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Hunter Biden indicted on nine tax charges, adding to gun charges in special counsel probe (apnews.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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[–] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

He tried to plea down to a misdemeanor charge, but the judge did not like the deal. If found guilty, he could spend years in prison, but most likely you're correct. If this were your average tax cheat, he'd be facing a small fine.

Maybe this opens the door to more rich tax cheats facing prosecution. Hunter goes to jail, why not the next one? Why not all of them? Republicans keep dancing around like they knocked down the champ, but they have abandoned the pretense that it's just not possible to prosecute the big tax cheats because they have the means to hire expensive lawyers and the connections to avoid jail time.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    He tried to plea down to a misdemeanor charge, but the judge did not like the deal.

    I don't think this is the correct framing. The judge questioned the parties (required during a deal) and found that the parties disagreed on the interpretation of the deal and exposure to additional charges (highly unusual - these agreements are typically watertight). Since there was a disagreement there was no meeting of the minds and the deal fell apart. The judges feelings have nothing to do with it.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    With tax crimes you rarely see anyone have more than a fine, especially when they have already paid what they owe. More than likely he will be charged with a misdemeanor, be fined $25,000, and released.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    If convicted, Hunter Biden could face up to 17 years in prison. The special counsel probe remains open, Weiss said.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    That is extremely unlikely to actually occur. For that figure he would have to be convicted of every count, given the maximum sentence for every count, and sentenced to serve it consecutively.

    Consecutive sentencing is pretty much guaranteed not to happen. So you can immediately reduce the high end to whatever the most serious count is. Then since it's federal, the judge will have sentencing guidelines that will add up a whole bunch of aggravating and mitigating factors to arrive at the final sentence.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago

    That is extremely unlikely to actually occur

    As is just paying a small fine..

    I thought I wouldn't need to explain that to be people, but man, I've just really been overestimating Lemmy lately

    Did we federate with some new instance where you all just see single comments in a vacuum with zero context?

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