Hunter Biden lawyers threatened with sanctions for false statements in tax case

Hunter Biden‘s defense attorneys are facing the prospect of sanctions after a judge in California accused them of lying in a court filing about when special counsel David Weiss brought charges against the first son.

Judge Mark Scarsi demanded in an order this week that Abbe Lowell and Mark Geragos, who are leading Biden’s defense team, respond by next Wednesday with an explanation for why they should not be sanctioned for making false statements.

“The misstatements in the current motion are not trivial,” Scarsi wrote.

The statements in question appeared in a request the pair made last week in which they argued that Biden’s nine tax charges should be tossed out on the grounds that Weiss was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.

The attorneys first brought the request about Weiss’s appointment earlier this year, and Scarsi denied it. However, after a judge in Florida ruled special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed and tossed out former President Donald Trump‘s classified documents case, Biden’s attorneys said the new development warranted raising their argument about Weiss again.

The attempt to have Biden’s case dismissed may now backfire, however.

Scarsi observed that Biden’s attorneys did not mention how Weiss initially brought charges against Biden in June 2023 when Weiss was still a U.S. attorney. After a plea deal failed that summer, Weiss became special counsel and brought an indictment against the first son in December.

Scarsi said that timeline was a “meaningful distinction” between Biden’s and Trump’s cases.

“But Mr. Biden’s motion does not engage with this distinction; instead, counsel avoids the issue by misrepresenting the history of the proceedings,” the judge wrote. “This Court has little tolerance for lack of candor from counsel.”

Biden’s trial in the case is set to begin Sept. 9. He faces six misdemeanor and three felony charges, which include failure to file taxes and tax evasion. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Lowell and Geragos did not respond to requests for comment.