Judge's sanctions threat based on just one misused word, Hunter Biden's attorneys say
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, boards Air Force One with the president in February 2023 at the Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press)
Lawyers defending Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, say they misused just one word in a motion to dismiss a special counsel’s tax evasion case, and they are not deserving of sanctions.
U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi of the Central District of California had ordered the lawyers on July 24 to show cause why they shouldn’t be sanctioned for making false statements in the July 18 dismissal motion, which argued that the appointment of special counsel David C. Weiss was unconstitutional.
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Scarsi said Biden’s lawyers misrepresented the history of the case when they said no charges were brought until Weiss, a U.S. attorney, was appointed special counsel. In reality, Scarsi said, Weiss charged Biden with misdemeanor tax offenses and felony unlawful possession of a firearm in two criminal informations before his elevation to special counsel in August 2023.
The misstatements “are not trivial,” Scarsi wrote.
Lawyers for Biden argued in a July 28 filing that they used the word “charges” when they should have used “indictments.” The defense lawyers “perhaps inartfully, intended this use of the word ‘charges’ to refer to the current charges brought by indictment against Mr. Biden, not the lack of any charges at all,” they wrote in their response.
“There is no basis on which to sanction Mr. Biden’s counsel for the use of that one word, which was not misleading in the context in which the two prior informations had been repeatedly addressed with the court,” Biden’s lawyers wrote.
The earlier informations were docketed to facilitate a plea deal and diversion agreement, Biden’s lawyers say. They were dismissed when the plea deal fell apart.
The lawyers representing Biden are Mark J. Geragos, Tina Glandian and Setara Qassim—of Geragos & Geragos—and Angela M. Machala and Abbe David Lowell of Winston & Strawn.
Biden’s lawyers filed the dismissal motion after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of the the Southern District of Florida dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. Cannon had ruled July 15 that Smith’s appointment violated the appointments clause.
Biden was convicted on gun charges in Delaware in June stemming from his purchase of a gun while illegally using drugs without disclosing it. The case accusing Biden of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes is scheduled for trial in September, according to the Associated Press.
