Hunter Biden indicted on criminal tax charges in California

Hunter Biden was hit with criminal tax charges on Thursday, marking the second time the president’s son has been indicted since his father took office.

Special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the prosecution, brought nine charges against Biden in the Central District of California, alleging in the indictment that the first son failed to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes over a four-year period.

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The charges comprise three felonies and six misdemeanors, including failing to pay taxes, failing to file taxes, and filing false returns from 2016 to 2019.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of up to 17 years in prison, though any sentence Hunter Biden receives could end up being much lower than that based on typical sentencing practices.

Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020,” Weiss wrote.

The revelation of the new charges comes after Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, attempted to reach a plea deal with the first son over the summer. The deal involved the first son pleading guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to pay taxes for two years, as well as entering into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid a felony gun charge.

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Weiss had filed the now-withdrawn misdemeanors in Delaware, but the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California told Congress in recent testimony obtained by the Washington Examiner that Weiss had recently spoken with him, signaling Weiss was weighing charges in that venue, where Hunter Biden lived at the time of the alleged crimes.

The plea deal, for its part, was tossed out after a judge raised concerns with provisions in it that she said could prevent Biden from facing future charges, leading to a stalemate between Weiss and defense attorneys that quashed any prospect of a deal.

Weiss, in turn, requested special counsel status from Attorney General Merrick Garland, a designation that allows him to conduct the prosecution of the president’s son more autonomously, as well as bring charges in any district he wants as opposed to being restricted to his current district of Delaware.

Garland was quick to grant the special counsel request, and Weiss’s first move was to resurrect the gun issue, bringing three felony charges against Biden in September over allegations he illegally purchased a revolver in 2018. The president’s son has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The tax charges have, however, become a far more prominent issue.

The investigation into Biden had evolved roughly five years ago into a dive into his business dealings. Two IRS criminal investigators heavily involved in the case revealed to Congress in the spring that the IRS and Weiss’s team had in early 2022 been unified in wanting to bring several tax-related felonies and misdemeanors against Biden for the years 2014 through 2019. The pair of whistleblowers also said violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act were “in play” at the time.

Republicans have accused the Department of Justice of offering Biden preferential treatment because all of those charges have not materialized.

Their concerns about the DOJ’s handling of the case have become part of a broader impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over allegations he used his influence over foreign policy when he was vice president to help his son and other family members profit through lucrative foreign business deals.

The Republicans have specifically raised the idea of charging Joe Biden with abuse of power in an impeachment proceeding if they found evidence he allowed his administration’s DOJ to obstruct the investigation into his son once he took office.

The DOJ said in a press release about the new charges that the investigation into Hunter Biden is still ongoing.

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Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not respond to a request for comment.

Read the full indictment below: