FILE – Hunter Biden walks to board Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport, March 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Hunter Biden’s defense lawyers reiterated their stance Friday that the Special Counsel’s Office should not be allowed to rail against his “extravagant lifestyle” at his nearing Delaware gun trial by bringing up prejudicial and “salacious” allegations of spending on “adult entertainment” and “escort services.”
The filing comes two days after special counsel David Weiss rejected the notion that the words “extravagant lifestyle” are necessarily prejudicial. Prosecutors warned that they do intend to use “relevant evidence” of Biden’s spending at trial, coupled with the “admissions” about crack addiction in Biden’s book “Beautiful Things.”
Here’s how Weiss forecast his intentions regarding evidence that he says will support the charges that President Joe Biden’s son unlawfully purchased and possessed a firearm in 2018 while “knowing” he was addicted to drugs:
At trial the government’s proof will include some evidence that the defendant was spending money, including, but not limited to: the defendant spent large sums of cash on drugs and drug paraphernalia; the defendant was staying at hotels while traveling with a witness who observed his drug use; the defendant withdrew sums of cash from ATMs in locations that are consistent with his described whereabouts in his book, including in Delaware around the time of the gun purchase; the defendant withdrew cash prior to his purchase of the firearm at issue in this case; the defendant tendered $900 in cash when he bought the gun; and the defendant was living a life as he described it in excerpts of the book identified in the government’s motion to admit.
As Biden’s defense saw it in a motion in limine, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika should bar prosecutors from making “any argument, reference, or questioning at trial,” scheduled to begin on June 3, “regarding his alleged spending on an ‘extravagant lifestyle’ during periods that Mr. Biden was suffering from addiction.”
In their Friday filing, the defense acknowledged that some evidence of Biden’s spending while addicted to drugs “may be relevant” (they mentioned “purported drug purchases, ATM withdrawals, and purchase of a revolver”). But any “salacious” details about spending on “adult entertainment, online chat rooms, or escort services” should not be allowed at trial, the defense said.
“Characterizing or referencing unnecessary salacious details—such as how much things cost, whether they are upscale, or citing expenses concerning collateral alleged sexual conduct unrelated to the charges here—are the exact type of prejudicial, inflammatory evidence that has a tendency to make a conviction more likely because it provokes an emotional response in the jury,” the reply concluded.
In separate filings, the defense argued that Biden’s tax charges in California should be excluded from the gun trial, just like details about his Arkansas child support case and details of the circumstances of his 2014 discharge from the U.S. Navy over a failed drug test.
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