Hunter Biden asked a judge to remove from his indictment in California any mentions of his “extravagant lifestyle” and other similar references, arguing they were “gratuitous facts” that were irrelevant to the tax charges special counsel David Weiss brought against him.
The request came amid a flurry of nine separate court filings from Biden on Tuesday night, eight of which were calls for Judge Mark Scarsi to dismiss the case. The ninth was the request to excise the mentions of his lifestyle.
“The Indictment is littered with inflammatory characterizations and gratuitous facts and descriptors that have little or no probative value and yet pose a significant risk of confusing and misleading the jury or prejudicing the jury’s view of Mr. Biden,” attorneys for President Joe Biden‘s son wrote.
Weiss indicted Hunter Biden last year on nine tax charges, including three felonies, alleging the first son failed to pay his taxes, filed false returns, and committed tax evasion beginning in 2017.
Weiss detailed in the 56-page indictment how Biden spent millions of dollars on drugs, women, adult entertainment, and luxury hotels and alleged that he, at times, categorized frivolous purchases as business expenses.
Biden spent money on “everything but his taxes,” Weiss wrote.
Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and in his filings Tuesday night, he argued the case should be dismissed entirely. Many of his arguments were similar to arguments he has also made in the separate criminal case Weiss brought against him in Delaware over an alleged illegal gun purchase.
The first son’s defense team contended that Weiss had caved to Republican pressure by bringing the tax charges and that the prosecution was therefore “selective and vindictive.” The defense attorneys also claimed that the tax charges were a product of “outrageous government conduct” because they came after two IRS criminal investigators revealed to Congress and the media their concerns about how the case had been handled internally. Biden’s lawyers also continued to assert their long-held position that the since-withdrawn plea deal both parties reached last summer was active, a point that Weiss has disputed.
In their argument for striking details about Biden’s lifestyle, the attorneys accused Weiss of including “characterizations of [Biden’s] personal choices and spending habits (during his deep addiction) in a way meant to depict Mr. Biden as irresponsible, frivolous, and otherwise of questionable character and integrity.”
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“These allegations are not probative of any elements of the charged offenses,” they wrote.
Weiss’s prosecution team now has a chance to respond to Biden’s requests before Scarsi makes a ruling on them.
