Jury selection begins in Hunter Biden's tax trial months after his gun conviction

LOS ANGELES – Jury selection in the federal tax trial of Hunter Biden is scheduled to begin Thursday, just months after the president's son was convicted of gun charges in another case.

In the case in federal court in Los Angeles, Hunter Biden is accused of evading at least $1.4 million in taxes over a four-year scheme while collecting millions of dollars from foreign companies. He already faces prison time after a Delaware jury found him guilty in June of lying on a 2018 federal form to buy a gun he owned for 11 days.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to charges related to his 2016-2019 taxes, and his lawyers have indicated they will argue he did not act “willfully” or with the intent to break the law, in part because of his well-documented struggle with alcohol and drug addiction.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, appointed by former President Donald Trump, has imposed some restrictions on what jurors can hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden's family, friends and lawyers say led to his drug addiction.

The judge barred lawyers from linking his drug problems to the 2015 cancer death of his brother Beau Biden or the car crash that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler. He also rejected a proposed defense expert to testify on the subject of addiction.

The indictment alleges that Hunter Biden lived a lavish life while violating tax law by spending his money on things like strippers and luxury hotels – “in short, everything except his taxes.”

Hunter Biden's lawyers had asked Scarsi to also prevent prosecutors from highlighting details of his spending that they said amounted to a “character assassination campaign,” including payments to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court documents that he will “strictly control” the presentation of potentially offensive evidence.

Meanwhile, prosecutors could provide more details about Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, which are at the heart of Republican investigations into the Biden family that often seek – without evidence – to link the president to an alleged influence scheme.

The special investigator's team has announced that it will inform the jury about Hunter Biden's work for a Romanian businessman who attempted to “influence the policies of the US government” during Joe Biden's term as vice president.

The defense accused prosecutors of publishing details about Hunter Biden's work for the Romanian in court documents in order to boost media coverage and influence the jury.

The judge will ask a group of potential jurors a series of questions to determine whether they are suitable for jury duty. Among other things, he will consider whether their political views and knowledge of the case would prevent them from being impartial.

Potential jurors are expected to be questioned about their own family and personal drug histories, as well as tax issues and past dealings with the Internal Revenue Service. And even though President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid, they will also have to answer questions about whether they believe charges can be brought on political grounds.

A rigorously vetted deal and a diversion agreement that would have prevented the two cases from continuing failed under judicial questioning in July 2023. Shortly thereafter, a special counsel filed charges against Hunter Biden, splitting the deal into the weapons charges in Delaware and the tax case in California.

Sentencing in the Hunter Biden case in Delaware is scheduled for November 13. He faces up to 25 years in prison, but as a first-time offender he will likely receive a much shorter sentence or avoid prison altogether.