LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lawyers for Hunter Biden asked a judge Wednesday to dismiss the tax case, accusing him of a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle.
President Joe Biden’s son pleads not guilty nine tax offenses for felonies and misdemeanors. His lawyers argued that the lawsuits were politically motivated, were tainted by leaks from IRS agents who publicly claimed the case had been mishandled, and included some allegations from before his move. in California.
Prosecutors called the allegations far-fetched during the three-hour hearing. Prosecutor Leo Wise scoffed at the suggestion that the case was tainted by IRS agents “whom I couldn’t have spotted in a lineup.”
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell, for his part, argued that the case was hopelessly tainted by partisan politics, calling it “the most unusual prosecution imaginable.”
U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi seemed skeptical, telling Lowell that he lacked solid evidence to support some of his claims. “You quote a lot of stuff from the Internet,” he said.
Scarsi said he would likely rule on the motions to dismiss by April 17.
Hunter Biden was also charged in Delaware for lying on a federal form to purchase a firearm in 2018 by saying he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs, even though he admitted to being addicted to crack cocaine at the time. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which also charges him with illegal possession of the weapon.
Both cases are supervised by special counsel David Weiss and pretrial trials are now scheduled for June, although defense attorneys are also trying to get the Delaware gun charges dropped.
Both sets of charges stem from a years-long federal investigation that was expected to conclude this summer with a plea deal in which Hunter Biden would have gotten two years of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. The president’s son, who has since repaid the tax arrears with a loan, is also said to have avoided gun charges if he stayed out of trouble.
Defense attorneys say the immunity provisions in the deal were signed by a prosecutor and are still in effect, although prosecutors disagree.
But an agreement that could have spared Hunter Biden the spectacle of a criminal trial during the 2024 presidential campaign defeated after federal judge in Delaware have begun to question it. Today, the tax and gun cases advance amid an unprecedented confluence of political and legal drama: As the November election approaches, the Justice Department is actively pursuing both son of the Democratic president and the presumptive Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden’s initially proposed plea deal with prosecutors had been pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans, including Trump. The former president faces his own criminal problems: 91 charges spread across four cases, including this one. he plotted to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
The criminal proceedings against Hunter Biden are also unfolding alongside so-far unsuccessful efforts by congressional Republicans to link his business dealings to his father. The Republicans are pursuing a impeachment inquiry into President Biden, claiming that he was engaged in influence peddling with his son. No evidence has been established to prove that Joe Biden, as president or previously as vice president, abused his role or accepted bribes, although questions have been raised about whether ethics surrounding this decision. the Biden family’s international business dealings.
In launching their impeachment inquiry into Biden last year, House Republicans relied largely on unverified claims by an FBI informant released by Senate Republicans, suggesting that payments totaling $10 million dollars of Ukrainian energy company Burisma to the Bidens were discussed. Current former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov was arrested last month in a case also overseen by Weiss. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he fabricated the corruption allegations. His lawyer was present at Wednesday’s hearing, but did not speak in the courtroom.
If convicted of the tax charges, Hunter Biden, 53, could be sentenced to a maximum of 17 years in prison.
