The political stakes of the trial, expected to last about two weeks, have lessened now that Joe Biden is no longer running for reelection.
If he is convicted in the tax case, he could face up to 17 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.
The allegations against the president’s son Federal prosecutors led by special counsel David Weiss, who also brought the gun case, have charged Biden with three tax felonies and six tax misdemeanors.
The charges include evading a tax assessment, filing a false tax return and failing to file and pay taxes.
“In tax cases, courts routinely exclude evidence that a defendant untimely filed tax returns or untimely paid outstanding tax debts,” he wrote.
In doing so, they wrote that Weiss waited until he became a special counsel to bring criminal charges against Biden.
But, without prompting from prosecutors, Scarsi threatened to sanction Biden’s lawyers for making false statements.
But, acknowledging that Geragos was new to the Biden case, he said he wouldn’t order sanctions.
Roberts sought child support in court, and those proceedings delved into how Biden managed his finances, including his tax affairs.
One of those lawyers previously wrote that Biden’s profligate spending, including on prostitutes, drugs and alcohol, created financial hardship for the family.
Now that Joe Biden is not seeking reelection, the trial’s political implications are lower. It is anticipated to last for roughly two weeks. However, it is anticipated that the case will provide evidence about his son’s international business ventures, a topic that has become central to Republican attacks on the Biden family.
The younger Biden’s prior drug abuse issues will also be discussed in the trial. The prosecution plans to make the case that Biden was squandering extravagantly on drugs, luxury cars, strip clubs, and other accoutrements of a party-loving lifestyle while he was evading taxes. The president and the Biden family have been through a lot of pain as a result of seeing some of the details of his drug addiction that surfaced during the gun trial three months ago.
Biden’s defense attorneys might have an uphill battle in court. In charge of the trial’s judge, U. s. A number of pretrial decisions made by District Judge Mark Scarsi have been detrimental to the defense. Biden wanted to inform the jury, perhaps most importantly, that he paid all of his overdue taxes after sobering up. Scarsi, though, has stopped the defense team from advancing that claim.
In June, the president declared that he would not commute his son’s eventual prison sentence or grant him a pardon. In the gun case, Biden is set to be sentenced in November, with the federal sentencing guidelines recommending a maximum of 21 months in prison. According to the Justice Department, he could spend up to 17 years in prison if found guilty in the tax case.
This is how we arrived here and what to anticipate.
the accusations directed at the president’s son.
Biden has been accused of three tax felonies and six tax misdemeanors by federal prosecutors under the direction of special counsel David Weiss, who also brought the gun case. The accusations include failing to file and pay taxes, evading a tax assessment, and filing a false tax return.
Prosecutors claimed in a 56-page indictment that he deliberately evaded paying $1.44 million in overdue taxes for the tax years 2016 through 2019. Prosecutors claim that Biden made over $7 million during that period of time, including from his work with the now-bankrupt Chinese energy company, the controversial Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings Limited, and a Romanian oligarch who was accused of bribery.
Biden was also struggling with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction at that time, and he was still mourning the loss of his brother Beau in 2015. Biden wrote in his memoir, Beautiful Things, about his experiences in the spring and summer of 2018 going out to parties in Los Angeles with drug dealers and strippers at various hotels and Airbnbs. However, he allegedly wrote off some of those hotel stays as business expenses when he worked with an accountant to settle his tax affairs in 2020.
Prosecutors also said that he justified the $1,248 payment for a stripper’s flight from Los Angeles to New York and the $3,852 payment for the Lamborghini rental as business expenses.
His attorneys have maintained that his addiction hindered his capacity to handle his personal matters, such as paying taxes. An expert witness was to be called to testify regarding the connection between addiction and trauma. But Scarsi was asked by the prosecution to prevent that witness from testifying, and the judge granted their request.
Additionally, the prosecution responds that Biden’s addiction wasn’t so severe as to prevent him from making millions of dollars. They also contend that he was able to pay taxes because he was able to earn and spend so much money.
How the investigators constructed their case.
Based on testimony given in Congress, the federal investigation into Biden started in late 2018 when an IRS agent started looking into him for possible financial offenses.
IRS and FBI agents probed Biden’s finances while his father was getting ready to run against Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Our investigation, which was still under wraps, had its headquarters at the Trump administration’s office of U.S. Attorney Weiss. S. attorney in Delaware.
Given that Biden was a board member of the scandal-plagued Ukrainian energy conglomerate Burisma, Trump urged the Ukrainian government to launch its own investigation into the man while the investigation was ongoing in secret. Trump’s first impeachment resulted from his pressure campaign, which included barely concealed threats to withhold military aid if Ukraine didn’t publicly announce an investigation.
The Biden investigation was made public in December 2020, just a few weeks after his father had defeated Trump in the presidential race. Dec. saw Biden confirm. 9, 2020, the federal authorities were looking into his tax-related matters. However, Weiss’ investigation eventually widened to cover additional topics, such as Biden’s 2018 handgun purchase made at a time when he was a regular crack user.
Prosecutors said they had reached a settlement with Biden to address the accusations of tax and firearm offenses 2.5 years later. Biden was to enter a guilty plea to two misdemeanor tax counts and receive a gun deal that would eventually lead to the charges being dropped. Additionally, Biden would be shielded from any further charges. However, the plea agreement collapsed when a judge questioned its specifics during a July 2023 hearing.
A few weeks later, Weiss was designated as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland, giving him the authority to prosecute criminal cases across the nation. Later that year, Weiss was able to get Biden two indictments: one in Delaware for drug possession with a gun and lying about it on a form to purchase a gun, and another in California related to tax charges.
