Hunter Biden lost a bid to have eight criminal charges against him dismissed and a judge allowed the tax fraud case to proceed Monday evening.
Judge Mark Scarsi ruled that the three misdemeanor charges and six misdemeanor charges of tax evasion, filing a false tax return and failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 could not be considered political, as Hunter’s attorneys had argued .
Hunter’s attorneys returned to federal court in Los Angeles last week to urge the judge to consider the nine tax charges against Hunter filed by special counsel David Weiss.
“The motion is notable in that it does not include any deposition, evidence or request for judicial notice,” Scarsi, the Trump appointee, said in a statement. wrote. “Instead, Defendant quotes portions of various internet news sources, social media posts, and legal blogs. However, these quotes do not constitute evidence.”
Scarsi said the sources contained “multiple levels of hearsay” and failed to present “a reasonable inference, let alone clear evidence, of discriminatory effect and purpose.”
The charges stem from what federal prosecutors say was a four-year scheme to avoid paying the $1.4 million he owed the IRS and instead use the money to fund an “extravagant lifestyle” , which he said also included drugs and alcohol.
Hunter Biden is preparing for another high-profile courtroom drama on Wednesday, when his lawyers will ask a judge to dismiss charges against him for failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes.
His lawyers have made efforts to dismiss some or all of the charges and Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi will decide the fate of the case.
The costs cover the tax years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, 53, has also been charged in Delaware with lying in October 2018 on a federal gun purchaser form when he swore he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs. He was addicted to crack cocaine at the time. He is also accused of illegally possessing the gun and has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Federal prosecutors say Hunter repeatedly failed to pay his taxes on time, missed deadlines to pay debts owed to the IRS and criminally evaded taxes by cooking his books and filing false returns.
The Justice Department says Hunter faces up to 17 years in prison on the tax charge and 25 years on the gun charge if convicted, in dual cases that could have a devastating impact on his father’s presidential campaign.
Hunter is accused of evading taxes on income he received from China and Ukraine, and giving fodder to Republicans who have accused Hunter of corruptly profiting from foreign business transactions through his last name.
Hunter will return to federal court in Los Angeles, where a judge will consider dismissing the nine tax charges against him filed by special counsel David Weiss
For six months, they investigate his actions to find a reason to impeach Joe Biden. Hunter’s lawyers have taken advantage of this, claiming that Weiss “succumbed to outside pressure” from Donald Trump and House Republicans, who demanded his prosecution.
“Biden is being targeted because of his political and family ties,” they wrote.
The indictment states that despite receiving millions in personal income and financial support from a friend, Hunter “spent the money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature, in short ‘. , everything except his taxes.”
Hunter’s attorneys also argued that the case should be dismissed because it was tainted by a pair of IRS agents who had previously worked on the case before becoming whistleblowers and testifying in the Republican Party’s impeachment inquiry.
“The government’s actions in this case are beyond egregious,” they wrote, accusing the whistleblowers of “vigilante” and “taking the law into their own hands” by leaking tax data.
The trial on the gun charges in Delaware is set to begin on June 3, weeks before the June 20 tax trial in California.
Last summer, a proposed plea deal sensationally fell apart after questioning by a judge.
The charges against him would be stayed as part of a plea deal Hunter reached with prosecutors in which he would admit to tax crimes for deliberately failing to file and pay his tax bill on millions of dollars in income.
But Judge Maryellen Noreika in July brought forward a controversial clause that would give him blanket immunity for other offenses.
Noreika asked both prosecutor Leo Wise and Hunter’s then-attorney, Chris Clark, whether this meant Hunter could still potentially be charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Wise said yes. Clark said he disagreed, and the deal fell through.
After a break, Hunter’s attorneys agreed that immunity would only be offered for tax, gun and drug crimes. But Noreika was still skeptical about the deal’s unusual structure. Since then, talks over the scope of Hunter’s immunity have collapsed.