Jonathan Turley says Hunter Biden 'lost his game of chicken' with guilty plea in tax case

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley joined "Outnumbered" on Thursday to discuss Hunter Biden planning to change his plea to guilty on federal tax charges brought against him by Special Counsel David Weiss. Turley said President Biden's son is now likely to face jail time.

HUNTER BIDEN INTENDS TO CHANGE PLEA TO GUILTY IN FEDERAL TAX CASE 

JONATHAN TURLEY: Well, it's not uncommon to see plea deals occur before trials. But in 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. It's sort of like waiting for the water to reach the deck on the Titanic before you ask about swimming lessons. I mean, it's a little bit late for some of those options. And so he really has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position. In terms of a plea, this is the penalty for a lawyer standing in federal court and telling prosecutors, 'just rip it up.' 

Hunter Biden, left, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O'Neill House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28 for a closed-door deposition in a Republican-led investigation into the Biden family. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

And that's what happened when the judge raised concerns about this sweetheart deal. And prosecutors admitted they'd never seen a deal like this being offered to a defendant. And the defense basically sort of tipped the table over and said, 'well, we're not going to cooperate.' The Department of Justice later said that they still wanted to get a plea with Hunter, but they blamed the defense for its position. So there's a lack of intelligent design here. I mean, in some ways, you could say, well, this is just a game of chicken, but if it is, they lost. By pleading guilty on the eve of the trial, you don't have much to trade away. 

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Abbe Lowell, the first son's attorney, said Thursday in federal court that Hunter intends to switch his plea and intends to plead guilty, shocking federal prosecutors. He initially pleaded not guilty. 

Federal prosecutor Leo Wise said that "this is the first we are hearing about this."

A source familiar with the special counsel's team told Fox News Digital that this is not a done deal for Hunter, and that it's currently just an offer the defense put on the table. 

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The development comes after Hunter's lawyers had prepared to argue he was too high or drunk to pay his taxes, the New York Post reported Thursday.

According to the Justice Department manual, DOJ prosecutors cannot take what is called an Alford plea, "except in the most unusual of circumstances…"

An Alford plea is when a defendant acknowledges that a prosecutor's evidence would likely be enough to convict, so they accept a sentence but maintain their innocence.

Fox News' Brooke Singman, David Spunt and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

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