Lawyer: Federal authorities try to blacken Hunter Biden in tax trial with evidence from pornography

Hunter Biden's star lawyer lashed out at federal prosecutors trying to smear the First Son by introducing evidence at his upcoming tax trial in Los Angeles that Hunter spent money on strippers and pornography.

During a hearing in federal court in Los Angeles, Mark Geragos argued that special counsel David Weiss' attempt to present evidence of Hunter's shoddy spending while avoiding paying $1.4 million in taxes was nothing short of “character assassination” and should not be allowed.

“They want to stigmatize him because that is their only purpose,” Geragos told federal judge Mark Scarsi.

“This is actually a form of character assassination,” he added, calling it an “offensive accusation” aimed at “making Hunter look bad.”

Lead Assistant Special Counsel Leo Wise argued that jurors needed to know details about Hunter's five-figure payments to porn sites and wild parties with strippers because the 54-year-old First Son allegedly wrote them off as business expenses.

“He describes parties in hotels with a troupe of strippers,” Wise said, referring to Hunter's 2021 memoir. “He decided to pay them, which is fine – it's America, you can do it. But then he decided to claim it as a business deduction.”

“You can spend $30,000 on a porn website if you want – it's not illegal,” the prosecutor continued, “but you can't claim it as a business expense.”

Scarsi – an appointee of former President Donald Trump – did not make a decision Wednesday on whether to admit the objectionable evidence in the trial.

Geragos, whose previous high-profile clients have included Michael Jackson, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jussie Smollett, suffered a setback at the hearing when Scarsi ruled that an expert witness on addiction could not testify for the defense.

Another blow was the judge's decision that testimony linking Hunter's crack and alcohol addiction to the 1972 car crash that killed his mother and sister, or to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer, would not be admitted.

Weiss' team also clashed with Geragos over evidence related to Hunter's lucrative foreign business dealings, which are a core element of the House Republicans' impeachment proceedings against President Biden.

Prosecutors had hoped to present evidence to jurors related to the son's association with a Romanian oligarch to show them that Hunter was able to make multimillion-dollar deals while battling drug and alcohol addictions, and to undermine defense claims that Hunter was too high or too drunk to pay taxes.

Scarsi ruled that the government could not claim that Hunter violated laws against lobbying by foreign agents or that the Obama administration acted improperly during Joe's tenure as vice president.

“This is a tax case,” the judge argued, siding with defense attorneys who had asked him to limit such evidence.

Geragos fumed because Weiss had released details of Hunter's business dealings with Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu in court documents, suggesting that this was an attempt to drum up media interest in the case and influence jury selection.

“I think it was specifically designed to fuel or inflame press coverage,” Geragos said.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin September 5. Hunter has pleaded not guilty to all nine counts, including three felonies.

He was convicted in June of making false statements about his drug use when purchasing a gun. He faces up to 25 years in prison at sentencing on November 13, but given his lack of a criminal record, he is expected to receive significantly less.

With post wires