The son of President Joe Biden was targeted on Thursday, December 7, by a second federal indictment, this time for tax fraud. Hunter Biden, 53, ‘was involved in a scheme’ that allowed him to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes due for the 2016-2019 tax period , according to the indictment.
He “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle instead of paying his taxes,” continues the document, which details nine counts, ranging from tax evasion to false statements. The former lawyer and businessman spent his money to finance his drug use, afford the company of “escorts”, luxury cars and clothes, according to the indictment.
This new indictment means that the president’s son, already prosecuted for illegal possession of a weapon, could be tried twice next year, while his father tries to be re-elected to the White House.
He faces seventeen and twenty-five years in prison.
These new prosecutions were expected since Hunter Biden’s guilty plea agreement with prosecutor David Weiss, capable of avoiding prison and an embarrassing trial, was canceled this summer. The agreement covered both tax evasion and illegal firearm acquisition charges. But it was withdrawn following doubts expressed in July by a judge about its validity.
Following this development, Hunter Biden was formally indicted in September for lying by filling out forms for the acquisition of a firearm in 2018 in which he denied his drug addiction.
According to the American press, Hunter Biden faces seventeen years in prison in this aspect of tax fraud. He already faces twenty-five years of imprisonment because of his illegal possession of a weapon.
In the United States, the legal setbacks of son Biden are followed very closely by the Republican Party, which uses them against his father to accuse the entire family of corruption. The Republicans criticize the courts in particular for burying the procedures targeting Hunter Biden.
Impeachment proceedings
The conservatives, who control the House of Representatives, also began an impeachment inquiry against the Democratic president in September, motivated by his son’s controversial affairs abroad. They accuse Hunter Biden of having made questionable deals in Ukraine and China by capitalizing on his father’s networks and name.
But they go even further by attributing to a desire to protect the Ukrainian gas group where Hunter Biden sat the pressure exerted on Kiev by his father, as vice-president of Barack Obama, to obtain in 2016 the dismissal of the Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
Despite these accusations from Republicans, Hunter Biden has so far not been charged with any crime related to his overseas business. The justice ministry insists on the independence of prosecutor David Weiss, responsible for investigating him. Appointed under Donald Trump, this magistrate was maintained under the Biden administration.
After recovering from drug and alcohol addictions, Hunter Biden has now returned to painting. His father has always denied being involved in his son’s affairs, while publicly supporting him. In May, Joe Biden declared to the MSNBC channel that he had “faith in him” and was “proud” of Hunter.