Hunter Biden asks judge to delay tax trial set for late June

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — Attorneys for Hunter Biden have asked the judge presiding over his tax case in California to delay the trial currently set for late June, pushing it to September or beyond.

Earlier this week, the judges overseeing both cases against the president’s son — including a gun case against him in Delaware — said that the trial dates, each in June, would remain in place after separate panels of appellate judges rejected his efforts in both cases to appeal certain rulings.

Hunter Biden has been accused of engaging in a tax-avoidance conspiracy for several years as he funded a lavish lifestyle as well as purchasing and possessing a firearm while using illegal drugs. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Citing the separate gun case in Delaware, the trial for which is scheduled to start shortly before Biden’s tax case, as well as “unusual delays” in securing experts in the California case and “the need to speak with witnesses in various states,” attorneys for Biden also suggested holding a scheduling conference in the coming weeks if their effort to delay the case is denied.

In an order on Tuesday, the federal judge presiding over the tax case, Marc Scarsi, said he would hear “further requests” to modify the trial schedule on May 29, days before Biden is set to be in Delaware for the trial there.

Prosecutors, in a slew of filings this week, asked Scarsi not to allow Biden’s attorneys to cite evidence during trial that the president’s son eventually paid back the taxes that he owed — which they say only occurred 10 months after he learned of the investigation — by a third party.

In their filings, prosecutors have also proposed questions for the jury pool in California, including if they have strong feelings about the IRS and whether they believe Hunter Biden is being prosecuted because he is the president’s son.

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