Hunter Biden’s attorneys filed nine motions on Tuesday asking a judge to drop tax-related charges filed by David Weiss in California last year.
Abbe Lowell, the attorney for Hunter Biden, in a statement said that “the special counsel has gone to extreme lengths to bring charges against Mr. Biden that would not have been filed against anyone else. Prosecutors reneged on binding agreements, bowed to political pressure to bring unprecedented charges, overreached in their authority, ignored the rules and allowed their agents to run amok, and repeatedly misstated evidence to the court to defend their conduct.”
Attorneys for Hunter Biden claimed in court documents that Hunter was being selectively targeted. Additionally, they claimed that several of the charges should be dropped for improper venue, because the statute of limitations had run out, and there were duplicate charges for the same tax year.
Hunter’s attorneys contend that he already paid his taxes, including interest and penalties, for one of the 2019 tax charges.
“When a taxpayer has paid all they owe under those circumstances, as Mr. Biden has, criminal tax charges simply are not brought,” one of the filings said. “The fact that they were brought here highlights that Mr. Biden is being subject to a selective and vindictive prosecution.”
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, two IRS whistleblowers, were the targets of another filing, which claimed that their unprecedented leaks prejudiced the prosecution.
According to a filing, these agents engaged in what is best described as vigilante justice in the court of public opinion over the course of several months, making a mockery of the legal framework necessary to handle these kinds of investigations.
The special counsel is retaliated against in yet another filing, which the attorneys claim violates the Appropriates Clause by claiming that Weiss was unlawfully appointed as Special Counsel and that Congress did not approve the funding for his investigation and prosecution.
The defense team asked the judge to remove some allegations from the indictment in a separate filing, claiming that it was “littered with inflammatory characterizations and gratuitous facts” that could mislead the jury and prevent Hunter Biden from obtaining an impartial trial.
During his January arraignment, Joe Biden's son entered a not guilty plea to nine tax-related charges. He had previously been charged with tax evasion in the Central District of California.
Hunter Biden allegedly “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle” rather than paying taxes, according to the December indictment.
In December, Hunter requested that gun-related charges against him be dropped by a federal judge in Delaware, citing an earlier settlement with prosecutors that, according to his attorneys, granted him immunity.
While many of the motions in Tuesday's filing focused more on the specific charges he faces in federal court in California, they largely mirrored arguments made in the gun case.
