Current:Home > StocksHunter Biden’s lawyers say claims about foreign business dealing have no place in upcoming tax trial-LoTradeCoin
Hunter Biden’s lawyers say claims about foreign business dealing have no place in upcoming tax trial
View Date:2024-12-23 18:40:00
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden’s lawyers say prosecutors are inappropriately trying to insert “politically-charged” allegations about his foreign business dealings into the upcoming federal tax trial against the president’s son.
Special counsel David Weiss’ team told the judge last week that they plan to call to the witness stand a business associate of Hunter Biden’s to testify about an arrangement with a Romanian businessman who was trying to “influence U.S. government policy” during Joe Biden’s term as vice president.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers responded in court papers filed Sunday that such matters are irrelevant in the case headed for trial next month in Los Angeles over at least $1.4 million in taxes he owed between 2016 and 2019.
Furthermore, defense lawyers allowing such testimony would confuse jurors, and slammed prosecutors for showcasing “these matters on the eve of Mr. Biden’s trial—when there is no mention of political influence in the 56-page Indictment.”
“The Special Counsel’s unnecessary change of tactic merely echoes the baseless and false allegations of foreign wrongdoing which have been touted by House Republicans to use Mr. Biden’s proper business activities in Romania and elsewhere to attack him and his father,” the defense wrote.
Prosecutors said they want to bring in evidence of the arrangement with the Romanian businessman to rebut arguments from the defense that Hunter Biden’s drug use during the years in which he’s accused of failing to pay his taxes affected his decision-making and judgement.
The evidence shows his actions “do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy and receive millions of dollars” as part of the arrangement, prosecutors wrote.
The Romanian businessman, Gabriel Popoviciu, wanted U.S. government agencies to probe a bribery investigation he was facing in his home country in the hopes that would end his legal trouble, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business associate to help Popoviciu fight the criminal charges against him. But prosecutors say they were concerned that “lobbying work might cause political ramifications” for Joe Biden, so the arrangement was structured in a way that “concealed the true nature of the work” for Popoviciu, prosecutors alleged.
Hunter Biden’s business associate and Popoviciu signed an agreement to make it look like Popoviciu’s payments were for “management services to real estate prosperities in Romania.”
In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business associate agreed that they would be paid for their work to “attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation,” prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business associate was paid more than $3 million, which was split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors say.
The tax trial comes months after Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony gun charges over the purchase of a gun in 2018. He was found guilty of lying on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
veryGood! (7891)
Related
- Brian Austin Green Shares Message to Sharna Burgess Amid Ex Megan Fox's Baby News
- The Challenge's Amber Borzotra Gives Birth, Welcomes Baby With Chauncey Palmer
- Scientists Attribute Record-Shattering Siberian Heat and Wildfires to Climate Change
- World People’s Summit Calls for a Climate Justice Tribunal
- Does your dog have arthritis? A lot of them do. But treatment can be tricky
- Scientists Attribute Record-Shattering Siberian Heat and Wildfires to Climate Change
- US Declares Greenhouse Gases a Danger to Public Health and Welfare
- Robert De Niro Reacts to Pal Al Pacino and Girlfriend Noor Alfallah's Baby News
- Wisconsin agency issues first round of permits for Enbridge Line 5 reroute around reservation
- Heat blamed for more than a dozen deaths in Texas, Louisiana. Here's how to stay safe.
Ranking
- Biden EPA to charge first-ever ‘methane fee’ for drilling waste by oil and gas companies
- How Amanda Seyfried Is Helping Emmy Rossum With Potty Training After Co-Star Welcomed Baby No. 2
- Vanderpump Rules' Ariana Madix & Raquel Leviss Come Face-to-Face for First Time Since Scandoval
- Why TikTokers Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan Want to Be Trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ Community
- A herniated disc is painful, debilitating. How to get relief.
- Yusef Salaam, exonerated member of Central Park Five, declares victory in New York City Council race
- Colorado Court: Oil, Gas Drilling Decisions Can’t Hinge on Public Health
- Canada’s Tar Sands Province Elects a Combative New Leader Promising Oil & Pipeline Revival
Recommendation
-
Jury awards Abu Ghraib detainees $42 million, holds contractor responsible
-
5 teens, including 4 Texas Roadhouse employees, found dead after car lands in Florida retention pond
-
New Orleans Finally Recovering from Post-Katrina Brain Drain
-
Court dismisses Ivanka Trump from New York attorney general's fraud lawsuit
-
Multi-State Offshore Wind Pact Weakened After Connecticut Sits Out First Selection
-
Armie Hammer Not Charged With Sexual Assault After LAPD Investigation
-
TVA Votes to Close 2 Coal Plants, Despite Political Pressure from Trump and Kentucky GOP
-
Can Car-Sharing Culture Help Fuel an Electric Vehicle Revolution?