Lawyers for Hunter Biden are expected to ask a judge at a hearing Wednesday to dismiss tax charges filed against him last year, arguing that the case is politically motivated.
Biden alleges prosecutors caved to pressure from Republican lawmakers, who launched an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden, after an earlier plea deal fell through.
Hunter Biden’s legal team will challenge the charges in federal court in Los Angeles before U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi. The judge will hear arguments on several motions filed in recent weeks from both Biden’s legal team, led by attorney Abbe Lowell, and special counsel David Weiss’ office, represented by lead prosecutor Leo Wise.
Scarsi is not expected to immediately rule from the bench on the motions, but he has indicated that he wants the case to move through the pre-trial process as quickly as possible.
Also at the courthouse for the hearing Wednesday was David Chesnoff, the attorney for ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. Smirnov has been charged with providing false information to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, something Lowell is likely to bring up.
“The same prosecutor’s office is charging my client and the arguments that are being made for dismissal may impact his case. I want to hear it for my client’s benefit,” Chesnoff told NBC News.
Weiss brought nine tax-related charges, including three felony and six misdemeanor charges, against Hunter Biden in a California federal court last year. Weiss alleged that the president’s son failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes as part of a multiyear scheme to evade federal taxes, instead opting to “spend millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle,” including, according to the indictment, “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature.”
The president’s son pleaded not guilty to the charges in January. His lawyers filed several motions last…
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