UPDATED 1:41 P.M. (12/8)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden said critics of his father are “trying to destroy a presidency” through relentless attacks on him and “trying to kill me,” in a podcast interview released on Friday.
The interview, conducted by his friend, the musician Moby, was released one day after the U.S. Justice Department filed new criminal charges against Hunter Biden, accusing him of failing to pay taxes while funding a lavish lifestyle. It was not clear when the interview, which took place at the younger Biden’s art studio in San Francisco, was recorded.
The charges on Thursday come on top of a Sept. 14 indictment against Hunter Biden for lying about his drug use during his purchase of a firearm. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Hunter Biden, 53, has also been at the center of an impeachment inquiry into his father by Republicans in the House of Representatives. House Republicans allege that Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his family improperly profited from policy decisions he participated in when he was vice president during President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009-17.
House Republicans also say the Justice Department improperly interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
The White House and the Justice Department have denied wrongdoing.
In the interview, Hunter Biden said he and his wife had to move from their home in the middle of the night after a newspaper published their address while his wife was seven or eight months pregnant and supporters of former President Donald Trump appeared outside of their house and pounded on their door.
“I recognize that none of this is necessarily about me,” Hunter Biden said. “In their most base way, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to kill me, knowing that it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle, and so therefore destroying a presidency in that way.”
His father is running for reelection in November 2024. The leading contender for the Republican nomination is former President Donald Trump, who has cheered the Biden impeachment inquiry. Trump was the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, and was acquitted by the Senate both times.
Hunter Biden said some of his Republican critics, such as U.S. Representatives Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, were “not healthy people.” Representatives for the lawmakers did not respond to requests for comment.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like it,” Hunter Biden said. “I’ve never witnessed the level of an invasion of privacy on any individual that I can possibly think of. I’ve never witnessed a sustained attack on one person like this.”
(Reporting by Makini Brice; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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UPDATE: 3:35 a.m. (12/8)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The Department of Justice on Thursday filed new criminal charges against U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle.
Hunter Biden, 53, was hit with three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted. The Justice Department said its investigation into Biden is ongoing.
“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” the indictment read.
It added that he had instead spent huge sums “on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature” including over $70,000 on drug rehabilitation.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in statement that his client had repaid his taxes in full, accusing U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss, who is leading the probe into Hunter Biden, of reneging on a previous agreement, U.S. media reported.
“If Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Lowell was quoted as saying.
The White House declined to comment.
It was not clear when Hunter Biden would appear in court.
The indictment says Hunter Biden “earned handsomely” while serving on the boards of Burisma, a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate, and a Chinese private equity fund.
Prosecutors said that between 2016 and October 2020, he received more than $7 million in total gross income.
That included nearly $2.3 million from his position on the board of directors of Burisma between 2016 and 2019, the filing says.
Hunter Biden’s affiliation with Burisma has been the focus of years of attacks from Republican lawmakers who have accused him of leveraging his family name to make money overseas.
“The Defendant had a legal obligation to pay taxes on all his income, including income earned in Ukraine from his service on Burisma’s Board, fees generated by deal-making with the Chinese private equity fund, as well as income derived from his work as a lawyer and other sources,” the indictment said.
Adding to Hunter Biden’s income was work for CEFC China Energy Co Ltd, a Chinese energy conglomerate.
As Hunter Biden’s income increased, so did his spending, according to the filing.
In 2018 alone, the indictment read, Hunter Biden “spent more than $1.8 million, including approximately $772,000 in cash withdrawals, approximately $383,000 in payments to women, approximately $151,000 in clothing and accessories”.
The indictment added: “The Defendant did not use any of these funds to pay his taxes in 2018.”
Hunter Biden in October pleaded not guilty to charges in Delaware that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s child.
Weiss was appointed Delaware U.S. attorney by former President Donald Trump. He was made special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August.
He brought charges in Delaware against Hunter Biden after the unraveling of an earlier proposed plea deal that had called for him to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges for failing to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, an agreement which likely would have allowed him to avoid prison.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the proposed plea deal in July, raising concerns over its legality and the scope of immunity it offered.
Trump, the leading contender to be the Republican Party’s nominee in next year’s presidential election, said the plea deal amounted to favorable treatment for the president’s son.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Additional reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Noeleen Walder in New York and Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Eric Beech, Ross Colvin and Edwina Gibbs)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Department of Justice has filed new criminal charges against U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, CNN reported on Thursday, citing people briefed on the matter.
CNN said the exact nature of the charges wasn’t immediately clear because the court documents had not yet been made public.
NBC, citing a person familiar, reported that the charges are expected to be tax related.
A spokesperson for Special Counsel David Weiss and a lawyer for Hunter Biden did not immediately reply for requests for comment.
Hunter Biden in October pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s child.
Weiss brought those charges against Hunter Biden after an earlier proposed plea deal unraveled under questioning from a judge. Weiss is still investigating whether the younger Biden can be charged for tax law violations.
The special counsel investigating Hunter has employed a grand jury in Los Angeles to seek documents and possible testimony from multiple witnesses as part of the federal investigation of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, CNN reported last month.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; additional reporting Noeleen Walder in New York and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Eric Beech and Ross Colvin)
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