Hunter Biden charged with tax evasion

(Patria) - Hunter Biden was charged late Thursday with multiple counts of tax evasion, the second time this year that President Joe Biden's troubled son has been charged by the special prosecutor investigating his personal and business dealings, AFP reported.

Hunter engaged in a "four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million
in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019," Special Counsel David Weiss said in an indictment filed in a California district court.

He is accused of nine counts of failure to file and tax evasion and filing false tax returns. The new charges represent a fresh embarrassment for Joe Biden as he wages a re-election battle. The previous charges accuse the younger Biden of lying about his drug use on a federal form when he purchased a handgun. The new charges mean Hunter Biden could theoretically be tried twice next year, as Joe is almost certain to face Donald Trump in the presidential race.

Joe Biden has said he stands by his son despite his past problematic behavior. The new indictment states that Hunter earned more than $7 million from 2016 to 2020 and used this money for a lavish lifestyle.

"The defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle at the same time he chose not to pay taxes," the indictment states, adding that "between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other personal items, in short, everything but his taxes."

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty this year to three felony charges stemming from
the 2018 purchase of a revolver when, by his own admission, he was addicted to drugs. He is accused of unlawful possession of a firearm and two counts of making false statements because he claimed on the forms required to purchase a gun that he was not using drugs at the time. Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry in Congress into what they claim is a criminal conspiracy by the Biden family, but have not provided evidence that the president did anything wrong, AFP recalls.

In July, a plea deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutor Weiss, which would have dismissed the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided jail time, collapsed. Hunter Biden is a Yale-educated lawyer and lobbyist turned artist, but his life has been marred by alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction.