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Hunter Biden's defense suffers legal blow as judge reveals the damning evidence against president's son will be allowed in tax crimes trial next month
Hunter Biden's defense took a beating in court on Wednesday – before his tax crimes trial has even started.
The First Son's new attorney, LA celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, argued in a pre-trial hearing to keep the jury from learning about the sordid details of the prostitutes, drugs, porn sites, Lamborghini rentals and hotel rooms for drug-fueled benders that Hunter deducted as business expenses.
Geragos also tried to bring in psychological experts to convince the jury Hunter's drug addiction led to his debauched behavior and alleged tax evasion, and that the childhood trauma of his mother and sister dying in a car crash in 1972 and his brother's death from brain cancer in 2015 were to blame.
But Judge Mark Scarsi was having none of it, ruling that Hunter's expert, Joshua Lee, would not be allowed to testify at the trial, that is due to begin next month in a Los Angeles federal court.
Special Counsel David Weiss indicted Hunter on three felonies and six misdemeanors in December, accusing the First Son of deliberately evading taxes, falsifying his returns and failing to pay $1.4million on time – instead spending the money on a 'lavish lifestyle' for a three-year period between 2016 to 2019.
Hunter Biden's defense team desperately argued in a pre-trial hearing Wednesday to keep the jury from hearing the sordid details of the prostitutes, drugs, porn sites, and other drug-fueled benders that Hunter deducted as business expenses
Hundreds of emails, texts, and photos found on Hunter's abandoned laptop are likely to be used as evidence in the First Son's criminal trials
Department of Justice prosecutor Leo Wise, fresh from trouncing Hunter's legal team in his Delaware gun crimes trial, gave a hint in Wednesday's hearing of some of the damning evidence jurors will hear at the impending tax crimes trial, due to begin September 9 in a Los Angeles federal court.
Hunter was not in court for the hearing.
This included Hunter's business deductions on his tax return for 'StreamRay', which Wise described as a site 'to allow consenting adults to meet, and it's sexual in nature'.
'You can spend $30,000 on a porn website if you want, that's not illegal, but you can't claim it's a business expense,' the prosecutor told the judge.
'He describes his life as a bacchanal. Partying in those hotels with a cast of strippers.
'He chose to pay those strippers,' Wise added. 'He chose to take it as a business deduction.'
Wise even read out an excerpt of a testimony transcript from one of the women who the government may put on the stand:
'I got a $1,500 Venmo payment'.
'Where'd you meet him?'
'In a strip club.'
'The [payment description] is for artwork, did you sell him artwork?'
'No.'
'We're not going to go into the gory details,' he said, but added: 'The jury needs those facts to determine whether it was a mistake or whether it was willful.'
Geragos was put in a tricky spot.
Hunter has now retained prominent LA lawyer Mark Geragos ahead of his upcoming trial next month
The criminal defense lawyer has previously Chris Brown when he wass charged with assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna, as well as President Clinton's brother Roger and former Clinton business partner Susan McDougal
During Wednesday's pre-trial hearing, the judge also ruled that they could not discuss the possibility that Hunter was paid for any acts his father Joe Biden took as Vice President, or whether he funneled any money to Joe
He offered to admit that some of Hunter's business deductions were in fact personal expenses, to try to prevent Wise and Hines from telling the jury what those expenses entailed: 'bacchanals' in luxury hotel rooms, payments to prostitutes, and porn subscriptions.
But Hunter's lawyer could not admit that Hunter deliberately made those deductions to reduce his tax bill illegally – as he would thereby admit to some of the government's charges against his client.
Instead, Geragos insisted Hunter didn't know which payments were which, and accidentally claimed them on his taxes.
But Wise hit back, detailing how Hunter deliberately picked out those expenditures and told his accountants to deduct them.
'They gave Mr. Biden those schedules. They said, "here's a yellow highlighter. We don't know which of these are personal and which are business expenses. We need you to highlight it",' the prosecutor said.
'He very deliberately went through these schedules and highlighted things that were personal.'
Wise also revealed Hunter allegedly broke the law by constructing a scheme to claim health insurance, by putting assistants on his payroll who weren't really working for him.
In another blow to the defense, Scarsi ruled that the jury will not be told that Hunter's multi-million-dollar tax bill he is charged with failing to pay, was later paid off by his wealthy Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris.
