After years of virtually no action taken in regard to any of the alleged charges against Hunter Biden, with the recent gun charges in Delaware and now new significant tax charges that just dropped on Thursday in California, Joe Biden's son is facing some serious problems.
The new indictment involves nine counts — three felonies and six misdemeanors.
According to the latest indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the younger Biden engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019 and to "evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020. In furtherance of that scheme."
For example, in 2018, he blew the money he took in on a lot of loose living, according to the indictment. What he didn't spend it on was his taxes, according to the indictment.
"In 2018, the Defendant spent more than $1.8 million, including $722,000 in cash withdrawals, approximately $383,000 in payments to women, approximately $151,000 in clothing and accessories, approximately $78,000 in miscellaneous retail purchases and other payments," the indictment details. "The Defendant did not use any of these funds to pay his taxes in 2018." [....]
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."
From 2016-2019, the indictment says he spent $683,212 on "payment- various women."
The indictment also explains that he got a million a year from Burisma, paid out in monthly installments. But then, that was scaled back to half of that — $500,000 in March 2017. Gee, I wonder what was happening then? His father had just left his position as vice president. So Hunter no longer had the same amount of influence.
The whistleblowers give some insight into why this latest indictment may be coming out of California.
IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said they found stronger evidence of tax crimes in California and Washington, D.C., expressing frustration those weren’t more zealously pursued by Weiss’s team.
CNN: Hunter Biden has been charged with nine federal tax crimes, including three felonies, for a long-running scheme to evade millions in taxes.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 8, 2023
"The investigation is ongoing." pic.twitter.com/tdaXY7Dqil
The charges carry up to 17 years in prison if he is convicted, although it would probably be less if sentences were imposed concurrently.
What's even worse for Biden? The investigations are ongoing. So this may not be the end, even now.
My significant other had an interesting question for me when this new indictment dropped that I couldn't truly give an answer to: Is someone trying to make Joe Biden step down now because they're concerned he can't win?
Now, that's speculation, although we're already seeing a lot of lawfare directed at former President Donald Trump. And we know that we have the ever-smarmy Gavin Newsom waiting in the wings should Joe Biden decide against continuing his campaign, although they'd still have to figure out what to do about Kamala Harris. The potential for these charges has been out there for a long time.
It is interesting timing, given that these charges could have been brought long ago. But now they are coming at a time when Joe Biden is clearly in trouble in the polls, with him losing people from demographics he needs to hold onto to win, with more calls from people like David Axelrod for him to step aside, and more and more polls that show former President Donald Trump — the leading GOP candidate — beating Biden, including in most of the swing states. All of that has to be making the powers that be tear their hair out and wondering what they can to to better the odds.
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I also get the impression that Biden doesn't think he has a problem. He doesn't like to be challenged, and Jill seems to like the spotlight. So they haven't been willing to step aside, even if people have been suggesting it.
There's also the impeachment question hanging out there in the wings, although the GOP doesn't have the Senate at this point, so they would need Democrats to help convict.
We'll have to see as things roll out. But what is true is that the difficulty for Hunter Biden just ratcheted up a lot, and that's not going to help his father.
