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Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Thursday on a nine-count indictment on tax-related charges. The son of President Joe Biden entered the plea in Los Angeles federal court, where he faced nine felony and misdemeanor charges accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2020.
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His plea came a day after he appeared briefly on Capitol Hill as a House committee prepared a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing to meet with them behind closed doors on Dec. 13.
Special counsel David Weiss brought the charges against the younger Biden after a plea deal last year unraveled in Delaware court. Weiss's indictment includes three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses ranging from failing to file tax returns to filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors accuse Hunter Biden of living a lavish lifestyle while earning more than $7 million in gross income while falsifying tax returns and not paying them at all.
Federal attorneys charged that Hunter Biden made that money from foreign sources in China, Romania and Ukraine. Biden eventually paid his back taxes in 2020 through a third party, which ABC News identified as attorney Kevin Morris.
Hunter Biden has been a political lightning rod for ex-President Donald Trump and House Republicans, who are trying to build an impeachment case against his father based on Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.
In the House's contempt of Congress resolution, House GOP members said the younger Biden needs to answer questions concerning if his father benefited from any of his foreign dealings financially and if he made or persuaded U.S. policy changes on exchange for that money.
