Hunter Biden wants tax trial delayed until September, despite judge’s warning
First son Hunter Biden wants to postpone his Los Angeles trial on federal tax charges by more than two months, despite the case judge previously warning he had no plans for “significant delay.“
President Biden’s son last week asked US District Judge Mark Scarsi to move his June 20 trial date to Sept. 5, citing scheduling conflicts with his unrelated gun case out of Delaware, which is slated to go to trial beginning June 3.
Scarsi earlier this month warned the 54-year-old Hunter that he was ignoring key scheduling deadlines to keep the case on track “at his own peril,” adding that the plan is “to proceed to trial without significant delay.”
Last week, the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shot down the younger Biden’s request to revive a bid to have the charges against him tossed.
Prosecutors in the office of special counsel David Weiss said the request for a 77-day postponement of the California trial should be rejected since the Biden son has “teams of lawyers working with him on each case” — and is responsible for the tight turnaround himself.
“The defendant’s choice to schedule a weeklong trial in a not-complicated gun case for June 3 is a problem of his own making, not one that can militate in favor of a continuance here,” the feds wrote in papers filed last week.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said they plan to call more than 30 witnesses, “most of them out-of-state,” who have already set their schedules around the original LA trial date.
Scarsi scheduled a conference for Wednesday to address Hunter Biden’s request for postponement.
The presidential offspring faces six misdemeanor and three felony counts after allegedly skipping out on $1.4 million in federal income taxes for the years 2016 through 2019. The tab to Uncle Sam has since been paid.
Hunter Biden also faces three weapons charges connected to allegations he illegally owned a gun while addicted to crack cocaine.
The first son has denied wrongdoing.
