周四，乔·拜登总统的儿子亨特·拜登在加州法庭首次出庭时，对9项重罪和轻罪税收指控进行了无罪辩护。
亨特·拜登本人在洛杉矶市中心的联邦法院接受传讯时提出了这一抗辩。
他的请求是在他作出一个惊喜亮相在国会山听证会上决定是否以藐视国会罪逮捕他。
年轻的拜登出现在马克·斯卡西法官面前，他将在第一街美国法院接受传讯9项涉税收费指控他未能支付140万美元赋税从2016年到2019年。
法官周四将审判日期定在6月20日。政府没有同意审判时间，但亨特的团队表示，他们对时间“不太确定”，并引用了特拉华州对重罪枪支指控的单独起诉书。
双方还再次讨论了导致上个月税务起诉的失败的认罪协议。在30分钟的听证会上，亨特·拜登的一名律师站起来表达了对认罪协议破裂的失望，他说，“我们在2023年解决了这个案件，然后事情就发生了。”
政府予以回击，称:“请不要总是分崩离析。”
下一次听证会定于3月27日举行。动议将于2月20日提交。
亨特获释的条件与特拉华州的案件相同，包括不得拥有枪支，不得饮酒或保释。如有必要，他必须接受药物或酒精测试。
去年12月的税务指控指控称，总统的儿子从乌克兰、罗马尼亚和中国的外国实体那里赚取了数百万美元，并“在选择不纳税的同时，在奢侈的生活方式上花费了数百万美元。”
欠税最终在2020年由第三方支付，ABC新闻确认为亨特·拜登的律师和密友凯文·莫里斯。
指控是在最初的认罪协议后提出的戏剧性地分崩离析去年7月在特拉华州联邦法庭，法官对协议条款表示担忧。
亨特·拜登随后不服罪10月份，在特拉华州的一项独立起诉中，有三项重罪枪支指控，这是在一项枪支指控的分流协议与最初的认罪协议一起破裂后提出的。此后，他要求撤销这些指控。
起诉书是由特别顾问魏红星提出的，他是特朗普任命的美国特拉华州检察官，一直在调查亨特·拜登，并在今年夏天被任命为特别顾问。
2024年1月10日，在他的律师阿贝·洛威尔(左)的陪同下，亨特·拜登离开了众议院监督委员会的听证会，因为共和党人正在采取第一步以蔑视国会的罪名逮捕他...显示更多undefined
何塞·路易斯·马加纳/美联社
作为对税务指控的回应，亨特·拜登的律师阿贝·洛厄尔(Abbe Lowell)声称，12月的起诉书中“没有新证据”，并表示，“根据事实和法律，如果亨特的姓氏不是拜登，特拉华州和现在的加利福尼亚州就不会受到指控。”
周四，亨特·拜登出现在加州的法庭上，一天前，他让华盛顿的立法者大吃一惊亲自出现众议院监督委员会就是否判他藐视法庭举行听证会，此前他拒绝了在闭门会议上作证的传票，这是共和党领导的对其家族商业事务的调查的一部分。
年轻的拜登的出现完全出乎委员会中共和党人的意料，他说他愿意在公共论坛上作证。
洛厄尔周三离开听证室后对记者说，他指责共和党人“几乎不关心真相”，并试图“蔑视某人，他已经提出公开回答他们所有适当的问题。”
“亨特·拜登过去是，现在也是一个普通公民，”洛厄尔说。"尽管如此，共和党人还是试图利用他作为代理人来攻击他的父亲."
白宫发言人曾表示，拜登总统“从未与他的儿子有过业务往来。”2019年，作为总统候选人，拜登说，“我从未和我儿子谈过他的海外业务往来。”
Hunter Biden pleads not guilty at arraignment on tax charges
President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden entered a not guilty plea to 9 felony and misdemeanor tax charges at his initial appearance in a California courtroom on Thursday.
The plea was entered by Hunter Biden himself during an arraignment in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.
His plea came a day after he made asurprise appearanceat a Capitol Hill hearing on whether to hold him in contempt of Congress.
The younger Biden appeared before Judge Mark Scarsi at the First Street U.S. Courthouse to be arraigned on9 tax-related chargesaccusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million intaxesfrom 2016 to 2019.
The judge on Thursday set a June 20 trial date. The government did not appose the trial timing, but Hunter's team said they're "not quite as certain" regarding timing and cited a separate indictment in Delaware on felony gun charges.
The parties also again discussed the failed plea deal that led to the tax indictment last month. At one point during the 30-minute hearing, an attorney for Hunter Biden stood to express frustration with the plea deal falling apart, saying "we had a resolution of this case in 2023 and then things happened."
The government pushed back, saying: "pleas fall apart all the time."
The next hearing is set for March 27. Motions are due Feb. 20.
Hunter was released on the same conditions as the Delaware case, which include no possession of firearms and no alcohol or bond. He must submit to a drug or alcohol test if necessary.
The indictment on tax charges from December alleges that the president's son earned millions of dollars from foreign entities in Ukraine, Romania, and China, and "spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle at the same time he chose not to pay his taxes."
The back taxes were eventually paid in 2020 by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden's attorney and confidant Kevin Morris.
The charges came after an initial plea dealfell apart in dramatic fashionin a Delaware federal courtroom last July, after the judge expressed concerns over the terms of the agreement.
Hunter Biden subsequentlypleaded not guiltyin October to three felony gun charges as part of a separate indictment in Delaware that came after a diversion agreement on one of the gun charges fell apart alongside the initial plea deal. He has since moved to have those charges dismissed.
The indictment was brought by special counsel David Weiss, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware who had been investigating Hunter Biden and was named special counsel over the summer.
In response to the tax charges, Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, claimed the December indictment included "no new evidence" and said, "Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter's last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought."
Hunter Biden's court appearance in California on Thursday comes a day after he surprised lawmakers in Washington byshowing up in personto a House Oversight committee hearing on whether to hold him in contempt after he refused a subpoena to testify in a closed-door session as part of a GOP-led probe into his family's business affairs.
The younger Biden, whose appearance caught Republicans on the committee completely by surprise, said that he would be willing to testify in a public forum.
Lowell, speaking to reporters after leaving the hearing room Wednesday, accused Republicans of caring "little about the truth" and trying to "hold someone in contempt, who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions."
"Hunter Biden was and is a private citizen," Lowell said. "Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father."
A White House spokesperson has said that President Biden "was never in business with his son." In 2019, as a presidential candidate, Biden said, "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
