Hunter Biden's court appearance on federal tax evasion charges

A federal judge on Thursday set a June trial date for Hunter Biden after the president’s son pleaded not guilty to nine tax-related charges in a Los Angeles courtroom.

“I’m kind of keeping you on a tight schedule,” Judge Mark Scarsi said. “We like to move things along.”

The trial is set to begin on June 20, 2024.

Here's what happened in court today: Prosecutor Leo Wise told the court that discovery in the case had already largely been handed over and that some discovery in the Delaware case – where Hunter Biden faces three gun-related charges – will also be used in the case in California.

“It’s a common production,” Wise noted, “coming out of the same investigation.”

Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not object to the dates set by the judge but noted that dates in the Delaware case have not yet been set.

Lowell said they would be seeking discovery related to how prosecutors changed their minds about striking a plea deal after one collapsed last year over similar charges.

“We had a resolution in this case in the summer of 2023. And then, things happened,” Lowell said. Wise shot back, arguing that he did not believe the situation was “that unusual.”

“Pleas fall apart all the time,” Wise said.

Scarsi also asked the parties to look for case law dealing with congressional interference, noting that he and his clerks could only find one case related to the issue.

Republicans in Congress have pushed to hold Hunter Biden in contempt after President Joe Biden’s son failed to appear under subpoena for a closed-door deposition as part of their impeachment investigation into his father.

The next hearing in the California case is set for late March.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to nine federal charges for allegedly failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes and filing fraudulent forms with the IRS.

The embattled son of the president made his initial appearance Thursday in a federal courthouse in Los Angeles in the case brought by special counsel David Weiss.

The stage is set for Hunter Biden’s initial appearance in a federal courtroom in California on tax-related charges. 

The president’s son arrived before the hearing, where he’s expected to enter a plea on nine federal charges stemming from an alleged tax-avoidance scheme and failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes. A motorcade with a police escort was seen entering the courthouse garage earlier Thursday. 

One of his attorneys, as well as attorneys from the office of special counsel David Weiss -- who brought the charges against Biden -- were seen inside the courthouse earlier Thursday. 

Agents and officers with the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and court security have made several sweeps around the courthouse ahead of the hearing.

Hunter Biden – the president’s son who is a central figure in Republicans’ efforts to impeach Joe Biden – will appear in court Thursday on federal charges he faces in California for allegedly failing to pay more than a million dollars in taxes.

Hunter Biden has been charged with nine counts related to a tax-avoidance conspiracy that prosecutors say he implemented over several years while enjoying a lavish, and at times salacious, lifestyle. He has yet to enter a plea on the charges, but Hunter Biden’s attorney has argued that they amount to nothing more than a political hit job.

Republicans have focused on the president’s son and his overseas business dealings with Ukrainian and Chinese companies, accusing Joe Biden himself of financially benefitting from Hunter Biden’s dealings; claims that are yet unproven.

The charges against Hunter Biden stem from a yearslong investigation by David Weiss, the US attorney for Delaware, who was appointed as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August.

"Everything but his taxes" According to the indictment filed in California, where Hunter Biden lives, the president’s son “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.”

“(T)he 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,” the indictment states.

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden falsely claimed some of these expenses, including payments to escorts, as deductions on his taxes. He has since paid the IRS back what he owes in taxes and penalties.

In his 2021 autobiography, cited in the indictment, Hunter Biden detailed his struggle with addiction, including with crack cocaine – a period that overlaps with some of the timeframe covered in the indictment.

The Justice Department has previously said that if convicted on the tax charges, Hunter could face a maximum of 17 years in prison.

Here's more about Hunter Biden's court appearance on Thursday.

Hunter Biden unexpectedly made a short appearance at a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday as House Republicans were starting the process of holding the president’s son in criminal contempt of Congress for not complying with a congressional subpoena to sit for a closed-door deposition last month.

Both the House Oversight and House Judiciary committees, which subpoenaed the president’s son for his testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, held separate markups of the contempt resolution. 

Hunter Biden walked through the halls of Congress with his lawyers outside the Oversight Committee hearing, creating a tumultuous scene inside and outside the committee room as lawmakers debated what to do. He entered the committee room and sat down for around 10 minutes before departing.

The allegations at the core of the Republican-led investigation stem from unproven claims that the president was involved in or financially benefited from his son’s foreign business dealings, making the president’s son a crucial witness for their probe.

Hunter Biden’s appearance is part of a more aggressive, forward-leaning strategy that his legal team, led by lawyers Lowell and Kevin Morris, has adopted to confront his detractors. The lawyers are aware that despite Congress holding a contempt vote against him as early as next week, they have few – if any – ways to enforce a punishment. Biden’s ability to hold off congressional testimony has become even greater in recent weeks, because he now faces both criminal tax and gun charges, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

The stop on Capitol Hill came a day before his expected federal court appearance in his criminal tax case today in Los Angeles.

Hunter Biden was charged last month in connection with a long-running Justice Department investigation into his taxes – the second criminal case that special counsel David Weiss has brought against President Joe Biden’s son.

The charges span nine counts, including failure to file and pay taxes; evasion of assessment; and false or fraudulent tax return.

According to the special counsel’s team, Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million” in taxes that he owed from 2016 through 2019. Though Hunter Biden did eventually pay his taxes from 2018, prosecutors allege that he included “false business deductions in order to evade assessment of taxes to reduce the substantial tax liabilities he faced.”

Prosecutors also allege in the 56-page indictment that he “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company” by withdrawing millions of dollars outside of its payroll and tax withholding process.

The president’s son “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” according to the indictment, which states 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 items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.”

The indictment also referenced Hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he detailed some of his personal struggles with addiction and substance abuse. He was paid more than $140,000 related to the book from January through October 15, 2020, according to the indictment.

Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that “based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”

Read more on Hunter Biden's charges.