'Felony territory': Ex-prosecutor lays out why 'stakes are much higher' with Hunter Biden’s new charges
Shortly after Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday evening "on nine federal counts accusing him of evading federal taxes on millions of dollars he has made in his work with foreign companies," according to the New York Times, former federal prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig explained why these charges are much more "serious" this time around.
Biden in September was indicted on charges "stemming from his failure to acknowledge his drug use when he purchased a handgun in 2018."
CNN host Kaitlan Collins spoke with Honig, saying, "Elie, this is remarkable to think that the president's son could be on trial next year for two separate matters, as his dad is running for re-election."
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The ex-prosecutor replied, "Yeah, and the stakes are much higher with this new indictment than they were before, on the tax counts out of California. The original deal or near-deal only would have charged Hunter Biden with failure to pay his taxes, which is a misdemeanor. Now we're into felonies — it's three felonies here because of evasion and fraud. And the difference is, if you owe taxes but you intentionally don't pay — just a misdemeanor, you're not going to go to jail in all likelihood. If you're convicted of felony, because as this indictment alleges, they allege Hunter Biden intentionally took steps to fool tax collectors. Now you're into felony territory. It's much more serious. If he gets convicted here, the guidelines will recommend a prison sentence of some nature.
Collins said, "You were looking through this. They break down on the one page the expenses. They look at his bank accounts. One of them, it says payments to various women. A total of $683,000, adult entertainment over that same time period, $188,000. I mean, why is that something that they're looking at when it comes to how he paid his taxes?"
Honig replied, "Right. So, enormous figures, definitely going to gather attention because of the salacious nature. But here's why it's legally relevant. Because the allegation is he made these payments that had nothing to do with his business and he tried to claim them as business expenses, which is a fairly common way that people commit tax fraud. And so, the allegation here is he did that to the tune of $1.4 million or so, and as a result he's looking at vastly more serious charges now in California than he almost pled guilty to a couple of months ago."
Watch the video below or at this link.
Why 'stakes are much higher' in Hunter Biden's new indictment: legal analystyoutu.be
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