Hunter Biden's lawyers accused special counsel David Weiss and his team of using a tax evasion trial to commit "character assassination" against their client.
In June, the first son was convicted of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018, when the president's son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
Biden's attorneys, during a Wednesday hearing in Los Angeles, blasted prosecutors for pursuing another trial.
The first son has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, which include three tax felonies. Prosecutors have accused him of evading to pay $1.4 million in taxes, while spending lavishly on strippers, luxury cars, and fancy hotels.
"They want to slime him," 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, CNN reported.
"It's actually a form of character assassination," Geragos said.
Special counsel prosecutor Leo Wise said the jury needs to hear salacious details to prove that Biden fraudulently claimed business expenses.
Wise said one witness will testify 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. "But you can't claim it as a business expense."
Biden, 54, was not present at the hearing, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Instead, he was on a family vacation — including President Joe Biden — at the Santa Ynez Valley estate of businessman and Democrat donor Joe Kiani, whose appointment to a federal advisory board in 2021 brought ethics concerns.
On Monday night, Hunter Biden joined his family onstage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago where the president addressed the attendees.
At the hearing, District Judge Mark Scarsi handed down rulings on key evidentiary questions, largely siding with prosecutors.
The judge said Biden's team can't tell jurors that the president's son belatedly paid his entire $2 million tax bill, and also denied an expert witness the defense hoped would explain how addiction impaired Biden's decision-making.
Geragos said the defense team wanted to claim that Hunter Biden's alcoholism and drug addiction stemmed from a childhood car accident that killed his mother and sister and his brother's later death from brain cancer.
Prosecutors, though, said 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," Wise said.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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