A California federal grand jury indicted Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, on Thursday on nine new federal criminal tax charges. The new charges join the two previous charges filed against him in a federal court in Delaware. Biden now faces 11 charges in total—three felonies and eight misdemeanors.
The indictment concerns Biden’s activities with his company Owasco, his actions as a board member for a Ukrainian industrial company called Burisma, and for his dealings with a Chinese private equity fund. Biden is alleged to have engaged in a “four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes” from 2016 to 2019. Federal prosecutors claim that Biden “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company” and took “false business deductions in order to evade assessment of taxes.”
Biden is charged with six counts of violating 26 U.S.C. 7203 for failing to pay federal income tax from 2016 to 2019. He is also charged with one count of violating 26 U.S.C. 7201 for attempting to evade paying income tax and two counts of filing a false and fraudulent income tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. 7206.
US Attorney General appointed Special Prosecutor David Weiss to conduct and oversee the investigation into Biden in August, which led to the indictment issued on Thursday. Weiss previously served as US Attorney for the District of Delaware and has been involved in investigations related to Biden’s case since 2019.
Weiss is also the lead prosecutor on the two federal criminal tax charges brought against Biden in a Delaware court. Biden is charged with failure to pay income tax. He was previously offered a plea deal on the charges in July, but the deal was rejected by the judge overseeing the case. The two charges are concerned the same business dealings and time period as the Thursday indictment.
The President Joe Biden and his family have been the subject of scrutiny in Congress as well, with Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson announcing on Tuesday that the House will vote to formalize its impeachment inquiry into the president. The scrutiny stems from allegations that President Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings—allegations which have so far not been supported by evidence.
Various committees in the House have been conducting investigations into the Bidens, including the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. On December 7, the House Judiciary Committee released a report claiming that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Weiss gave Hunter Biden “preferential treatment” during their investigations. The committee stated that “while the Committees’ investigation is far from over” they “will continue to gather evidence to determine whether sufficient grounds exist to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden for consideration by the full House of Representatives.”