Judge skeptical of Hunter Biden's effort to dismiss tax case as politically motivated

Weiss has separately indicted Biden in Delaware for allegedly lying on a federal firearms form.

Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty in both cases. He filed similar motions to dismiss in the Delaware case, and the judge there also has not ruled.

The pair of indictments came after the collapse of a plea deal in July that would have allowed Biden to avoid a possible felony conviction and prison time, as well as the negative headlines of a trial during his father’s reelection campaign. Now he faces two trials this year, although the case in L.A. is more serious and complex than the Delaware one.

Much of Biden’s arguments to dismiss the tax charges center on the months before and after the plea deal fell apart.

At that time, Weiss and his team faced a barrage of attacks from Trump over the plea deal, with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, blasting it as a “sweetheart” deal. Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, two Internal Revenue Service agents involved in Biden’s six-year criminal investigation, had by then come forward and given rounds of news interviews alleging that their inquiry was marred by political influence and special treatment toward their target because he was the president’s son.

Near the outset of Wednesday’s hearing, Lowell said, “There’s nothing regular about how this case was initiated, investigated.”

He put up a chart with several bullet points that he said showed “the selective and vindictive” nature of the prosecution.

Among the bullet points: not stopping the IRS agents’ “publicity tour”; the reopening of an investigation into FBI informant Alexander Smirnov’s now-debunked claims that Hunter Biden and his father received $5 million each from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma; and the appointment of Weiss as special counsel despite repeated statements that this was unnecessary.

Prosecutors counter that Biden’s argument is a fiction and a “conspiracy theory” that ignores a clear fact: Trump is no longer president and Biden’s father oversees the Justice Department.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Derek Hines, a member of Weiss’ team, told the judge that “there’s no link or causal connection whatsoever to the decision-making in this case” and that this timeline is “all they’re left with, with no direct evidence.”

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