Jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday in Los Angeles federal court in Hunter Biden‘s trial on tax-related charges.
It’s the second-ever criminal trial of a sitting president’s son, and the second for Hunter Biden this year.
Hunter Biden, 54, was indicted in December on three felony and six misdemeanor counts alleging that he failed to pay his taxes during a period when, he has said, he was in the throes of drug addiction, as well as when he got sober. The indictment says that “rather than pay his taxes, the Defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle.”
Prosecutors say in the indictment that Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020.”
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jury selection is expected to take about two days, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for Monday.
Prosecutors have estimated their case will take six days to present to a jury and that more than two dozen witnesses will testify. Hunter Biden’s attorneys said their defense will take about two days.