LOS ANGELES – An attorney for Hunter Biden accused prosecutors Wednesday of wanting to introduce salacious details about partying and spending by President Joe Biden's son to smear his character in front of jurors at his upcoming trial on federal tax charges.
During a lengthy hearing in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter Biden's lawyer said special counsel David Weiss' team was intent on "character assassination" by seeking to bring in evidence of spending on things like strippers in the case alleging a scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes.
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“They want to slime him because that is the whole purpose," attorney Mark Geragos told U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi.
Geragos' comments came as the defense and prosecution sparred for hours over what evidence and testimony jurors should be allowed to hear when the trial begins early next month. It's the second criminal trial in just months for the president's son, who was convicted in June of three felony charges in a separate federal case over the purchase of a gun in 2018.
Potential jurors are expected to be brought to the court for questioning on Sept. 5, with opening statements in the trial expected on Sept. 9.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have indicated they will argue he didn’t act “willfully,” or with the intention to break the law. Pointing to Hunter Biden’s well-documented addiction struggles during those years, they’ve argued his drug and alcohol abuse impacted “his decision-making and judgment, such that Mr. Biden was unable to form the requisite intent to commit the crimes he has been charged with.”
Prosecutor Leo Wise said evidence of things like Hunter Biden's payments to a pornographic website would help jurors evaluate whether he accidentally or intentionally listed those items as business expenses when they clearly were not. Wise noted that Hunter included descriptions of wild partying in California in his own memoir.
“He describes partying in hotels with a cast of strippers,” Wise said. “He chose to pay them, which is fine — it’s America, you can do that. But then he chose to take it as a business deduction.”
The judge did not rule on whether prosecutors will be able to introduce such evidence, and the two sides said they would work on reaching an agreement on that issue before trial.
In a blow to the defense, the judge said Hunter Biden's lawyers won't be able to call as a witness an expert whom it had wanted to testify about addiction issues. The judge also ruled out testimony about the car accident that killed Hunter Biden's mother and sister when he was a toddler, and any testimony attributing the cause of his substance abuse struggles to the death of his brother Beau from brain cancer in 2015.
Hunter Biden's lawyers had argued it was important to delve into those issues to provide context about his drug use during the years he was accused of failing to pay his taxes.
Prosecutors have also pushed to be able to introduce evidence related to Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, which have been at the center of Republican investigations into the Democratic president’s family.
The special counsel's team has said it wants to tell jurors about his work for a Romanian businessman, who they say sought to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president. Wise told the judge that evidence about Hunter Biden's business dealings reflects his decision-making ability in the years he is accused of evading his taxes.
The defense accused prosecutors of releasing details about Hunter Biden's work for the Romanian businessman in court papers to drum up media coverage and taint a jury pool before the trial even starts.
“I believe it was designed specifically to inflame or ignite press coverage,” Geragos said.
Hunter Biden was supposed to plead guilty last year to misdemeanor tax offenses in a deal with prosecutors that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. However, the plea deal fell apart after a federal judge in Delaware raised concerns about it, and he was subsequently indicted in the two cases.
In the gun case that ended in June in Delaware, jurors found Hunter Biden guilty of lying about his drug use in 2018 on a federal form to buy a firearm that he had for about 11 days. He could face up to 25 years in prison at sentencing set for Nov. 13, but as a first-time offender, he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.
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Richer reported from Washington.