LOS ANGELES — Jury selection begins Thursday at Hunter Bidens federal tax case just months after the president’s son was convicted of gun possession in a separate case.
The case in federal court in Los Angeles charges Hunter Biden of a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while raking in millions of dollars from foreign companies. He now faces a potential prison sentence after a jury in Delaware convicted him in June, after lying for 11 days on a 2018 federal form to purchase a gun.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to charges related to his 2016 through 2019 taxes, and his lawyers have indicated they will argue he did not act “willfully,” or with the intent to violate the law, in part because of his well documented struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, has imposed several restrictions on what jurors can hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden’s family, friends and attorneys say led to his drug addiction.
The judge banned lawyers from linking his battle with drug abuse to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden from cancer or the car crash that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler. He also rejected a proposed defense expert who had been lined up to testify about addiction.
The lawsuit alleges that Hunter Biden lived a lavish lifestyle while violating tax laws and spending his money on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his spending that they say amount to “character assassination,” including payments to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge said in court documents that he would maintain “strict control” over the presentation of potentially salacious evidence.
Meanwhile, prosecutors could present more details about Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings, which were central to Republican investigations in the Biden family, often trying — without evidence — to link the president to an alleged influence scheme.
The special counsel’s team has said it wants to brief jurors about Hunter Biden’s work for a Romanian businessmanwho they say tried to “influence US government policy” when Joe Biden was vice president.
The defense accused prosecutors of disclosing details about Hunter Biden’s work for the Romanian in court documents to generate more media attention and taint the jury pool.
The judge will ask a number of potential jurors a series of questions to determine whether they can serve on the jury, including whether their political views and knowledge of the case would prevent them from being impartial.
Potential jurors are expected to be asked questions about their own family and personal histories with substance abuse, as well as tax issues and past dealings with the Internal Revenue Service. And despite President Joe Biden dropping his re-election bid, they will also answer questions about whether they believe criminal charges could be brought for political reasons.
A heavily scrutinized plea deal and diversion agreement that would have prevented both cases from going to trial collapsed under questioning by a judge in July 2023. The special counsel indicted Hunter Biden soon after, splitting the deal into the Delaware gun charges and the California tax case.
Hunter Biden’s sentencing in Delaware is scheduled for Nov. 13. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison, but as a first-time offender, he will likely receive much less time or avoid prison altogether.
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Lauer reported from Philadelphia.