President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was indicted on 9 federal tax expenses in a growth that can turn out to be a political headache for the White Home and Democrats because the 2024 marketing campaign ramps up.

The indictment, launched Thursday in Los Angeles federal court docket, got here after Home Republicans’ announcement of their plan to vote subsequent week to formalize an impeachment inquiry into the president revolving round Hunter Biden’s abroad enterprise dealings.

Prosecutors working for Particular Counsel David Weiss accused Hunter Biden of tax crimes from 2016 via 2019, together with spending hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on an extravagant way of life moderately than paying taxes.

The indictment didn’t provide any proof that the president benefited from or had any involvement in his son’s actions.

“Between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the defendant spent this cash on medication, escorts and girlfriends, luxurious motels and rental properties, unique automobiles, clothes, and different gadgets of a private nature, in brief, the whole lot however his taxes,” in line with the 56-page indictment.

Hunter Biden faces as many as 17 years in jail if convicted of all the costs. He faces three felony counts, together with tax evasion, and 6 misdemeanor counts of failure to pay taxes.

He’ll seem in federal court docket in Los Angeles for an arraignment, the place he’s anticipated to plead not responsible. His look hasn’t been scheduled but.

The president’s son is already underneath indictment on federal gun expenses in Delaware federal court docket. In July, he had agreed to plead responsible there to 2 misdemeanor tax counts and acknowledge a firearms violation with out a conviction, receiving no jail time. However the deal imploded when a federal choose questioned its phrases and refused to log out on it.

Hunter Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell assailed Weiss in an announcement, saying his consumer paid his taxes.

“If Hunter’s final identify was something aside from Biden, the costs in Delaware, and now California, wouldn’t have been introduced,” Lowell stated. “Now, after 5 years of investigating with no new proof — and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full — the US Legal professional has piled on 9 new expenses when he had agreed simply months in the past to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors.”

Weiss’s workplace and the White Home declined to remark.

Joe Biden is touring to Los Angeles on Friday for a star-studded fundraiser together with together with director Steven Spielberg, producer Shonda Rhimes and comic Rob Reiner.

Hunter Biden’s prosecution will doubtless divert consideration from the 4 prison circumstances that former President Donald Trump faces. Hunter Biden might go on trial within the warmth of subsequent yr’s presidential race — conceivably similtaneously Trump.

Below the July plea deal, Biden would have admitted to failing to pay taxes on $2.3 million in earnings in 2017 and $2.1 million in 2018.

In an exhibit connected to the plea settlement, Biden stated he made greater than $4 million in these two years from sources together with a Ukrainian power firm, Burisma Holdings, and a Chinese language personal fairness agency, CEFC China Power.