2024-08-21 14:05:02
A status conference is scheduled Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles in Hunter Biden’s federal tax case, in which the president’s son is accused of failure to pay more than $1.4 million in taxes.
President Joe Biden’s son is expected to go on trial next month on nine tax-related counts, including three felony counts and six misdemeanor counts of failure to pay taxes.
Hunter Biden, 54, of Malibu, “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” the indictment alleges.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, a Donald Trump appointee who is overseeing the trial, this week rejected the defendant’s bid to toss the case after the president’s son sought to argue the special counsel prosecuting the case was improperly appointed.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previously rejected the younger Biden’s request to revive a bid to have the charges against him tossed.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in legal filings that they believe the case was brought “in direct response to political pressure.” His attorneys wrote that the defendant has since paid his tax bill, plus fines, to the government.
Hunter Biden is not expected to attend Wednesday’s hearing.
Regarding the tax charges, the 56-page indictment filed in L.A. federal court alleges that between 2016 and Oct. 15, 2020, “the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.”
In June, the president’s son was convicted of three felony charges in a separate federal case brought in Delaware stemming from the purchase of a gun in 2018. Hunter Biden was found guilty of having lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs — when, in fact, he later admitted to having been addicted to illegal narcotics at the time.
Court papers show Hunter Biden is scheduled to be sentenced in the Delaware gun case on Nov. 13, in the week after the presidential election.
Described in the indictment as a Georgetown- and Yale-educated lawyer, lobbyist, consultant and businessperson, Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate and a Chinese private equity fund during the time of the tax allegations.
“He negotiated and executed contracts and agreements for business and legal services that paid millions of dollars of compensation to him and/or his domestic corporations, Owasco PC and Owasco LLC,” according to the indictment for tax evasion.
In addition to his business interests, the defendant was an employee of a multinational law firm, the document states.
Hunter Biden has said he had forgotten to pay his taxes during a period when he was in the grip of drug addiction.
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