By Katelynn Richardson
- Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in California on nine counts stemming from his alleged failure to pay more than $1 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019.
- Legal experts said the indictment reaffirms that President Joe Biden “lied” to the American public and could force him to provide answers, though it may enable Hunter Biden to avoid his upcoming congressional deposition by pleading the Fifth.
- “This indictment might make it easier for Hunter not to speak, but it may make it more difficult for President Biden to avoid that inquiry,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said.
Hunter Biden’s indictment in California on tax charges turns up the heat on President Joe Biden, making it harder for him to dodge questions about “lies” he told the public, legal experts said Thursday night.
A federal grand jury in California indicted Hunter Biden Thursday on nine charges stemming from his alleged failure to pay more than $1 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019. While legal experts noted the indictment could shield Hunter Biden from his coming congressional deposition, multiple also said it will force Joe Biden to account for his repeated denials of the allegations contained in the indictment.
“If the facts in the indictment are proven, and based on Hunter’s previous abortive plea deal I believe they can be and will be, this indictment is further proof (as if we needed more) that Joe Biden lied repeatedly to the American people during the 2020 election,” former federal prosecutor and current Missouri Attorney General candidate Will Scharf said Thursday night.
“My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China,” Biden said during the presidential debate in October 2020. The indictment, however, lays out more than $7 million the younger Biden made from business dealings with entities in Ukraine, Romania and China.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley also said the indictment makes it “clear that the president has lied.”
“The fact is that this is a circle that is getting tighter around the president,” Turley told Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday night.
The younger Biden is scheduled for a Dec. 13 deposition, which Republican Reps. James Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress over if he did not present himself. Turley said the indictment could mean this deposition is “effectively scuttled,” though it may make it harder for President Biden to avoid questions.
“Hunter may be able to use this to plead the fifth, to refuse to answer questions,” Turley said on Fox News. “But the second event is the expected vote on the impeachment inquiry. This indictment might make it easier for Hunter not to speak, but it may make it more difficult for President Biden to avoid that inquiry.”
The new 50+ page Hunter Biden indictment is stunning. Anybody not caught up on the evidence will be if they read it in full. None of this would have happened without the brave IRS whistleblowers, Judge Noreika & dogged House investigators @DailyCaller https://t.co/EchOb0eZlJ pic.twitter.com/xCvlt5JnNB
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) December 8, 2023
Former United States Attorney Brett Tollman argued Thursday night that the indictment was timed to interfere with Hunter Biden’s deposition, as they could have brought the charges “much earlier.”
“He’s going to plead the Fifth because he now has a criminal charge in California,” Tolman told Fox News host Jesse Watters in reference to Hunter Biden’s deposition.
“This is an effort to also protect Joe Biden,” he continued. “The heat is increasing. The scope of his involvement is increasing. The evidence is coming forward that he had more participation and contact with Hunter Biden’s funders.”
The indictment states the younger Biden spent 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.”
“Joe Biden needs to answer to the American people for his lies,” Scharf said. “They implicate him in criminal conspiracies abroad involving the shadiest of foreign actors, and cut to the heart of his fitness for office.”
