Federal Judge Says Hunter Biden-Roger Stone Tax Cases Like ‘Apples and Oranges’

Fails To Dismiss Tax Charges On Similarly Situated Basis

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden filed eight motions to dismiss his federal tax prosecution, but none of them succeeded, especially his claims of selective and vindictive prosecution.

On Monday, a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied the many motions to dismiss, starting with Biden’s complaint about special counsel David Weiss and the botched plea agreement that occurred last year.

After U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi rejected the assertion that the scuttled diversion agreement granted Biden immunity from prosecution, he quickly dismembered the defenses’ arguments that Weiss was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. The Judge also tossed Biden’s claim that the special counsel was unlawfully funded.

From here, he spent considerable time dismantling the defendant’s claims that he’s being treated differently because other tax cases have been resolved civilly rather than criminally.

One of the civil tax cases highlighted by the defense involved former Trump adviser Roger Stone. The judge stated that Stone and Biden’s cases was an ‘apples to oranges’ comparison based on Hunter’s alleged “criminal intent” or willful failure to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019.

Slingshot News reached out to Roger Stone for his comment on Hunter Biden’s use of his own case with IRS in his failed attempt to dismiss the charges against him. Stone told Slingshot,

The difference between Roger and Nydia Stone and Hunter Biden when it comes to taxes is as different as day and night. My wife and I declared every single penny of our income accurately, as well as accurately reporting all of our relatively meager assets. Hunter Biden failed to report almost $10 million in income.

The original DOJ assertion that we had “hidden” income in a “Alter ego” LLC is false. In fact, the LLC in question has been our principal business vehicle for over 20 years and the articles of incorporation clearly reflect that we are the owners as reflected in the public records This entity has filed entirely accurate federal tax returns for every year of its existence. The assertion that we only paid compensation to family members from this LLC is also incorrect as we have used it to pay appropriately for all of our ongoing business expenses, and any compensation we have received has been appropriately declared and taxed.

We have meticulously documented all of this for the IRS. The idea that we are secretly living, a “opulent lifestyle” is ludicrous. In fact 75% of the roughly $2 million that we owe the IRS are penalties and interest for which the IRS refuses to negotiate any reduction. In fact we made monthly payments to the IRS for over eight years without missing a payment until the Mueller indictment destroyed our ability to pay.

The only issue with our taxes is our inability to pay the entire amount due, and therefore, we will be required to pay every penny including interest, and penalties overtime. The idea that we received any kind of “special treatment” is incorrect.

Roger Stone to Slingshot News

“In essence, Defendant argues that because most people do not suffer criminal charges for failing to pay taxes on time, he should not either,” Scarsi wrote. “But adopting Defendant’s position would ignore the numerous meaningful allegations about Defendant’s criminal intent that are not necessarily shared by other taxpayers who do not timely pay income tax, including the Shaughnessys and Stones.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi

The judge declared that Hunter Biden’s attempt to show he and Stone were “similarly situated” is clearly undercut by the differences in the allegations involved.

“Nothing in the record of the civil cases, let alone in the circumstances of the ‘countless others’ the Government declines to prosecute, provides an inference that these individuals are similarly situated to Defendant with regard to indicia of criminal intent,” Scarsi wrote. “Obviously, Stone and Shaughnessy were civil cases; intent was not a material element of the nonpayment counts at issue.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi

Also failing was Hunter Biden’s appeal to former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s CNN appearance last December help advance his selective prosecution claims.

“If anything, Mr. Holder’s statements suggest he holds an opinion in tension with Defendant’s: Mr. Holder expressly declined to state that Mr. Weiss was ‘doing anything inappropriate,’ and he noted that Defendant’s actions went beyond ‘some kind of ordinary run-of-the-mill tax case,’” the judge said. “None of this amounts to the kind of clear evidence necessary to support Defendant’s claim of selective prosecution.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi

The judge also stated that the President’s son’s defense had “only conjecture” to support the “thin” claims that “animus” played a role in the indictment, no matter the statements made by House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. taking credit for the prosecution.

“For example, Defendant makes much ado about Messrs. Comer and Smith’s public statements about the case, inferring that their actions in Congress influenced the course of the prosecution. Mr. Comer even claimed the charges would not have been brought if not for ‘whistleblower’ testimony before the House Oversight Committee,” the judge said. “But politicians take credit for many things over which they have no power and have made no impact. As counsel conceded at the hearing, just because someone says they influenced a prosecutorial decision does not mean that they did.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi

Biden’s defense had reportedly stitched together news articles and statements from “congressional proceedings” to create a “juicy timeline” of events, which ultimately fell far short of what was needed to dismiss the indictment.

Judge Mark Scarsi cited a Ninth Circuit case that rejected an “appearance-of-vindictiveness claim resting on ‘nothing more than the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.’”

The judge said he would not sign off on a motion technically supported by “virtually no evidence” to okay discovery on this issue.

Scarsi similarly diminished Hunter Biden’s claims that the case had to be dismissed based on IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler disregarding grand jury confidentiality and disclosing his tax return information publicly. Though Biden asserted these actions rose to the level of “outrageous government conduct,” Scarsi did not agree.

“Shapley and Ziegler’s alleged public disclosures of confidential information, even if assumed to be ‘deeply troubling,’ simply do not shock the conscience to the level other recognized bases for dismissal do,”

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi