Hunter Biden’s defense team has caused a stir after they literally played the trump card at a recent court hearing in California.
Lawyers for President Joe Biden’s son had asked Donald Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi to drop tax charges against the Republican Party bogeyman before his trial next month, arguing that a separate case against Trump himself had been dropped for similar reasons.
The Associated Press reports that the lawsuit relates to a Florida case against the former president, in which he is accused of mishandling classified documents. Trump’s defense had successfully argued that the Justice Department illegally appointed Jack Smith as special counsel in the case, leading to the case being dismissed last month.
Hunter Biden’s team said the same should apply to his upcoming trial, in which he is accused of evading at least $1.4 million in taxes over a four-year period, because the prosecution’s special counsel, David Weiss, had not yet been appointed when he brought the charges against the disgraced businessman.
Scarsi had previously sharply criticized Biden’s lawyers for making “false statements” about the timing of the charges and even threatened them with sanctions for “misrepresenting the background of the case.” He had previously claimed that no charges had been filed before Weiss intervened in the investigation.
Since they have since changed course and said they “never sought to mislead the court,” the judge wrote on Monday that he would not take action against them, but nevertheless noted that their “conduct deserves a warning: candor is key,” before promptly rejecting their latest attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.
When the trial begins next month, it will be the second time this year that Hunter Biden has appeared in court. In early June, he was found guilty of three counts of aggravated weapons offenses in Delaware, for which he now faces a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
The California case also follows the recent attack by Republicans in the House of Representatives on the Biden family. On Monday, reports emerged of a nearly 300-page congressional dossier on Hunter Biden’s alleged role at the center of an alleged “conspiracy” that allegedly includes “grounds for impeachment” against his father. However, the uproar is unlikely to have much impact in the short time the president has left in office.