Wise pointed out Morris only decided to pay of Hunter's tax bill after he discovered the First Son was facing criminal investigation, and that before paying off the IRS, Morris funded Hunter's lavish life – including 'a house in Malibu, a Porsche, a crisis communications team and security detail'.
Judge Scarsi warned that if lawyers talked in front of the jury about topics he had outlawed, they could be fined 'six figures'.
Scarsi also put some limits on the prosecution.
In another blow to the defense, Judge Scarsi ruled that the jury will not be told that Hunter's multi-million-dollar tax bill he is charged with failing to pay, was later paid off by his wealthy Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris
Hunter's legal troubles come after compromising photos, videos, texts, and emails of the president's son from his abandoned laptop were published online
A court sketch of Hunter Biden alongside his lawyer Abbe Lowell in federal court in January. The president's son pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges filed after a plea deal imploded last year
He ruled that they could not discuss the possibility that Hunter was paid by foreign governments, that he was paid for any acts his father Joe Biden took as Vice President, and whether he funneled any money to Joe.
'He had every intention of cleaning up his life, of doing the filings, of paying his taxes,' Geragos told the judge, arguing that it was Hunter's crack addiction that stopped him from getting his life in order until recent years.
The defense lawyer will be arguing that Hunter had a 'diminished capacity' due to his continued drug use through 2019.
But Wise told the judge: 'No matter how much drugs you take, you don't suddenly forget that when you make $11million, you have to pay taxes' – referring to the vast income Hunter received from his foreign business dealings and other ventures in 2016 to 2019.
Geragos got personal, accusing the DoJ of being worse than the mob for bringing Hunter's family into the case, saying 'even the mafia spares the women and children', and adding that Justice Department were trying a 'salacious prosecution'.
Wise shot back that it was Hunter's own team who put his daughter Naomi on the stand in Delaware, a disastrous decision which may have lost them that case.
'Mr. Geragos made that offensive remark about the mob not going after wives and daughters,' said Wise. 'We didn't do that.
'In the gun trial he called one of his daughters. That was awful.'
But in the coming trial, witnesses are set to include Hunter's ex wife Kathleen; his brother's widow who became Hunter's lover, Hallie Biden; and Lunden Roberts, whom he hired as an assistant, impregnated, then cut her from his company's medical insurance.
Wise repeated allegations made in a DoJ filing this month, that Hunter had masterminded a scheme to influence Obama administration officials for a Romanian businessman who was later convicted of bribery.
Hunter received $1 million for the scheme, which allegedly involved lobbying US State Department officials to pressure the Romanian government to halt their criminal probe and prosecution of the Romanian real estate tycoon Gabriel Popoviciu.
DailyMail.com was the first to reveal the key details of the alleged influence peddling operation over three years ago in June 2021.
Wise said in court on Wednesday that in Hunter’s tax trial the prosecution ‘don’t intend to elicit testimony that he violated FARA’, the Foreign Agents Registration Act which requires people to notify the DoJ if they intend to lobby for a foreigner.
But he stated that Hunter and his partners ‘were meeting with government officials on Capitol Hill and the State Department, advocating on behalf of a Romanian businessman to encourage the US government to investigate the investigation in Romania.’
He added that the First Son tried to circumvent lobbying laws by having his partner Rob Walker buy a stake in Popoviciu’s real estate firm, to give the appearance he was advocating for his own business interests not a foreigners’ – and that this was ‘due to the sensitivity of his relationship to his father, who was the Vice President.’
Though Walker was executing the plan, Wise said that Walker testified to a grand jury that Hunter was ‘the strategy person, he identifies who I should meet with who I should talk to’.
‘Walker clearly testifies that he was the worker bee, Mr Biden was the strategist,’ Wise said.
Geragos argued that the actions were all taken by Walker, not Hunter, so should not be discussed in front of the jury, and complained that the DoJ’s filing about Hunter’s alleged FARA violation was ‘designed specifically to inflame press coverage.’
‘This is nothing more than poisoning the jury pool,’ the defense attorney said.
After hearing the arguments, Judge Scarsi ruled that Hunter’s dealings with Popoviciu could be discussed before the jury, but that mentions of the Obama administration, Hunter’s alleged illegal lobbying, or wrongdoing by officials, could not.