US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden was indicted in California on Thursday on nine counts related to a Justice Department investigation into his taxes.
It is the second indictment against him this year. According to the indictment filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, the charges include failure to file and pay taxes, tax evasion, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return.
The indictment, the second criminal case brought by special counsel David Weiss against the president’s son, shows Hunter Biden engaged in a scheme to fail to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes over a four-year period between 2016 and 2019.
Weiss first began investigating the president’s son five years ago as a Delaware prosecutor appointed by former US President Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden faces as many as 17 years in prison if convicted of all the charges, which include three felonies and six misdemeanor counts of failure to pay taxes. He will appear in federal court in Los Angeles for an arraignment, where he’s expected to plead not guilty. His appearance hasn’t been scheduled yet.
Hunter Biden was indicted on separate gun-related charges in September. The new case is set to add chaos to what will already be an extraordinary election year, in which the sitting president will be dealing with the fallout of his son’s possible trials, while his likely opponent, Donald Trump, is facing four separate criminal cases and 91 charges.
