Hunter Biden’s Lawyer Defends Inclusion of Rudy Giuliani in Trial

Hunter Biden’s attorney has defended his right to include Rudy Giuliani in Biden’s upcoming tax evasion case.
The prosecutor in the case, David Weiss, had demanded to know how Biden’s legal team intended to use the name of Giuliani and 21 others in the upcoming trial.
Weiss also accused Biden’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, of potentially breaking court rules.
“Defense counsel proposed additional names that the Government believes would violate the Court’s ruling on the motions,” special counsel David Weiss wrote in an eight-page filing on Thursday, citing that Geragos had included non-agreed-upon names, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
In a terse reposte on Friday, Geragos strongly rejected the characterization and suggested that the prosecutor was trying to prejudice the upcoming trial.
Newsweek sought email comment from the offices of Geragos and Weiss on Monday.
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, is to go on trial in California on charges that he failed to pay millions of dollars in taxes on consultancy fees he earned from foreign business interests.
The Department of Justice announced the indictment on December 8, 2023, saying that, instead of paying his taxes, Hunter Biden spent huge sums “on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature,” including over $70,000 on drug rehabilitation.
The indictment says Hunter Biden “earned handsomely” while serving on the boards of Ukrainian industrial conglomerate Burisma and a Chinese private equity fund.
It also states that between 2016 and October 2020, he received more than $7 million in total gross income.
Prosecutors claim Hunter Biden, 54, failed to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 to 2019. He faces three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Separately, Hunter Biden had sought to sue Giuliani for allegedly leaking information from his personal laptop, a claim Giuliani denied. Hunter Biden withdrew the lawsuit in June.
The dispute between Weiss and Geragos arose because of a glossary that both sides were to submit to the court, with proposed definitions of key terms and brief description of people to be included in the trial.
In his filing on Friday, Geragos complains that “Special counsel used an otherwise uneventful trial document as an opportunity to cast defense counsel in a negative light and prejudice the defendant before this Court by implying that the defense would intentionally violate this Court’s orders.”
The U.S attorney general appoints a special counsel from outside the Department of Justice in cases where allegations of bias may arise. Weiss was appointed as special counsel as Hunter Biden is President Joe Biden’s son and the Department of Justice wanted to appear neutral in its prosecution of cases.
Geragos explained that some names mentioned on the list might not be discussed in front of the jury in the upcoming trial.
“Counsel for Defendant replied explaining that the court reporter will be transcribing matters both in front of and outside the presence of the jury, therefore the names could very likely come up in proceedings outside the presence of the jury, without any intention on the part of defense counsel to violate any court orders,” he wrote.
“Defense counsel’s position that the terms could be used in matters that may be raised outside the presence of the jury,” the Biden motion concludes. “Defense counsel has no intention of violating the Court’s Order by the inclusion of these names,” Geragos added.
Jury selection will begin September 5, with a trial start date set for September 9.