The federal judge presiding over Hunter Biden’s tax evasion trial said Wednesday he would not allow the testimony of a witness who Biden’s lawyers said was willing to testify about the root cause of Biden’s drug addiction.
Biden’s lawyers tried to place his alleged tax offenses in the context of an addiction that clouded his judgment.
The ruling was one of several in a routine preliminary hearing designed to set ground rules for the evidence to be presented at trial. It could affect the defense team’s ability to protect President Biden’s son from conviction, but it will not derail their strategy.
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The lawyer who will argue the case in Biden’s defense in court, Mark Geragos, made clear on Wednesday that he plans to argue that Biden’s ability to make decisions was impaired by his drug use. But Judge Mark Scarsi ruled that he could not tell the jury that Biden’s addiction was caused by specific traumatic events in his life.
The younger Biden said the death of his brother Beau in 2015 sent him into a drug spiral. Biden’s lawyers have also suggested that early childhood trauma, which he suffered when he was 2 in a car accident that killed his mother and sister, contributed to his substance abuse.
Judge Scarsi’s ruling on Wednesday prevents President Biden’s lawyers from arguing that the events were the direct cause of his addiction.
Biden is accused of evading at least $1.4 million in taxes and falsifying some of his tax returns by claiming personal expenses as business expenses.
Among the expenses prosecutors will highlight are those related to what they call an “extravagant” lifestyle that included illegal drugs and payments to women with whom he is alleged to have had sexual relations.
A jury will be seated in the case in early September. Attorneys said Wednesday they expect to need eight full days to present evidence and hear testimony. Judge Scarsi said he expects jury selection to take one to two days.
That timeline means that Biden, who was convicted of a federal weapons offense over the summer, would hear a jury’s verdict on his alleged tax offenses in late September, and he faces sentencing on his weapons offenses in November.
The jury selection is scheduled to begin on September 5.
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