Hunter Biden’s lawyers say allegations of foreign business dealings have no place in upcoming tax trial

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden’s lawyers say prosecutors are inappropriately trying to insert “politically charged” allegations about his foreign business dealings into the upcoming federal tax case against the president’s son.

Special Counsel David Weiss’ team told the judge last week that they plan to call a business associate of Hunter Biden to the witness stand to testify about an agreement with a Romanian businessman who tried to “influence U.S. government policy” during Joe Bidenterm as Vice President.

In court filings Sunday, Hunter Biden’s lawyers responded that such matters were irrelevant in the case, which goes to trial in Los Angeles next month and involves at least $1.4 million in taxes he owed between 2016 and 2019.

Moreover, defense attorneys who allowed such testimony would confuse jurors, and they accused prosecutors of flaunting these matters “on the eve of Mr. Biden’s trial – even though there is no mention of political interference in the 56-page indictment.”

“The Special Counsel’s unnecessary change of tactics is merely a reflection of the baseless and false allegations of foreign wrongdoing advanced by Republicans in the House of Representatives to exploit Mr. Biden’s legitimate business activities in Romania and elsewhere to attack him and his father,” the defense wrote.

Prosecutors said they wanted to present evidence of collusion with the Romanian businessman to undermine defense arguments that Hunter Biden’s drug use during the years he is accused of tax evasion influenced his decision-making and judgment.

The evidence showed that his actions “did not reflect those of a person with diminished capacity” because, as part of the agreement, he agreed to try to influence U.S. policy in exchange for millions of dollars, prosecutors wrote.

Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu wanted U.S. authorities to investigate bribery charges he faced in his home country in the hope that this would end his legal troubles, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business partner to help Popoviciu fight the charges against him. But prosecutors said they were concerned that “the lobbying effort could have political consequences” for Joe Biden. So the agreement was structured to obscure “the true nature of the work” for Popoviciu, prosecutors alleged.

Hunter Biden’s business partner and Popoviciu signed an agreement to make it appear as if Popoviciu’s payments were for “management services for real estate assets in Romania.”

In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business partner agreed that they would be paid for their work to “try to get U.S. authorities to investigate the Romanian investigation,” prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business partner received more than $3 million, which he split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors said.

Hunter Biden’s trial comes months after he was convicted on three counts of aggravated weapons misconduct related to a 2018 gun purchase. He was found guilty of lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by claiming he was neither an illegal drug user nor addicted to drugs.