Last month Hunter Biden's legal team filed a motion to dismiss his tax charges, claiming among other things that his own father's DOJ has "upped the ante" against him in a politically motivated case of "selective and vindictive prosecution" in order to do Donald Trump's bidding.
"This case follows a nearly six-year record of [the Justice Department] changing its charging decisions and upping the ante on Mr. Biden in direct response to political pressure and its own self-interests," Hunter's attorneys wrote in the Feb. 20 filing.
They also wanted "salacious" portions of Biden's personal expenditures to be redacted, claiming they are "meant to depict Mr. Biden as irresponsible, frivolous, and otherwise of questionable character and integrity."
Weiss hits back
Fast forward nearly three weeks, and Special Counsel David Weiss just annihilated Hunter's entire filing in a scathing response. It's a fun read.
[T]he defendant concocts a conspiracy theory that the prosecution has “upped the ante” to appease politicians who have absolutely nothing to do with the prosecution and are not even members of the current Executive Branch.
...
"[T]o state an obvious fact that the defendant continues to ignore, former President Trump is not the President of the United States.
The defendant fails to explain how President Biden or the Attorney General, to whom the Special Counsel reports, or the Special Counsel himself, or his team of prosecutors, are acting at the direction of former President Trump or Congressional Republicans, or how this current Executive Branch approved allegedly discriminatory charges against the President’s son at the direction of former President Trump and Congressional Republicans."
Hunter made millions, lied to his accountants, and "chose to commit serious tax crimes"
Under the "factual background" section of the response, Weiss says that Hunter "engaged in a four-year scheme not to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes."
Meanwhile, Hunter "willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes," and "Despite receiving $1.2 million in financial support from a friend to maintain his lifestyle, the defendant did not make payments towards his tax obligations."
Hunter again lied to his accountants in 2020.
"For example, the defendant falsely claimed extensive business travel in 2018 during a period in which he later described his crack cocaine use as “twenty-four hours a day, smoking every fifteen minutes, seven days a week."
The defendant lied to his accountants by claiming as business expenses $43,696 in stays at the Chateau Marmont with his “merry band of crooks, creeps, and outcasts.”
More:
Weiss notes that Hunter "earned millions of dollars in income between years 2016 and 2017," for which he "performed very little actual work for the $7 million in income he was paid during this period."
Hunter "spent nearly $5 million on personal expenses to live an extravagant lifestyle instead of paying his taxes."
Serious Gun Crimes
Weiss then notes that Hunter's crimes "were not limited to tax violations."
"In 2018, he chose to purchase a gun, he chose to lie on background check paperwork by stating he was not addicted to drugs, and he certified that his answers on the paperwork were true, when in fact, he had lied about his addiction."
We also learn that Hunter lied about his legal interactions and negotiations with the DOJ - such as claiming that a plea agreement was approved to handle the gun charge, when in fact it was not.
"The defendant incorrectly claims that DOJ “proposed a non-prosecution agreement for the gun and tax charges, even though DOJ had already determined the charges should not be brought.”
Hunter also claimed that the DOJ "inexplicably demanded" that he plead guilty to felonies with jail time. Not true, according to Weiss:
The rest of the filing, which can be read here, shreds Hunter's various other claims and defenses, while Weiss accuses Hunter's legal team of attempting "to transform a seemingly bland set of plea discussions into a conspiracy theory.
In closing, Weiss asks that Hunter's motion to dismiss be "denied in its entirety."
