Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, was expected to make his first court appearance Thursday in downtown Los Angeles on federal tax charges, one of two criminal cases filed after the collapse of a plea deal that would have prevented the trial during the 2024 campaign. season.
Biden, a Malibu resident, was charged last month in California with nine tax crimes, including failing to pay his taxes on time from 2016 to 2019, filing false and fraudulent tax returns in 2018 and tax evasion. The charges cover a period when Biden, 53, was addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine and, as laid out in a 56-page indictment, spent lavishly on hotels, drugs, cars and adult entertainment.
Biden was due to appear before U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, a prominent Los Angeles-based intellectual property lawyer who was appointed to the federal court by former President Trump.
The hearing was expected to be brief and largely uneventful. But Biden's case attracted legions of press from around the world, with television crews set up overnight outside the First Street Courthouse downtown.
The court appearance comes a day after Biden surprised lawmakers at the Capitol by arriving at a hearing where Republican congressional leaders were pushing to have the president's son held in contempt. Last month, instead of attending a closed-door questioning in response to a subpoena, Biden addressed the press and promised to testify only in an open hearing, to avoid selective leaks of his testimony.
“Republicans don't want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless investigation or hear what I have to say. What are you afraid of?” Biden told reporters on December 13.
Contempt charges against Biden were approved in both the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, with unanimous support from Republicans and opposition from all Democrats.
The tax case in Los Angeles, along with a separate criminal case in Delaware charging that Biden lied on a federal firearms form when he swore he was not addicted to drugs, were filed after a plea deal fell through this week. summer. Under that deal, he would have received two years of probation for pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and would have avoided prosecution in the firearms case under a diversion agreement.
Biden also pleaded not guilty in the Delaware firearms case, and his legal team, led by Abbe Lowell, has moved to dismiss those charges as unconstitutional, the result of a vindictive and politically motivated prosecution, and prohibited by the same diversion agreement that was signed. part of the plea agreement. Biden's lawyers maintain that the agreement remains valid and binding; Prosecutors disagree.
In the tax case, prosecutors allege that Biden “intentionally” failed to file and pay his taxes to the Internal Revenue Service on time and instead splashed out cash for a Los Angeles-wide bacchanal that included “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other personal items.”
Prosecutors allege that when preparing 2020 tax returns in the early months of his sobriety, Biden misclassified a long list of 2018 personal expenses as business expenses to reduce his tax burden. Those expenses include her daughter's tuition and a Venmo payment to an exotic dancer, according to the indictment.
If convicted on all charges (six misdemeanors and three felonies), Biden would face a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison, although federal guidelines would call for a much shorter sentence.
But the case remains complicated for prosecutors. For one thing, Biden has already paid off his tax debts, largely with the help of loans from a wealthy Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer who is now a close friend, Kevin Morris. Second, the charges occurred during a period in which Biden was grappling with highly publicized addition issues.
His lawyers are expected to point to his highly publicized addiction to explain his chaotic financial affairs and that, once sober, he was able to pay his taxes plus penalties and interest.
In his brief appearance last month, Biden acknowledged his mistakes and mishandling of his affairs but scoffed at baseless allegations that his father profited from his son's business dealings.
“Deep into my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest this is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond absurd. It is a shame. “There is no evidence to support allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because that did not happen,” Biden said in December.
