Los Angeles— A plea arrangement that could have saved President Joe Biden's son a criminal trial during the 2024 campaign collapsed Thursday, as he pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges.
Hunter Biden faces nine felony and misdemeanor tax charges. Federal prosecutors say he planned a four-year plot to avoid paying the IRS $1.4 million and maintain an expensive lifestyle that included drugs and alcohol. “We’re here today because you’ve been accused by the United States of a criminal offense,” Judge Mark Scarsi told Biden, who pleaded not guilty.
The judge tentatively scheduled a trial for June 20 during the 30-minute hearing.
Delaware accused Hunter Biden with lying on a federal gun buyer form in October 2018 after he said he wasn't using or addicted to narcotics. Crack cocaine was his addiction. He also pled not guilty to unlawful firearms possession.
The claims stem from a yearslong federal probe into Hunter Biden's tax and business practices that was supposed to end this summer with a plea agreement for two years of probation for misdemeanor tax charges. He could have avoided firearms charges if he had avoided problems.
The transaction collapsed when a federal judge who was supposed to approve it questioned it. As the 2024 election approaches, the Justice Department is vigorously prosecuting the president's son and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, which is advancing the tax and gun charges.
Republicans, including Trump, called Hunter Biden's suggested plea arrangement with prosecutors a “sweetheart deal”. After losing the 2020 election to Democrat Biden, the former president faces 91 counts in four cases, including plotting to subvert the results. In New York, he gave closing arguments in his civil fraud trial on Thursday.
Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell suggested Congressional intervention in the aborted bargain to the judge on Thursday. Lowell previously accused David Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure.”