WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden's lawyers say prosecutors are inappropriately trying to insert “politically-charged” allegations about his foreign business dealings into the upcoming federal tax trial against the president's son.
Special counsel David Weiss' team told the judge last week that they plan to call to the witness stand a business associate of Hunter Biden's to testify about an arrangement with a Romanian businessman who was trying to “influence U.S. government policy” during Joe Biden’s term as vice president.
Hunter Biden's lawyers responded in court papers filed Sunday that such matters are irrelevant in the case headed for trial next month in Los Angeles over at least $1.4 million in taxes he owed between 2016 and 2019.
Furthermore, defense lawyers allowing such testimony would confuse jurors, and slammed prosecutors for showcasing “these matters on the eve of Mr. Biden’s trial—when there is no mention of political influence in the 56-page Indictment.”
“The Special Counsel’s unnecessary change of tactic merely echoes the baseless and false allegations of foreign wrongdoing which have been touted by House Republicans to use Mr. Biden’s proper business activities in Romania and elsewhere to attack him and his father,” the defense wrote.
Prosecutors said they want to bring in evidence of the arrangement with the Romanian businessman to rebut arguments from the defense that Hunter Biden's drug use during the years in which he's accused of failing to pay his taxes affected his decision-making and judgement.
The evidence shows his actions "do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy and receive millions of dollars” as part of the arrangement, prosecutors wrote.
The Romanian businessman, Gabriel Popoviciu, wanted U.S. government agencies to probe a bribery investigation he was facing in his home country in the hopes that would end his legal trouble, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business associate to help Popoviciu fight the criminal charges against him. But prosecutors say they were concerned that “lobbying work might cause political ramifications” for Joe Biden, so the arrangement was structured in a way that “concealed the true nature of the work” for Popoviciu, prosecutors alleged.
Hunter Biden’s business associate and Popoviciu signed an agreement to make it look like Popoviciu’s payments were for “management services to real estate prosperities in Romania.”
In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business associate agreed that they would be paid for their work to “attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation,” prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business associate was paid more than $3 million, which was split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors say.
The tax trial comes months after Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony gun charges over the purchase of a gun in 2018. He was found guilty of lying on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
Hunter Biden's lawyers say claims about foreign business dealing have no place in upcoming tax trial
FILE - Hunter Biden departs from federal court June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Hunter Biden's lawyers say claims about foreign business dealing have no place in upcoming tax trial
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court has again refused to stop the execution of inmate Freddie Owens who is set to die Friday by lethal injection.
The justices ruled Thursday that a sworn statement from a friend whose testimony helped convict Owens and who now says he lied to save himself from the death chamber wasn't enough to halt prison officials from putting Owens to death.
His execution is set for Friday at 6 p.m. at a Columbia prison for the killing of a Greenville convenience store clerk in 1997. It would be South Carolina's first execution in more than a decade.
Owens' lawyers on Wednesday filed the statement from his co-defendant Steven Golden saying Owens wasn’t at the store when Irene Graves was killed during a robbery. They said they were disappointed by the justices' decision.
“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit," attorney Gerald “Bo” King said in a statement. “We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens.”
Prosecutors reiterated that several other witnesses testified that Owens told them he pulled the trigger. And just like it did last week when Golden said in a sworn statement he had a a secret deal with prosecutors that he never told the jury about, the state Supreme Court agreed the execution should go on.
The justices wrote on Thursday that there was no evidence Golden had an independent attorney to talk to about his recent statements and they did not name who might have killed Graves if Owens didn't do it.
In his statement, Golden said he blamed Owens because he was high on cocaine and police put pressure on him by claiming they already knew the two were together and that Owens was talking. Golden also said he feared the real killer.
“I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was not there,” Golden wrote in his statement.
Golden testified at Owens' trial, saying prosecutors promised to consider his testimony in his favor but he still faced the death penalty or life in prison. He was eventually sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, according to court records.
"I’m coming forward now because I know Freddie’s execution date is September 20 and I don’t want Freddie to be executed for something he didn’t do. This has weighed heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience," Golden wrote in his statement.
Prosecutors have said Golden wasn't the only evidence linking Owens to the crime since other friends testified that they, along with Owens, had planned to rob the store. Those friends said Owens bragged to them about killing Graves. His former girlfriend also testified that he confessed to the killing.
Prosecutors argued last week that Golden's decision to change his story shouldn't be enough to stop the execution because he has now admitted to lying under oath, thereby showing that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
“There is no indication that Golden will testify; there is no reasoning to why Owens would admit the shooting (of) Ms. Graves to officers, his girlfriend, and his mother if he was not the shooter as now claimed,” the state Attorney General's Office wrote in court papers.
Also on Thursday, a group called South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty presented a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to Gov. Henry McMaster's office asking him to reduce Owens' sentence to life in prison.
“Justice works for restoration. You cannot restore someone who you kill,” said the group's executive director, Rev. Hillary Taylor, as she read from one of the comments on the petition.
McMaster, a Republican, has said he will wait to announce his decision on clemency until prison officials call him minutes before the execution begins.
Owens would be the first person executed in South Carolina in 13 years after the state struggled to obtain drugs needed for lethal injections because companies refused to sell them if they could be publicly identified.
The state added a firing squad option and passed a shield law to keep much of the details of executions private. The state Supreme Court then cleared the way for the death chamber to reopen this summer.
Five other inmates are also out of appeals and the state can schedule executions every five weeks.
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
