Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine tax-related charges, including three felony counts, according to documents filed Thursday in a federal court in Los Angeles.
The 56-page filing laid out a series of charges, including allegations that the president’s son failed to pay taxes, failed to file, evaded an assessment and filed a fraudulent form. The indictment says that “rather than pay his taxes, the Defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle.”
“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 says.
The charges, which include six misdemeanor tax offenses, were brought by special counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee who previously served as U.S. attorney in Delaware and has been overseeing the federal investigation into Hunter Biden.
The maximum penalty the president’s son could face if convicted is 17 years in prison, according to Weiss’ office.
“According to the indictment, Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns,” Weiss’ office said in a news release.
Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement that if the president’s son’s “last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”
“I wrote U.S. Attorney Weiss days ago seeking a customary meeting to discuss this investigation. The response was media leaks today that these charges were being filed,” said Lowell, adding that Hunter Biden “paid his taxes in full” more than two years ago.
NBC News obtained the letter from Lowell to Weiss’ office dated Tuesday, in which he requested a meeting “that occurs in almost every white-collar investigation” to discuss the investigation.
“We would like to avail ourselves of the ability to engage with you and such offices,” Lowell wrote in the letter, which cited a Justice Department policy to “engage counsel in situations such as those that might be reviewed for other possible offenses.”
In his statement Thursday, Lowell said, “All these issues will now be addressed in various courts, the first to occur this Monday when the prosecutors knew our motions to dismiss their first set of questionable charges would be filed.”
The White House declined to comment on the charges. A White House official said it learned of the indictment from public reporting and did not have advance notice.
The case was assigned to Judge Mark Scarsi, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
The indictment, which does not appear to refer to President Biden or his previous role as vice president, argues that Hunter Biden had the opportunity to pay his taxes at various points taking into account the money he received for expenses from an entertainment lawyer who was a personal friend. The indictment also asserts that Biden misled his accountants into filing returns that included items marked as business expenses when he allegedly was not doing business at that time.
The indictment further points to certain payments that it says were incorrectly listed as expenses, including wired money that was written down as being for a “golf member deposit” when, according to prosecutors, it was used to “purchase a membership in a sex club.”
The additional charges are a significant development in a federal investigation that has drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have seized on Hunter Biden’s legal woes as rhetorical ammunition against his father. House Republicans subpoenaed Hunter Biden in November, and his legal team has said he is open to testifying publicly before the House Oversight Committee next week.
In a statement, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said the new charges “further confirm the need for Congress to move forward with an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden in order to uncover all the facts for the American people to judge.”
NBC News has previously reported that the House could hold a vote next week to formally authorize the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into the president.
The new indictment largely tracks with the testimony of two IRS whistleblowers and what they said was a case they prepared to charge Biden, based on their publicly available testimony, affidavits and filed documents.
