The jury selection for Hunter Biden’s criminal tax case, stemming out of the years-long investigation by David Weiss into his first son, begins in California on Thursday.
The trial is presided over by Judge Mark Scarsi of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Biden’s Tax Trial was scheduled to begin in June. However, his attorneys requested that it be postponed until September. Scarsi granted this request.
Weiss accused Hunter Biden of three felonies, six misdemeanors, and $1.4 million in unpaid taxes. These taxes have been paid. Weiss claimed that the son of the president had engaged in a “four-year scheme” by not paying his federal income tax and filing false reports.
Biden has pleaded not guilty.
Weiss claimed that Biden had “engaged in an alleged four-year plan to avoid paying at least $1.4M in federal taxes self-assessed he owed from January 2017 to October 15, 2020, and to evade assessment of tax for the tax year 2018 by filing false returns around February 2020.”
Weiss stated that Biden, “furtherance that scheme”, and “subverted payroll and tax-withholding processes of his own Owasco, PC company by withdrawing millions from the company” outside of the payroll process and tax-withholding process it was designed for.
The Special Counsel alleged that Biden had “spent millions on an extravagant lifestyle instead of paying his tax bills” and that he had “stopped paying all his outstanding and past due taxes for the tax year 2015 in 2018”.
Weiss claimed that Biden had “willfully refused to pay his taxes for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, despite having the funds to pay all or some of them,” and “willfully neglected to file his tax returns for 2017 and 2018.”
It is the second trial in which Biden has been put on trial for charges stemming from Weiss’ investigation.
Biden was found guilty on all counts in Delaware after Weiss charged him with making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a licensed firearm dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
The date for the sentencing of these charges has not been determined. The maximum sentence for all charges combined could be 25 years. Each count is punishable by a maximum $250,000 fine and three years of supervision.
President Biden has promised not to pardon the son of his administration.
The jury selection process in California will take place on Thursday and Friday. Weiss’s and Biden’s defense attorneys will deliver their opening arguments on the following Monday.
