America's Talking - Hunter Biden Hit With New Tax-Related Indictment in California

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is facing new charges.  Federal prosecutors released a 56-page indictment late Thursday. The indictment unsealed in the Central District of California alleges Biden failed to file and pay taxes, evaded an assessment and filed false or fraudulent tax returns. The indictment alleges Biden attempted to dodge paying taxes of at least $1.4 million from 2016 through 2019. The new indictment contains nine charges, including lying about the taxes he eventually filed in 2018 to significantly reduce what he owed. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Vice President of News and Content at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. Joining me today is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper. How are you, Casey? Doing good, Dan. How are you? I am doing well, thank you. We are recording this on Friday, December 8th.

Casey's somewhat breaking news in the Hunter Biden investigation, as the President's son was indicted again on charges that he attempted to dodge paying at least one point. $4 million in taxes by filing false or fraudulent tax returns. The indictment was handed down in California late last night. Bring us up to speed, Casey. Yeah, that's right, Dan. Hunter Biden, he is facing these tax charges. Now, this is not his first run in when it comes to tax charges.

He was already in ongoing legal deliberations over other, you know, tax-related allegations. But this is the latest update coming out of California. 56-page indictment released very late last night. And that basically, as you said, $1.4 million from 2016 through 2019, about three-year period. There's nine charges total. And a big one in there is lying about the taxes. And I point that out because often in these high-profile crimes or alleged crimes, the lying is the one thing they can get you on.

So when you have someone like Hunter or someone who has a very strong legal team, often the lawyers are able to kind of help you out with a lot of charges. But the thing that the FBI can get you on, and for our listeners, if you ever interview with the FBI or whoever, be careful, if you lie to law enforcement, then they can use that one charge to leverage you in every other way because they've got you. They have you on camera. They have you on recording, saying something that they know wasn't true, which is a crime. And then they use that to leverage you in a lot of other ways to get you to make some kind of plea deal.

So I point that out. It could come in handy for you, Dan, one day down the row. We'll see. But the indictment, you know, it says he spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle, rather than paying his tax bills that may not come as a surprise to many, but this is not just some Republican congressman saying it. This is not just some conservative pundit who found some photos on Hunter Biden's laptop. This is coming from, you know, a leader. legal filing, a legal source that doesn't look good for the president's sign. And of course,

it probably is not great for the president's political re-election bid as well, Dan. I just want to read one quote from the indictment that was included on our story at the center square.com. A quote, between 2016 and October 15th to 2020, the defendant spent his 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 is taxes. Now, Casey Hunter Biden's personal issues and his struggles with drug abuse and other issues, they're pretty much well documented.

It's a sad story. Far too many Americans have issues with substance abuse, et cetera. I guess my question is, though, there's a separate ongoing. investigation in the U.S. House over Hunter Biden's business dealings overseas and whether or not he used his father when his father was vice president, now President Joe Biden, Vice President under Barack Obama, whether President Biden's influence was used to make this money millions and millions of dollars overseas. And how is President Biden affected by this? Well, now we know that he didn't, he tried to avoid paying up to at least 1.4 million.

million dollars in taxes. He has since repaid that money, that money that was owed. But did that money come from these overseas business dealings? We don't know, not saying that that happened, but this is sort of a new twist and that bigger story that involves potentially President Biden himself. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right that people can be pretty sympathetic. Americans can be pretty sympathetic to someone who is struggling with substance abuse, probably less sympathetic to someone who has exotic cars and prostitutes in the penthouse on their dad's money when your dad's the president allegedly, right? So I think, you know, I don't think that most of the attacks coming against Hunter Biden and the president are because of the substance

abuses because of the use of the money and where the money came from, you know. And I think there's more answers are going to be coming out on this. And you should follow it, you know, if you're listening at thecenter square.com where we keep reporting about it. And we have been reporting on it because Congress threatened a contempt of Congress charge against Hunter Biden. And often that I think that Congress is not very excited about using that. I think there could be political blowback when they use it. But I think this may be an exception because Hunter Biden's lawyer, I think, kind of tried to embarrass the Republicans who were in charge of the impeachment inquiry into the president and Hunter Biden as a result. And so I feel like they tried to embarrass him, you know, earlier this month by saying,

we want to publicly testify. You guys always twist the private testimony. And so, you know, James Comer, who leads the House Oversight Committee, Jim Jordan, who leads judiciary, which is also a part of this impeachment inquiry, they said, no, you will testify privately. And you might get your day to testify publicly as well. And my perception of Comer's reaction is he was not happy with how Hunter Biden handled that and tried to do some kind of publicity stunt to make him look bad. Now we've got this threat of

contempt of Congress, which says if he doesn't show up for his subpoena date, which I believe is December 13th next week, then he could actually face some kind of criminal charges. I believe it's like $100,000 fine if you don't, if you're convicted of contempt of Congress. And there is some kind of jail time attached to it. I doubt it'll get that far, but I think the threat is serious. And so all that to say, there's more answers coming out on this. You know, we've gotten more evidence. even in the last few weeks because of the subpoenas that Comer sent out. We know, for instance, or at least we know from what Comer is saying. He said that the president has received $240,000 directly to himself from family members from two checks.

And those checks came right after the Hunter Biden business basically got millions of dollars from a Chinese linked company. For instance, you know, Comer has released a bank record, which appears to show, you know, this is what he says that the president was receiving. some kind of monthly payments in 2018 from a joint venture that Hunter Biden had with the Chinese national that was also tied to some kind of, you know, Chinese link or Chinese Communist Party linked companies. So the more in time this goes on, there's more evidence coming out, which often it's the opposite with these high profile investigations. There's a lot of smoke. There's a lot of huff and puff. But over time, you know, it's all just hearings without any substance. But In this case, the more time goes on, the more evidence comes out.

And that's not a good place to be for Hunter Biden or for the president. Not sure if this is a question or just a comment from me, Casey. I'm wondering now, though, with this latest tax evasion indictment handed down last night, whether this whole subpoena thing with Congress, whether Hunter Biden does show up to this closed-door meeting with Congress, but then pleads the Fifth Amendment, he has the right not to incriminate himself in criminal charges, now that this latest indictment was handed down, that might be his best path forward, but that can create at least new problems for the Biden family overall, speculation as to why.

Does that an, quote, unquote, admission of guilt on his part? I don't know. It makes the waters a little bit murkier, I think. Yeah, that is interesting. We have seen something like that before, pleading the fifth. It would be very interesting. It could have some kind of, you know, media blowback, but legally it could be the smartest choice for him right now. Well, thank you for your insight, Casey, but we are out of time.

Listeners can keep up with this ongoing story and more at thecentersquare.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKeel. Please subscribe. Thank you for listening. Are you tired of news that puts politics over people? At the nonprofit Franklin News Foundation, we believe in putting people over politics by delivering nonpartisan news and audio content that serves you the American taxpayer. With Franklin News Foundation, you can read fact-based state-focused news for free at thecentersquare.com.

You can listen to civil, balanced conversations between policy experts through our podcast network at AmericasTalking.com. Or you can get in-depth news on K-12 education spending, curriculum, and school safety at chalkboard news.com. It's all free through Franklin, where we put you, the American taxpayer, first in every story episode and conversation. And it's only possible through our supporters. Together, we can produce content

that puts people over politics and brings Americans the news they deserve. Become a supporter today at FranklinNews.org slash donate. Once again, that's franklinnews.org slash donate.