The charges stem from what federal prosecutors say was a four-year scheme to skip out on paying the $1.4m (\u00a31.1m) he owed to the IRS and instead use the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that included drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n
The judge set a tentative trial date of 20 June during the half-hour hearing.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has also been charged in Delaware with lying in October 2018 on a federal form for gun purchasers when he swore he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs.<\/p>\n
Read more on Hunter Biden: He was addicted to crack cocaine at the time.<\/p>\n He is also accused of possessing the gun illegally and has pleaded not guilty in that case.<\/p>\n The accusations all come from a years-long federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax and business dealings that had been expected to wind down over the summer with a plea deal in which he would have got two years’ probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanour tax charges.<\/p>\n He would also have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble.<\/p>\n The deal unravelled when a federal judge who had been expected to approve the deal instead began to question it.<\/p>\n Hunter Biden’s original proposed plea deal with prosecutors had been pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans, including Donald Trump.<\/p>\n The former president is facing his own criminal problems – 91 charges across four separate cases, including that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, a Democrat.<\/p>\n He too\u00a0appeared in court on Thursday<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in New York for closing arguments in his civil fraud trial.<\/p>\n Source: \u00a0
\nHunter Biden pleads not guilty to three firearm charges<\/a>
\nRepublicans hold first hearing in impeachment inquiry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Sky](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"