Attorneys for Hunter Biden file motions to dismiss tax charges in California

Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on February 21, 2024

(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for Hunter Biden on Tuesday moved to dismiss tax-related charges brought by special counsel David Weiss in California, accusing prosecutors of selectively targeting President Joe Biden’s son, violating a statute of limitations, and filing duplicative charges on three counts of failure to pay and tax evasion.

“The special counsel has gone to extreme lengths to bring charges against Mr. Biden that would not have been filed against anyone else,” Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.

“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. It is time to hold the special counsel accountable and dismiss these improper charges,” Lowell said.

Weiss’ office charged Hunter Biden in December with nine felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes for three years during a time when he was in the throes of addiction. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden’s attorney and confidant, Kevin Morris.

In his motions on Tuesday, Lowell reiterated many of the arguments he waged in his efforts to dismiss three additional felony counts Biden faces in Delaware — charges to which Biden has also pleaded not guilty.

Lowell claimed that the tax indictment is the result of a selective and vindictive prosecution stemming from political pressure, that Weiss was not properly appointed special counsel and therefore lacks authority to file charges, and that an immunity agreement struck by the two parties last summer remains in effect.

Lowell also argued that the statute of limitations for Biden’s alleged failure to pay taxes in 2016 expired in April 2023.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys also challenged the venue of the charges, claiming Biden was a resident of Washington, D.C., at the time and argued that three counts of the indictment “contain serious duplicity problems,” where multiple alleged violations are included in the same count.

In the event the case does move forward, Lowell filed a separate motion seeking to strike “inflammatory characterizations and gratuitous facts and descriptors” included in the indictment that were “meant to depict Mr. Biden as irresponsible, frivolous, and otherwise of questionable character and integrity” during his period in the throes of addiction.

Lowell said they run the risk of “misleading and confusing the jury” if the case moves to trial.