Jury selection is expected to begin Thursday in the tax trial of Hunter Biden, who is accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes while living an “extravagant lifestyle.”
In December, a federal jury charged the president’s son with three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor offenses, including failure to file and pay taxes, tax evasion and filing false returns.
The 56-page indictment lists more than $7 million in income made from foreign business transactions from 2016 to 2019, and how the president’s son spent nearly $5 million during that time on “everything but taxes.” The charges, according to the indictment, included drugs, bodyguards, luxury hotels, rental houses, luxury cars and clothes. Biden was later accused of misrepresenting the expenses as business expenses.
“In every year that he failed to pay his taxes, the defendant has enough funds available for him to pay some or all of the outstanding taxes when they are due. But he chose not to pay,” said the indictment.
Prosecutors have tried to defend against the possibility that Biden’s struggle with substance abuse was blamed on his failure to file taxes on time from 2016 to 2019. The indictment says Biden has repeatedly warned accountants, personal assistants and others about his income tax liability. .
Biden pleaded not guilty to all charges in January.
The trial was originally scheduled for June, but was pushed back when he faced separate charges in Delaware. This is Biden convicted on three felony charges in June related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, according to prosecutors, he was battling an addiction to illegal drugs and lied about the documents to get the gun.
The charges in both cases stem from an investigation led by special counsel David Weiss that nearly ended in a plea deal in which he will plead guilty to two tax felony charges. He will also avoid prosecution on gun charges if he remains drug-free and out of trouble. But the deal collapsed in July 2023 when a federal judge expressed concern about it.
In recent weeks, Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors have sparred about what evidence to use during a hearing on tax charges.
Biden’s legal team sought to remove references to “luxurious lifestyles” and “gross details” of spending on sex workers, adult entertainment, sex club membership, pornography and strip clubs. In a July motion arguing that the reference should not be allowed, attorney Mark Geragos said the evidence was “irrelevant” to proving that Biden was charged with the crime.
At the Aug. 21 hearing, Geragos accused prosecutors of trying to turn the case into “character assassination.”
“We have a special counsel’s office that on one coast wants to prove that Hunter became an addict during this time, and then comes to this coast that wants to run away from it and wants to recreate it as a luxurious lifestyle,” Geragos said.
In an August motion, prosecutors argued that “evidence about the choices he made in his personal spending is overwhelming evidence of his state of mind” during the time of the alleged crimes.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who is overseeing the case, has not yet issued a ruling on the matter, but asked the parties to preview the evidence on an issue-by-issue basis during the trial.
“The court generally agrees with the government that evidence of Mr. Biden’s actual expenditures is necessary for the jury’s assessment of Mr. Biden’s mental state at least with respect to Counts 6 through 8,” the judge wrote on August 27. order, referring to one felony count of tax evasion and two felony counts of filing a false return.
The judge also barred the defense from arguing that the 1972 car crash that killed Biden’s sister and mother and his brother’s death from brain cancer in 2015 caused his addiction.
At least one of Biden’s past romantic partners will testify. His cousin’s widow, Hallie Biden, gave it away emotional testimony in the gun case, and his sister, Elizabeth Secundy, were subpoenaed by the government to testify and given immunity.
If convicted on the tax charges, Biden faces a maximum of 17 years in prison.
It is unclear whether President Biden or first lady Jill Biden will participate in the trial. The first lady attended several days of Delaware hearings.
“The president and the first lady, they love their son. They are proud of his resilience and strength,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday at a White House press conference. “They support him as he moves forward in his life.”
Erica Brown contributed to this report.