Aug. 20 (UPI) — A federal judge has rejected Hunter Biden‘s latest attempt to dismiss tax evasion charges in a case that is expected to go to trial next month.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, faces nine charges in California on accusations of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019.
His legal team in July sought to dismiss the case by citing a recent decision by a federal judge in Florida who throw out the classified documents case against Donald Trump on the grounds that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional.
Similar to Trump’s legal team, Biden’s argued that Jack Weiss, the special counsel who brought charges against the sitting president’s son, was also unconstitutionally appointed.
In the seven-page ruling Monday, District Judge Mark Scarsi of the U.S. District Court of Central California did not touch on the merits of Biden’s argument but rejected it for being untimely and an attempt to relitigate a decision that quashed a previous attempt by Biden to have the case dismissed.
“Mr. Biden plainly seeks reconsideration of issues already decided upon his February motion,” Scarsi said.
“The Court declines to reach the merits of the motion because there is no valid basis for reconsideration of the Court’s order denying Mr. Biden’s motion to dismiss the indictment for Appropriations and Appointments Clause violations.”
Scarsi also said Monday that he would not sanction Biden’s legal team concerning its representation of facts in the case when asking for the dismissal after they admitted in a follow-up brief to “inartfully” referring to the circumstances the charges were brought against their client.
Biden’s tax trial is expected to begin next month.
He was previously found guilty on three gun-related charges in June and awaiting sentencing.
