Hunter Biden sued over tax charges
The special counsel investigating Hunter Biden late Thursday charged the president’s son with nine counts stemming from his failure to pay his federal taxes on time on millions in income from foreign companies, the second charge against him this year — and the latest development in a case Republicans have formed the cornerstone of a possible impeachment of President Biden.
A grand jury in the Central District of California charged Mr. Biden with three counts of evading a tax bill, failing to file and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return, according to the 56-page indictment.
Mr. Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” wrote the special counsel, David C. Weiss, who for the first time an investigation began into the president’s son. five years ago as Trump’s appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware.
The charges come after Mr. Biden appeared to be on the brink of a plea deal this summer that would not have resulted in prison time and, according to his lawyer at the time, would have granted him immunity from possible crimes arising from his affairs. intercourse. But the deal collapsed at the last minute and in September he was indicted on separate charges for failing to acknowledge his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018.
The new indictment also comes on the eve of a vote by the Republican-led House of Representatives to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which is based almost entirely on baseless allegations that he profited from his son’s lucrative consulting work for companies in Ukraine and China.
The decision to file criminal charges against the president’s troubled son was an extraordinary step for Mr. Weiss, who was appointed special prosecutor by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in August after the dramatic last-minute collapse of the plea deal that would have led to a solution. the long-running investigation without Mr. Biden having served any prison time.
The Hunter Biden case sits at the busy intersection of America’s clashing political and legal systems. There is now a very real prospect that President Biden’s son will defend himself in two federal criminal trials during a year before the presidential election — as former President Donald J. Trump, his father’s likely opponent, has been implicated in his federal filings and election interference with two possible processes are encountered. fallen.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives released draft text of a procedural impeachment resolution against President Biden on Thursday, just hours before news of the new charges began filtering through official Washington. It is unclear what effect the charges will have on their investigation.