Hunter Biden’s tax trial set to begin this week as father’s political career fades into dust

Hunter Biden’s second trial is set to begin this week in California after he was accused of withholding at least $1.4 million between 2016 and 2019, in the throes of his addiction to cocaine following his brother’s death from brain cancer. During that period his father was still vice president.

The second trial comes as now-President Joe Biden’s political career winds down after he surrendered the reigns to his vice president, Kamala Harris, following a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump and pressure from within his own party to step out of the race. 

Hunter Biden’s trial is set to officially begin September 5 with jury selection following an approximately four-month delay granted by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi after Biden’s lawyers cited challenges with managing two federal trials at once. Opening statements will take place on September 9. 

Both trials moved forward after the first son’s plea deal with his father’s Justice Department was dismantled by the a federal judge in Delaware. The department was facing pressure and criticism over the deal after IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler came forward alleging there was improper interference by DOJ officials in the Hunter Biden investigation.  

That deal would have seen Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a diversion program for the gun charges after the statute of limitations was allowed to lapse for several years of tax violations. 

Now, largely due to the facts brought forward by the whistleblowers, Hunter Biden faces nine tax-related charges in total, three felony and three misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors will argue the first son spent his income on an “extravagant” lifestyle instead of paying his owed taxes, failed to file tax returns on time, and falsified business deductions in at least one return. If convicted, Biden may face up to 17 years in prison. 

The trial will bring some of the more salacious and embarrassing details of the first son’s “extravagant” lifestyle back to the forefront as prosecutors seek to show Hunter Biden’s state of mind as he spent wildly on pornography websites, strip clubs, and drugs while allegedly failing to pay taxes. 

Though the tax issues are at the center of the charges, the government’s exhibit list shows the prosecution may raise other issues that have plagued Biden and his father, like how the first son acted as a lobbyist and his lucrative financial relationships with unsavory foreign characters, including a Chinese Communist Party-connected energy magnate and the controversial Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. In a ruling, the Judge Mark Scarsi restricted the prosecution's ability to reference these items. 

While the personal issues like drug use were already at the center of the Hunter Biden’s first trial in Delaware the trial starting this week in California may shed more light on his income from foreign sources which became politically salient for his father during the 2020 election and a House Republican-led impeachment inquiry related to his family’s efforts to secure millions.

Last month, the House impeachment inquiry released a final report concluding President Joe Biden engaged in impeachable conduct by helping to enrich his family with millions of dollars in business schemes that traded on his name and then defrauded voters by lying to cover up the scandal. 

“First and foremost, overwhelming evidence demonstrates that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the committee concluded in the the report. Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings that provided him with millions in income during the tax years in focus during the trial were part of that alleged conspiracy. 

Hundreds of documents and records set to be included as evidence in Hunter Biden’s California tax trial are designed to prove he violated U.S. tax law, but also include significant evidence previously reported by Just the News and others, showing how the younger Biden received millions from foreign sources and pointing to Joe Biden’s involvement in those deals, even if Special Counsel David Weiss avoided focusing on it.

The documents Weiss cited to the court hint at the alleged foreign influence peddling scheme and may even provide direct references to Joe Biden himself, according to the filing reviewed by Just the News in May. For example, the list includes references to email evidence that indicate a wider scheme by Hunter Biden to peddle his family name—and even benefit his father directly. 

One such email, titled “Email from Tony Bobulinski to Robert Biden CC Rob Walker re: Expectations,” deals with the proposed equity split in Hunter Biden’s first attempt to secure a venture with CEFC China Energy, the now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate connected with the Chinese Communist Party.

This email was first published by the New York Post in October 2020 after it was obtained from an alleged copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop. It memorialized a discussion among Hunter Biden and his business partners hammering out the details of a proposed joint venture with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy. The proposal contained the tentative equity split among the partners and one of the entries was revealing.

“10 held by H for the big guy?” the email reads. Though who the “big guy” is is not explained further in the email, The New York Post reported that Hunter eventually revealed that "the big guy" was his father.  Hunter Biden’s former business partners, including Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer have both confirmed that the term was often used as a reference to Joe Biden.

The exhibits will provide insight into how this company was formed—as a direct partnership between Chairman Ye Jianming and Biden family members, including Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden.

Other documents memorialize the lucrative financial relationship Hunter Biden would form with CEFC China Energy, owned by the enigmatic Ye Jianming, once a wealthy businessman in China but whose current whereabouts remain unknown after his disappearance in 2018 amid alleged government scrutiny. 

From 2017 to 2019, key years for the alleged tax violations, Hunter Biden would receive over $5 million from CEFC and CEFC-connected entities, according to his plea deal with the Justice Department, which was thrown out by the judge presiding over the first son’s handgun charges in Delaware.

The exhibits may also reference Hunter Biden’s efforts on behalf of Burisma to influence official U.S. policy. These broader efforts were chronicled by Just the News and show the younger Biden helped the Ukrainian energy company to hire Democrat-aligned public relations firm Blue Star Strategies to work on the fallout from a Ukrainian government investigation into the company and shift official U.S. government policy.

Weiss’ filings reference Blue Star Executives Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, who worked for Burisma during this period, organizing several meetings with State Department officials. The firm retroactively registered as a foreign agents after it came under scrutiny by the Department of Justice. Although referenced in documents from the Committees on the Judiciary and on Oversight and Accountability, neither Painter nor Tramontano were charged with any crime.

The trial, which at one time was a threat to Joe Biden’s reelection chances, has now faded in importance after his likelihood of success crumbled after his disastrous first presidential debate performance against Donald Trump and mounting internal pressure in the Democratic Party, including from allies in Congress. 

[Correction: Hunter Biden faces nine charges total, not six.]