inside court, biden answering brief questions from the judge, who sent a tentative june 20th trial date. biden s legal team is arguing that hunter is dealing with addiction and has since paid his taxes back. it comes after hunter biden surprise appearance in congress is today, showing up at a hearing where republicans were considering recommending contempt of congress charges against him. ignoring a congressional subpoena could be the post, what are you afraid? of hunter biden refusing to comply with the subpoena for a closed-door testimony, saying that he would only talk in public, leaving the hearing room after a few minutes. republicans calling it a peer stunt. he was not there to answer questions. this is the second time that hunter biden has displayed in realtime the arrogance and entitlement that he has had his entire life. reporter: this morning, first lady joe biden said she was proud of the way that her son has managed his recovery, and blasted republicans of showing n
on the other side of the country, president biden s son appeared in federal court in los angeles to plead not guilty to tax related charges. nbc s ryan nobles has all the details. reporter: today, hunter biden again in federal court, pleading not guilty to nine tax charges, three of them felonies, that could land him in prison for 17 years, if convicted. prosecutors say biden will fully avoided paying one point $4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019. instead, spending, quote, millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying s tax bills. inside court, biden answering brief questions from the judge, who sent a tentative june 20th trial date. biden s legal team is arguing that hunter is dealing with addiction and has since paid his taxes back. it comes after hunter biden surprise appearance in congress is today, showing up at a hearing where republicans were considering recommending contempt of congress charges against him. ignoring a congressional
of how hunter has rebuilt his life after addiction. you know, i love my son and it s had it s hurt my grandchildren. that s what i m so concerned about, that it s affecting their lives as well. her rare public comments about her son come as hunter biden is set to appear in a federal court in california today. cnn s evan perez is in los angeles tracking this. evan, remind everyone what this is all about today. reporter: this is a case that the prosecutors have brought against hunter biden. they say he avoided paying his taxes, $1.4 million over a period 2016 through 2019. these charges, as they re charged right now, he s facing up to 17 years in prison. of course, we don t expect it will be anything like that if he s found guilty.
the judge said you could do it as long as you don t give a campaign speech. the trump team said he wouldn t do that. this is highly unusual, but the judge was open to allowing judge to participate, but said there will be guardrails for good reason. you ve seen trump attack the judge, the court staff and use this as a campaign strategy to frame himself as political prosecution. the judge said, you have to focus on material, relevant facts and you can t attack your accusers. they wouldn t agree to that. chris kise said that was untenable. the judge shut the door on that possibility. we thought they might revisit this issue. it was interesting because chris kise got up and went right into his closing. so far trump has not ente
no real fireworks. this is what closing arguments are supposed to be. it s the legal side of all this right now. his attorney is making a legal case. i m making that distinction because a lot of what s been taking place here isn t legal at all. 100%. we ve seen the former president show up on multiple days. he has testified. during his time in court he s acted in a way that s unusual for most people, but not unusual for a political candidate. he s framed this entire thing as a politically-motivated investigation, trying to interfere with the election. he s tried to tie the district attorney to his political rival, president biden. the district attorney did promise to investigate and prosecute trump when she was running for office. he s not incorrect that she s expressed a desire during her campaign to go after him. in this case the judge has found him liable for fraud. they ve seen witnesses and