WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge refused Monday to toss out a tax case against Hunter Biden, moving the case closer to the possible spectacle of a trial as his father campaigns for another term as president.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi denied eight motions to dismiss the indictment accusing President Joe Biden's son of scheming to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the nine felony and misdemeanor tax offenses filed in Los Angeles. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, contended the prosecution is politically motivated, among other arguments, but Scarsi found he had little support for the claims.
“Defendant fails to present a reasonable inference, let alone clear evidence, of discriminatory effect and discriminatory purpose,” he wrote.
Hunter Biden's attorneys maintained that the handling of the case was abnormal. “We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will continue to vigorously pursue Mr. Biden’s challenges," Lowell said in a statement.
The ruling comes after a three-hour hearing last week where Scarsi, an appointee of former president Donald Trump, seemed skeptical of the defense. Prosecutors, for their part, framed the claims as far-fetched.
Scarsi also dismissed claims related to the timing of the charges, leaks from IRS agents who testified before Congress, and the appointment of the special counsel overseeing the case.
Hunter Biden has also been charged in Delaware with lying on a federal form to buy a gun in 2018. He said he wasn’t using or addicted to illegal drugs, even though he has acknowledged being addicted to crack cocaine at the time. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which also accuses him of possessing the gun illegally.
Both cases are overseen by special counsel David Weiss and now have tentative trials scheduled for June, though defense attorneys are also trying to get the Delaware gun charges tossed out.
The two sets of charges come from a yearslong federal investigation that had been expected to wrap up over the summer with a plea deal in which Hunter Biden would have gotten two years of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. The president’s son, who has since repaid the back taxes with a loan, also would have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble.
But the deal that could have spared Hunter Biden a criminal trial during the 2024 presidential campaign unraveled after a federal judge in Delaware began to question it.
Defense attorneys had argued that immunity provisions in the deal were signed by a prosecutor and are still in effect, but Scarsi sided with prosecutors who said it never got the required approval of a probation officer.
Hunter Biden’s original proposed plea deal with prosecutors had been pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans, including Trump. The former president is facing his own criminal problems — dozens of charges across four cases, including that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
If convicted of the tax charges, Hunter Biden, 53, could receive a maximum of 17 years in prison.
Hunter Biden and is wife Melissa, arrive with President Biden on Air Force One, Friday, March 29, 2024, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President Biden is returning from New York after a fundraiser. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A scuba dive boat captain was scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge Thursday on a conviction of criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel nearly five years ago.
The Sept. 2, 2019, blaze was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several ongoing lawsuits.
Captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year. The charge is a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seaman’s manslaughter that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.
Boylan’s appeal is ongoing. He faces up to 10 years behind bars.
The defense is asking the judge to sentence Boylan to a five-year probationary sentence, with three years to be served under house arrest.
“While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr. Boylan did not intend for anyone to die," his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo. “Indeed, Mr. Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.”
The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet (30 meters) from shore.
Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped in a bunkroom below deck. Among the dead were the deckhand, who had landed her dream job; an environmental scientist who conducted research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting couple; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.
Boylan was the first to abandon ship and jump overboard. Four crew members who joined him also survived.
Thursday's sentencing — unless Boylan’s appeal succeeds — is the final step in a fraught prosecution that’s lasted nearly five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims’ families.
A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars. Boylan’s attorneys argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.
In 2022, U.S. District Judge George Wu dismissed the superseding indictment, saying it failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence. Prosecutors were then forced to go before a grand jury again.
Although the exact cause of the blaze aboard the Conception remains undetermined, the prosecutors and defense sought to assign blame throughout the 10-day trial last year.
The government said Boylan failed to post the required roving night watch and never properly trained his crew in firefighting. The lack of the roving watch meant the fire was able to spread undetected across the 75-foot (23-meter) boat.
But Boylan’s attorneys sought to pin blame on Glen Fritzler, who with his wife owns Truth Aquatics Inc., which operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats, often around the Channel Islands. They argued that Fritzler was responsible for failing to train the crew in firefighting and other safety measures, as well as creating a lax seafaring culture they called “the Fritzler way,” in which no captain who worked for him posted a roving watch.
The Fritzlers have not spoken publicly about the tragedy since an interview with a local TV station a few days after the fire. Their attorneys have never responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
With the conclusion of the criminal case, attention now turns to several ongoing lawsuits.
Three days after the fire, Truth Aquatics filed suit under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the value of the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers to show they were not at fault.
That case is pending, as well as others filed by victims’ families against the Coast Guard for what they allege was lax enforcement of the roving watch requirement.
FILE - A photo collage of the 34 victims of the Sept. 2, 2019 fire aboard the dive boat Conception, at Santa Cruz Island, is held by a family member arriving at federal court in Los Angeles, Oct. 25, 2023. The captain of the boat is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge Thursday, May 2, 2024, on a conviction of criminal negligence. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
FILE - Barbara Chan, whose brother Raymond "Scott" Chan was among the 34 victims of a fire on the scuba dive boat Conception, holds up a photo of the victims, Oct. 24, 2023, in Los Angeles. The captain of the boat is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge Thursday, May 2, 2024, on a conviction of criminal negligence. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)
FILE - Defendant Jerry Boylan, captain of the Conception, right, arrives at federal court in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. The scuba dive boat captain is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge Thursday, May 2, 2024, on a conviction of criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel nearly five years ago. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by the Ventura County Fire Department, VCFD firefighters respond to a fire aboard the Conception dive boat fire in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of Southern California on Sept. 2, 2019. A scuba dive boat captain is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge Thursday, May 2, 2024, on a conviction of criminal negligence after 34 people died in the fire aboard the vessel nearly five years ago. (Ventura County Fire Department via AP, File)
