Hunter Biden’s celebrity attorney lashed out that federal prosecutors are trying to “slime” the first son — by trying to introduce evidence that Hunter splurged on strippers and pornography at his upcoming tax trial in Los Angeles.
Mark Geragos argued during a hearing in a Los Angeles federal courtroom that special counsel David Weiss’s effort to introduce evidence of Hunter’s seedy spending while avoiding paying $1.4 million in taxes is nothing more than “character assassination” and shouldn’t be allowed.
“They want to slime him because that is the whole purpose,” Geragos told federal Judge Mark Scarsi.
“It’s actually a form of character assassination,” he added, 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.
“He describes partying in hotels with a cast of strippers,” Wise said, referring to Hunter’s 2021 memoir. “He chose to pay them, which is fine — it’s America, you can do that. But then he chose to take it as a business deduction.”
“You can spend $30,000 on a pornography 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 rule Wednesday on whether the salacious evidence would be allowed at 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 ordered that an expert witness on addiction could not testify for the defense.
In another blow, 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.
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.
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.
“I believe it was designed specifically to inflame or ignite press coverage,” Geragos said.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Sept. 5. 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 Nov. 13 but is expected to get far less given his lack of criminal record.
With Post wires
