Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos has lashed out at federal prosecutors for trying to “slime” first son Hunter Biden, accusing them of attempting to introduce evidence that he splurged on strippers and pornography in his upcoming tax trial in Los Angeles.
Geragos told federal Judge Mark Scarsi, “They want to slime him because that is the whole purpose.” He added that it was a “form of character assassination,” calling it a “salacious prosecution” intended to make Hunter “look bad.” Principal senior assistant special counsel Leo Wise argued that details of Hunter’s five-figure payments to porn sites and wild parties with strippers are critical for jurors to know because the 54-year-old first son allegedly wrote them off as business expenses.
Scarsi, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, did not rule on whether the salacious evidence would be allowed at trial. In another blow, Geragos, whose previous high-profile clients have included Michael Jackson, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jussie Smollett, suffered a setback at the hearing when Scarsi ordered that an expert witness on addiction could not testify for the defense.
The judge also ruled that testimony attributing Hunter’s crack cocaine and alcohol addiction to the 1972 car crash that killed his mother and sister or the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden, from brain cancer would not be allowed. Geragos fumed that Weiss released details of Hunter’s business dealings with Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu in court filings, suggesting that it was an attempt to fuel media interest in the case and contaminate the jury pool.
Weiss’ team also clashed with Geragos on evidence related to Hunter’s lucrative foreign business dealings, which have been one of the core elements of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Prosecutors had hoped to introduce evidence related to the first son’s work with a Romanian oligarch to show jurors that Hunter was able to secure million-dollar deals while grappling with drug and alcohol addiction and to counter defense claims that Hunter was too high or too drunk to pay taxes.
Scarsi ruled that the government cannot suggest that Hunter violated foreign agent lobbying laws or that the Obama administration, when Joe was vice president, acted improperly. This is a tax trial,” the judge reasoned, siding with defense lawyers asking him to limit this sort of evidence.
Jury selection for the trial is set to begin on September 5, and Hunter has pleaded not guilty to all nine counts, which include three felonies. In June, he was convicted of lying about his drug use while purchasing a gun. He faces up to 25 years behind bars at his sentencing on November 13 but is expected to get far less given his lack of criminal record.
