Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to nine tax charges at his arraignment at a Los Angeles federal court.
The First Son arrived at the federal First Street Courthouse in downtown LA on Thursday afternoon in a Secret Service convoy accompanied by his defense attorney Abbe Lowell.
The 53-year-old spoke to confirm his name and that he understood the charges against him, and to give his not guilty plea to all nine tax charges.
The judge scheduled the next hearing for March 27, and the beginning of his trial for June 20.
The president’s son appeared in a navy blue suit, flanked by his Winston and Strawn lawyers Abbe Lowell and Angela Machala.
While Lowell scowled at the roughly 40 reporters in the Los Angeles federal courtroom, Hunter appeared a little nervous waiting for the judge to appear – at times smoothing his hair back and wiping sweat from his upper lip.
Hunter Biden (pictured during his surprise appearance at House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday) was arraigned on tax-related charges in LA on Thursday
Members of the media gather outside a federal court in downtown Los Angeles ahead of Hunter’s arraignment
At one point he looked across the courtroom, sizing up prosecutors Leo Wise and Derek Hines, then adjusted his collar and took a deep breath.
Just months earlier the Delaware prosecutors and Hunter’s legal team had agreed a ‘sweetheart’ plea deal that would let him off with no jail time.
But the feeling was frosty in the Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday, with Hunter and Lowell greeting and shaking hands with court staff but not even acknowledging Wise and Hines.
Special Counsel David Weiss indicted Hunter last month on three felonies and six misdemeanors, accusing the president’s son of deliberately evading tax, falsifying his returns, and failing to pay $1.4million on time – instead spending the money on a ‘lavish lifestyle’.
The charges span the 2016 through 2019 tax years, and could land him with up to 17 years prison.
Judge Mark Scarsi, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, has been assigned the case which alleges Hunter was involved in a four-year $1.4million tax evasion scheme.
The case comes after the implosion of a ‘sweetheart’ plea deal involving tax and gun counts that would have spared him jail time.
Instead, Hunter Biden is now also charged with federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018.
Federal police officers keep watch with a dog in front of the federal courthouse where Hunter Biden is appearing on tax charges on Thursday
News crews wait in front of a federal courthouse for the arrival of the president’s son
Lowell has said that prosecutors bowed to political pressure in bringing the case and Hunter Biden was targeted because of his father’s political position.
The indictment, filed December 7, states that despite receiving millions in personal income and financial support from a friend, Hunter ‘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 Defendant spent approximately $1million in 2016, $1.4million in 2017, $1.8million in 2018, and $600,000 in 2019,’ the indictment alleges.
Hunter made more than $7 million in gross income between 2016 and 2020, according to the documents.
Prosecutors say he also received around $1.2million ‘in financial support to fund his extravagant lifestyle’ in 2020 alone, from his ‘sugar brother’ Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris.
The documents argue that none of this financial assistance was used to pay ‘any of his federal individual income tax liabilities for 2016-2019.’
Hunter’s lawyers say that he has now paid all of his delinquent tax bills.
The charges were filed after two IRS whistleblowers who ran a four-year probe into Hunter came forward to Congress claiming their investigation had been slow-rolled and obstructed by Justice Department officials.
Senior agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler shared bombshell documents with the House Ways and Means Committee evidencing many of the charges in Weiss’ indictment.
The First Son’s California prosecution will be led by Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) Leo Wise, supported by fellow prosecutor Derek Hines.
The two were drafted into Weiss’ team at a late stage in the now five-year probe.
Wise joined Weiss’ Delaware office after being demoted from Chief of the Public Corruption and Fraud Unit at the Maryland US Attorney’s Office to a mere line prosecutor in the same unit in March last year, the Baltimore Sun reported.
And DailyMail.com revealed in July that Hines has a potential conflict, having worked from 2013 to 2015 as ‘Special Counsel’ to one of Hunter’s business partners, ex-FBI director Louis Freeh.
Weiss’s longtime deputy who led the investigation in his Delaware office, Lesley Wolf, was nowhere to be seen on the Special Counsel’s court filings against Hunter, and has now left her government job.
Hunter’s California charges include several unnamed associates, revealed by DailyMail.com last month to have close links to President Biden.
Between 2016 and 2020 Hunter allegedly spent more than $683,000 on ‘various women’ and almost $400,000 on ‘clothing and accessories’
The associates in the indictment include President Joe Biden’s brother, tax advisor, two of his major donors, and a family friend whose wife worked for the First Lady.
Weiss is also prosecuting Hunter in Delaware over alleged felony gun crimes, for purchasing a pistol in Wilmington after he admitted in his memoir to being an illegal drug user at the time.
The charges could fetch him up to 25 years and a $250,000 fine – though convicts rarely receive such a heavy sentence for those offenses alone.
The First Son is also facing a potential prosecution for contempt of congress, after blowing off a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee to be grilled by lawmakers and their staff on his shady overseas business deals and Joe Biden’s potential involvement.
His lawyers instead offered to have him appear at a public hearing, which Republicans rejected.
On Wednesday Hunter made a controversial appearance at a public House Oversight hearing on his potential contempt charge, flanked by Lowell and Morris.
Prosecutors have also hinted at a potential prosecution for illegal foreign lobbying.
During a July 2023 hearing in Delaware over Hunter’s now-nixed plea deal, prosecutor Leo Wise told Judge Maryellen Noreika that they were considering further charges against Hunter for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
These could stem from Hunter’s dealings with the allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas firm Burisma and Chinese oil giant CEFC, which earned him millions of dollars.