A federal judge delayed Hunter Biden’s trial on tax charges from June to September, pushing closer to the 2024 election a case that is expected to feature details of President Biden’s son spending money on drugs, escorts and exotic purchases. The younger Biden was indicted last year on a raft of gun and tax charges in a five-year investigation that centered initially on his foreign business dealings but came to focus on his taxes and his 2018 purchase of a firearm. Hunter Biden had faced the prospect of two criminal trials in June on opposite coasts—the tax trial in Los Angeles and a trial on gun charges in Delaware. His lawyer argued Wednesday that the two trials created an untenable situation, the Wall Street Journal reports. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in Los Angeles agreed, granting the delay to Sept. 5 over the objection of special counsel David Weiss’s team, to ensure Hunter Biden is able to prepare for the case.
The new date sets the stage for the president’s son to stand trial on tax charges two months before his father faces voters in a tough re-election fight. Allies of the president have long fretted about Hunter Biden’s past troubles undercutting his father’s wholesome image and revealing tawdry details about the first family. The tax case presents vulnerabilities for the president because it includes a period when Hunter Biden has said he was sober. In the California tax case, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes he owed for the years 2016 through 2019. Of the nine charges he faces, six are misdemeanors centering on his alleged failure to file returns or pay taxes for several years during a drug-fueled spending frenzy. Three felony charges involve allegations that the younger Biden gave tax papers to his accountants in early 2020 that included hundreds of thousands of dollars in false tax deductions, including write-offs for payments to escorts and dancers, a sex-club membership and his daughter’s law-school tuition as business expenses. Those charges stem from a critical period in early 2020 that was, as prosecutors said, “well after he had regained his sobriety.”