U.S. President Biden's son indicted on tax charges

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden was indicted in California late Thursday on nine counts related to a Justice Department investigation into his taxes, which marks the second indictment against him this year.

The charges include failure to file and pay taxes, evading a tax assessment, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return, according to the indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The indictment, the second criminal case that Special Counsel David Weiss has brought against the president's son, showed that Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least 1.4 million U.S. dollars in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019.

Weiss first began investigating the president's son five years ago as the U.S. attorney for Delaware, appointed by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

In September, Hunter Biden was indicted on separate gun-related charges.

Less than a year ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the U.S. president will be fighting a Republican impeachment bid while his son, the first child of a sitting president to be criminally indicted, struggles to avoid prison in two criminal cases.