LOS ANGELES >> Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, pleaded guilty to federal tax charges today in a surprise move that avoids a potentially embarrassing trial weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

Biden had been set to stand trial in a Los Angeles federal courthouse on criminal charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending lavishly on drugs, sex workers and luxury items.

Instead, he pleaded guilty to all nine counts he faced.

Judge Mark Scarsi told Biden he faces up to 17 years in prison and up to $450,000 in penalties. He set sentencing for Dec. 16.

Defendants who plead guilty in criminal cases typically work out an agreement with prosecutors beforehand, hoping to receive a lower sentence in exchange for avoiding trial.

That did not appear to be the case here.

Earlier in the day, Biden had offered to plead guilty to the charges but avoid admitting wrongdoing, an unusual legal maneuver opposed by prosecutors.

“It’s not clear to us what they are trying to do,” one prosecutor told the judge.

The guilty plea heads off a weeks-long trial that likely would have aired messy details of Hunter Biden’s life during the election campaign. Voters will choose on Nov. 5 between Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, and Republican former President Donald Trump. Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid in July under pressure from his fellow Democrats.

Hunter Biden, who has been open about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, is accused of failing to pay taxes from 2016 to 2019 while spending huge sums “on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature,” according to an indictment.

(Reporting by Jackie Luna and Jack Queen; additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Katharine Jackson; writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Noeleen Walder, David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)

Additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Katharine Jackson.