutor on this case, is saying he had no idea this was coming. That does not sit well with doj, especially with something that has such High Stakes with the departments reputation. They have become aggressive on this because they have to rehabilitate their invitation after giving him the Plea Deal of a lifetime that fell apart. So you have a doj that wants to redeem itself and now a doj that feels probably like its being jerked around by Hunter Biden steen because they have been, lets be honest. And this Alford Plea, i have to agree to and the Alford Plea would be that he pleads guilty but maintains his innocence so im not convinced this is not going to go down without a fight. Does it mean were not going to get there. Going to have some frustrated doj attorneys in court talking to the judge. Harris what could the fight look like . He says im guilty and youre right, with the alford i guess its like im not guilty but im going to lie in cim. That doesnt even make sense. Thats the thing. Its the kind of plea saying that hell take. Given how the doj probably feels theyve been treated, this is embarrassing for them to go into court and going to trial and say it never mind, we are not doing this, its very embarrassing. In addition to the fact that they have messed this case up all along. Im not saying that they wont get there. This is going to be a backandforth in the next two hours. Harris and want to bring in John Yoo. John, if you have a Question Or Something they would like to add, please. John what possible issues would you appeal Question Mike thats the thing thats puzzling. Why not just plead guilty and hope to get a good deal . This idea of preserving issues for appeal doesnt make sense. Makes no sense and i have fought it was insane not for them to plead guilty at the beginning. Either you pay your taxes or you dont. Its really that simple. As emily mentioned, people hate paying taxes but they hate even more the guy who isnt paying taxes. What they hate even more is the get Getoutofjailfree Card fm your dad. Its the most unsympathetic situation in the Court Of Public Opinion and the court of law. None of this has made any sense. He shouldve pled guilty the second this happen. But again, as martha mentioned earlier, he loves the drama. John this is just Tax Evasion, right . Isnt it the case where this is not over for hunter either. Unless he gets a full spectrum pardon, not a commutation, a pardon, he could still be investigated for all the things hes allegedly done. Thats true. But i think the issue there is that i think theres a high possibility the statute of limitations has run. There was reporting some years ago he is being investigated by the department for not registering as a foreign agent as he was gallivanting around the world lobbying for foreign countries are not telling the government he was doing so. Theres a statute of lim