In June, the firearms case went to trial. It featured testimony from Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and illustrated the devastation brought about by his addiction. Hallie Biden, the brother’s widow, also stated in court that he gave her a taste of crack cocaine and that she developed an addiction to it. A large portion of the trial was witnessed by First Lady Jill Biden and several other members of the president’s family. His sentencing is scheduled for November after a jury found him guilty of all charges. Thirteen.
Major defenses withdrawn from consideration.
In the tax case, Biden’s primary defenses have been that, first, his addiction crippled him at the time of the alleged tax crimes, and, second, he paid off his tax debt with penalties and interest after sobriety.
In court documents, Biden’s attorneys stated that they intended to refute the prosecution’s claim that he purposefully neglected to pay by pointing to the late payment of his tax debt. However Scarsi remained unconvinced, and on Aug. 27 accepted the prosecution’s request to prevent Biden from bringing up the payment.
According to his writing, “courts routinely exclude evidence that a defendant filed tax returns or paid outstanding tax debts in a timely manner in tax cases.”.
The judge is a former patent lawyer who was appointed by Trump, so this wasn’t the first challenging experience for the Biden team with her. Aileen Cannon’s decision in the Trump prosecution in Florida, led by special counsel Jack Smith, was the basis for their attempt to have the case dismissed earlier in the summer. The decision by Cannon to declare Smith’s appointment as special counsel unconstitutional was supported by Mark Geragos and Abbe Lowell, Biden’s legal team. They claimed in their letter that Weiss refrained from filing criminal charges against Biden until after he was appointed special counsel.
However, Scarsi threatened to punish Biden’s attorneys for making false claims without the prosecution’s permission. The pointed out that Biden was charged with a crime prior to Weiss being appointed special counsel; specifically, these charges were included in court records submitted in Delaware as a component of the unsuccessful 2023 plea agreement.
“In a document directing Biden’s attorneys to explain why they should not face consequences for lying, this Court has little patience for lack of candor from counsel.”.
Biden’s attorneys responded that Weiss should have waited until he was appointed special counsel before bringing “indictments,” not “charges,” and that they “never tried to mislead the Court” due to their careless wording. “.
As for the word “charges” being changed to “indictments,” Scarsi responded that he didn’t think it was “the veracity of that explanation.”. But he said he wouldn’t impose sanctions, noting that Geragos was fresh to the Biden case.
Scarsi ultimately dismissed the defense’s claim that the case ought to be dismissed based on constitutional grounds.
fresh claims regarding influence peddling.
Prosecutors disclosed in pretrial scuffles that they possess proof that Biden consented to lobby the U.S. government, which is another undesirable development for the president’s son. s. government for Romanian oligarch Gabriel Popoviciu.
In response to Biden’s team’s move to stop the prosecutors from presenting purportedly corrupt evidence, the prosecutors said they intended to call one of Biden’s former business associates as a witness. That individual, who remained anonymous in court documents, is anticipated to testify that Popoviciu sought to recruit Biden to secure the U.S. Presidential nomination when Biden’s father was vice president. S. to look into the Romanian authorities’ investigation into the Romanian government. Nonetheless, Biden was concerned that lobbying would harm his father’s political standing. Thus, the prosecution claims, his associate instead entered into a contract with Popoviciu to offer real estate management services; however, Popoviciu knew the associate would send money to Biden from that deal and anticipated that Biden would lobby the U.S. s. Government, please. Prosecutors claim that as a result of that deal, the associate received $3.1 million, of which he gave roughly one-third to Biden.
Additionally, prosecutors said that Biden collaborated with Burisma and CEFC China, a Chinese energy conglomerate. They did clarify, though, that they are not accusing him of engaging in unlawful lobbying.
The evidence, they stated, will demonstrate that the defendant received millions of dollars from these organizations for essentially no labor. “.
The court document regarding Popoviciu, which became available to the public fewer than three weeks following the president’s withdrawal from the 2024 campaign, demonstrated the potential damage the trial could have caused to Biden’s bid for reelection. It was the Justice Department’s first official statement, claiming that the younger Biden received approximately $1 million from a client who was misled into thinking that his son, the then-vice president, would work to influence U.S. s. on his behalf, government policy.
distressing personal information.
Prosecutors intend to draw attention to instances that have been distressing and embarrassing for the Biden family in addition to their focus on Biden’s financial situation.
One of Biden’s children’s mothers, Lunden Roberts of Arkansas, is expected to testify next week, per her lawyer’s subpoena. Although the president did not formally recognize the grandchild until the previous year, when she was four, Biden first denied that he was the child’s father. Court hearings into Roberts’ request for child support revealed details about Biden’s financial management, including his tax situation.
Additionally, Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow, was given immunity and subpoenaed to testify. Elizabeth Secundy, her sister, has also been subpoenaed and given immunity. Nothing noteworthy about the women’s expected testimony has been disclosed by the prosecutors. However, financial records that congressional Republicans claim they have access to demonstrate that Biden gave each of them tens of thousands of dollars.
additionally to a court document on August. 29 suggested that Biden’s past sexual encounters might also be a point of interest. In order for the court stenographer to verify the spellings of names and entities that the defense and prosecution believe may come up during the trial, the list was included in the document. The list featured the founder of the sex club, a strip club, a members-only sex club, and an organization known as “Emerald Fantasy Girls.”. Two attorneys who have assisted Biden’s ex-wife in navigating her divorce were also mentioned. A previous article by one of those attorneys claimed that the family was financially harmed by Biden’s extravagant spending on things like drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes.
According to Biden, he started living sober in the summer of 2019. He has a young son and remarried. He attributes his sobriety to his wife and family.
In his memoir, he stated, “What I’ve been through and what I’ve done is something I can never purge, never forget.”. However, I’m learning to stop feeling guilty or ashamed all the time and to live in the present. “.
