Jury selection to begin in Hunter Biden tax evasion trial

Jury selection is due to begin in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday in Hunter Biden’s trial for federal tax evasion.

He has pleaded not guilty in the case, in which he is accused by prosecutors of failing to pay at least $1.4m (£1m) in federal taxes from 2016-2019.

This is the second trial of the year for the president’s son, who was also convicted of gun possession charges in June and awaits sentencing.

His legal troubles had been a point of attack for Republicans against Democrats, before his father, President Joe Biden, decided to abandon his re-election bid.

Jury selection is expected to last until Friday, with opening statements expected to begin on Monday.

Biden’s legal team made multiple requests to have the case dismissed, which the court rejected.

He was charged with three felony tax offences and six misdemeanour offences in December. These include failure to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return.

According to the 56-page indictment, Biden earned $7m in income from his foreign business dealings between 2016 and 2019.

The indictment also said he spent nearly $5m during that time period on “everything but his taxes”.

Those purchases included drugs, escorts, lavish hotels, luxury cars and clothing, according to the indictment, which Biden allegedly falsely labelled as business expenses.

Prosecutors said Biden’s actions amounted to “a four-year scheme”.

“In each year in which he failed to pay his taxes, the defendant had sufficient funds available to him to pay some or all of his outstanding taxes when they were due,” the indictment said. “But he chose not to pay them.”

Biden faces a maximum of 17 years in prison if he is convicted on all charges.

The trial for Biden’s tax evasion case was scheduled to begin in June but was pushed back for his gun possession trial in Delaware.

That month, Biden was convicted on three felony charges connected to his purchase of a revolver, in 2018, while battling a drug addiction, and lying about his drug use on a federal form to purchase the gun.

He was the first child of a sitting US president to be criminally convicted.