OAN’s James Meyers
8:31 AM -Tuesday, April 2, 2024
A federal judge in California on Monday rejected the request from Hunter Biden to dismiss all eight felony tax charges against him.
In an 82-page order, District Judge Mark Scarsi denied all eight motions filed by Biden’s legal team, which was based on various legal arguments to get the charges dropped or at least specific counts.
Hunter’s defense attorney Abbe Lowell claimed the indictment should be thrown out due to “outrageous government conduct” by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.
The latest ruling by the judge comes after Hunter was charged last year with three felony and six misdemeanor tax-related charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Defendant fails to present a reasonable inference, let alone clear evidence, of discriminatory effect and discriminatory purpose,” Scarsi wrote in his 82-page ruling. “Accordingly, the selective prosecution claim fails.”
“Defendant offers only conjecture about animus motivating the prosecutorial decisions in this case,” the judge added. “The circumstantial allegations of animus he offers are thin.”
Lowell claimed that prosecutors had been influenced by “Republicans in Congress and whistleblowers from the IRS,” but the judge ruled that the defense provided “no facts indicating that the Government undertook charging decisions in any respect because of public statements by politicians, let alone based on Defendant’s familial and political affiliations.”
“Politicians take credit for many things over which they have no power and have made no impact,” the judge noted, referring to public statements made by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.).
“Just because someone says they influenced a prosecutorial decision does not mean that they did,” he added. “Public statements by politicians hardly serve as evidence disturbing the ‘presumption of regularity”’ that attaches to prosecutorial decisions.”
Lowell also claimed in the motions that special counsel David Weiss was “unlawfully appointed” by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
However, Scarsi found that the president’s son’s defense offered “no convincing reason” for why it was improper and that Weiss’s position was “lawfully funded.”
Additionally, the judge found that Hunter Biden’s lawyer showed “no facts to suggest that the information Shapley and Ziegler shared publicly had any prejudicial effect on the grand jury’s decision to return an indictment.”
“That Shapley and Ziegler’s public statements brought notoriety to Defendant’s case is not enough to show prejudice,” Scarsi ruled, adding in a footnote that Hunter Biden “himself brought notoriety to his conduct though the publication of a memoir.”
Meanwhile, the president’s son has pleaded not guilty to all nine charges, including three felonies for allegedly dodging $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, which was during a period of alleged hardcore partying, spending millions on drugs, prostitutes and fancy cars.
The trial is expected to start in June, and he faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison.
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