President Joe Biden’s son has agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes in a deal with the U.S. government, prosecutors said on June 20.
Hunter Biden, 53, has admitted to intentionally failing to pay federal income tax, U.S. Attorney David Weiss said in a letter to the U.S. court in Delaware. Hunter Biden plans to plead guilty in an upcoming hearing to violations of a law that forbids people from “willfully fail[ing]” to file tax returns or pay taxes.
Hunter Biden received more than $1.5 million in taxable income in 2017 and more than $1.5 million more in 2018, according to an indictment. He was required by law to pay more than $100,000 in income tax for his earnings each of those years. But he “did willfully fail” to pay the tax.
The counts are misdemeanors. Each carries up to one year in prison.
No hearings have been scheduled as of yet, according to the court docket.
Hunter Biden said in late 2020 that authorities were investigating his “tax affairs.” He was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately.”
A subpoena, made public in 2022, showed that Weiss was compelling JP Morgan Chase Bank for Hunter Biden’s bank records. IRS agents later came forward to allege the investigation was not being handled properly.
Another Charge
The younger Biden was also charged with violating another law.
Hunter Biden, in 2018, “knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance … did knowingly possess a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver with serial number RA 551363, said firearm having been shipped and transported in interstate commerce,” an indictment states.
The law in question forbids people convicted of a crime punishable by a prison term of more than one year or who illegally use or are addicted to a controlled substance as defined in the Controlled Substance Act from possessing firearms.
Several outlets have reported that Hunter Biden possessed a gun in 2018 and that his then-girlfriend, Hallie Biden—the widow of Hunter’s brother, Beau—threw the gun into a garbage can before it was recovered by authorities. Hunter Biden has said in his autobiography that he was using crack cocaine that year.
Hunter Biden has agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement on that charge, according to Weiss.
