Newly convicted Hunter Biden on track to face tax charges in LA
Hunter Biden, center, President Joe Biden’s son, accompanied by his mother, first lady Jill Biden, left, and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, right, walking out of federal court after hearing the verdict, Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. Hunter Biden has been convicted of all 3 felony charges in the federal gun trial. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
LOS ANGELES – Hunter Biden, who was found guilty Tuesday in Delaware of lying on a federal firearms application, is still on track to face tax charges in downtown Los Angeles in September.
President Joe Biden’s son was convicted of all three felony counts tied to a handgun purchase in 2018. His sentencing date has not been set, but many legal experts do not expect him to receive prison time since he is a first-time offender.
The jury deliberated for just three hours and five minutes.
The crimes in the Delaware case stem from the purchase of a handgun at a time when the younger Biden had been addicted to crack cocaine and was having other problems.
President Biden said last week that he would not pardon his son if he was convicted, and said in a statement Tuesday: “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”
The president’s son is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 5 in Los Angeles federal court on nine tax counts for allegedly refusing to pay his tax bill.
Hunter Biden was charged in an indictment returned in Los Angeles in December. He faces three felony counts, including tax evasion, 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.
The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently rejected the younger Biden’s request to revive a bid to have the tax charges against him tossed.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in legal filings that they believe the tax 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.
Regarding the tax charges, the 56-page indictment says 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.”
His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement when the tax case was filed that “based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the (firearms) charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”
Lowell added, “Now, after five years of investigating with no new evidence — and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full — the US Attorney has piled on nine new charges when he had agreed just months ago to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors.”
In October, the president’s son pleaded not guilty in Wilmington, Delaware, to three counts related to lying on a federal form to acquire a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and for being an illegal drug user in possession of the gun.
The Delaware case alleged that Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018. Last July, he had agreed to plead guilty there to two misdemeanor tax counts and acknowledge a firearms violation without a conviction, receiving no jail time. But the deal collapsed when the judge questioned its terms and refused to sign off on it.
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.
In addition to his business interests, the defendant was an employee of a multinational law firm, the document states.
At the time of the now-defunct plea deal in Delaware, Biden said he had forgotten to pay his taxes during a period when he was in the grip of drug addiction. (CNS)
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