Hunter Biden’s lawyers accused federal prosecutors Wednesday of trying to turn his upcoming tax evasion trial into a public “character assassination.”
At a hearing in Los Angeles, lawyers for President Joe Biden’s son blasted special counsel David Weiss and his team, who successfully prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun crimes earlier this summer and are angling for another win at his tax trial next month.
“They want to slime him,” Hunter Biden’s lawyer Mark Geragos said, arguing that Weiss was attempting to put on an “independent counsel-style salacious prosecution” and is “making him look bad” by cherry-picking the facts to push the jury toward a conviction.
“It’s actually a form of character assassination,” Geragos said.
The clash came as District Judge Mark Scarsi handed down rulings on key evidentiary questions, largely siding with prosecutors and making it tougher for Biden’s defense. He has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, which include three tax felonies.
From the bench, Scarsi ruled that Biden’s team can’t tell jurors that that the president’s son belatedly paid his entire $2 million tax bill. The judge also excluded an expert witness that the defense hoped would explain how addiction impaired Biden’s decision-making.
Geragos called the addiction angle “the centerpiece of the defense,” saying they hoped to explain how the childhood car accident that killed his mother and sister, and his brother’s subsequent death from brain cancer fueled his descent into alcoholism and drug abuse.
The defense is aiming to demonstrate to the jury that “there is a relationship between the throes of the addiction and the tax non-compliance as alleged,” Geragos said.
But prosecutors countered that the origins of Biden’s addiction were irrelevant.
“No matter how many drugs you can take, you don’t suddenly forget that when you make $11 million, you have to pay taxes,” special counsel prosecutor Leo Wise said.
Prosecutors have accused Biden of engaging in a yearslong scheme to evade paying $1.4 million in taxes, while spending lavishly on strippers, luxury cars and fancy hotels.
Wise argued Wednesday that the jury needs to see these salacious details to prove that Biden fraudulently claimed those were business expenses – to reduce his tax bill. For example, Wise said a witness will testify that she met Biden at a strip club and was later paid $1,400 for “artwork” even though she didn’t sell him any art.
“You can spend $30,000 on a pornography website if you want – it’s not illegal,” Wise said about Biden’s alleged spending, “But you can’t claim it as a business expense.”
Clash over foreign lobbying
Hunter Biden’s lawyers accused prosecutors of deliberately igniting a media “firestorm,” especially in conservative outlets, by publicly releasing new details about his foreign business deals in a recent court filing.
The filing from two weeks ago said Biden agreed to lobby US government officials – while his father was vice president – on behalf of a wealthy Romanian businessman who was facing a corruption probe back home.
Biden’s overseas business deals in Romania, China, Ukraine and other countries have figured prominently in House Republicans’ stalled impeachment inquiry into his father.
Geragos said prosecutors phrased their filing in a “scurrilous way” to “inflame or ignite press coverage.” He claimed prosecutors made it look like Biden orchestrated the lobbying deal to avoid registering as a foreign agent, when it was actually his business partner who set up the deal that way, according to his grand jury testimony.
Prosecutors are “using my client as collateral damage in a political fight,” Geragos said, arguing that they pulled off a “slight-of-hand” trick to generate “front-page news.”
But Wise pushed back, saying the Romania deal surfaced how Biden was still able to lock in $1 million business opportunities despite his addiction. Prosecutors have argued that could undermine Biden’s attempts to blame his addiction for repeatedly missing tax deadlines.
The judge ruled that prosecutors can’t suggest that Biden tried to improperly lobby the Obama administration or that he violated the foreign agent laws known as FARA. (Biden has been investigated for possible FARA violations, but hasn’t been charged.)
“This is a tax trial. … We’re not going to talk about any improper government conduct of any administration,” Scarsi said, agreeing with a defense request to limit the evidence.
This was Geragos’ courtroom debut as Biden’s new lawyer. The high-profile attorney tussled with Wise throughout the hearing, and Wise repeatedly accused him of being “confused” or “wrong.” The parties held plea discussions over the summer to possibly avoid a trial, but CNN reported that the talks stalled. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on September 5.
This story has been updated with additional details.
