POLITICS
Hunter Biden Indicted On 9 New Federal Tax Charges, Including 3 Felonies
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Hunter Biden was indicted on Thursday on nine tax-related charges brought by special counsel David Weiss, who has been leading the long-running federal investigation into President Joe Biden’s son.
The charges, three felonies and six misdemeanors, include tax evasion, filing false returns, failure to file and failure to pay taxes for tax years 2016 through 2019.
According to the indictment, Biden allegedly engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns.
According to prosecutors, Biden spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.
Bidens attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that if Hunters last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”
“First, U.S. Attorney Weiss bowed to Republican pressure to file unprecedented and unconstitutional gun charges to renege on a non-prosecution resolution. Now, after five years of investigating with no new evidence — and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full — the U.S. Attorney has piled on nine new charges when he had agreed just months ago to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors,” Lowell said.
In September, Biden was indicted on felony gun charges after a plea deal with federal prosecutors that would have allowed him to avoid jail time in exchange for pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses fell apart in July.
The charges stem from Hunter Biden’s purchase of a gun in Delaware in October 2018, in which he allegedly lied on a federal form stating he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs while he was regularly using crack cocaine. Lying on the form, which is required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is a federal crime.
He was charged with two counts connected to lying on the form and one count of possessing a firearm while using a narcotic.
Biden had reached a deal to avoid prosecution on the gun charge by entering pre-trial diversion and meeting other requirements over a period of two years, including an agreement to acknowledge his failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018.
The charges come amid a five-year investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances and personal life, and how they relate to the Biden family’s wider business dealings. President Biden has denied any wrongdoing or involvement in his son’s affairs.
Amid a flurry of lawsuits, attorneys for Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service, alleging the agency failed to protect his private tax records when IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler illegally disclosed his tax information in congressional testimony and public statements.
The House of Representatives, meanwhile, is poised to vote on whether to formally authorize the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The impeachment inquiry is being led by House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.).
“Now that Hunter Biden is being charged for felony criminal activity related to the family business in which Joe Biden himself was aware and from which he benefited, Americans deserve more answers, Smith said in a statement. These charges further confirm the need for Congress to move forward with an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden in order to uncover all the facts for the American people to judge.”
TMX contributed to this article.
