Gov't fights to include evidence in Hunter Biden's tax case

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Federal lawyers prosecuting Hunter Biden 's tax case said Wednesday they intend to introduce as evidence money the president's son allegedly was paid by a Romanian businessman who was trying to influence U.S. policy.

The office of special counsel David Weiss submitted the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in response to Biden's team asking the court to exclude certain evidence from the upcoming trial as unfairly prejudicial.

In the Wednesday filling , senior assistant special counsel Derek Hines wrote that they anticipate an unnamed Biden business associate will testify during trial that they "received compensations from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion and cause the United States."

The "foreign principal" was identified in court documents as a Romanian businessman with the initials G.P. who was under investigation in the European country. The alleged business dealings were to have occurred while Biden's father, President Joe Biden , was vice president of the United States.

Hines said the business associate, known in the document as Business Associate 1, has not said that the defendant engaged in improper political influence and that the evidence "demonstrates the defendant's state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment."

The younger Biden is facing nine tax-related charges , three of which are felonies, on accusations of failing to pay his taxes, failing to file his tax returns and filing fraudulent tax returns during the years of 2016 to 2019.

The indictment states that in the fall of 2015, Biden entered into an oral agreement with Business Associate 1 to allegedly aid G.P. contest bribery charges. Between November 2015 and May 2017, Business Associate 1's company received some $3.1 million, which Biden allegedly received a third of.

In the Wednesday filing, Hines wrote that Business Associate 1 will alleged that out of concern for the potential political ramifications for the senior Biden, Business Associate 1 and G.P. entered into an agreement where the former's business entity would purportedly provide management services to real estate properties in Romania.

However, Business Associate 1, the younger Biden and a second business associate would allegedly be paid to instead "attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation of G.P.," according to the filing.

Hines argues over the inclusion of this evidence in trial as it is "relevant and not unfairly prejudicial."

"It is also evidence that the defendant's actions do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy and received millions of dollars pursuant to an oral agreement with Business Associate 1 in an arrangement that concealed the true nature of the work he was performing," Hines said.

Hunter Biden's international business dealings have been at the heart of the Republican Party's floundering and years-long impeachment investigation into Joe Biden that has not produced any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president.

In the filing Wednesday, Hines said they can confirm that they do not intend to introduce evidence of the younger Biden receiving direct compensation from a foreign state or evidence "that the defendant received compensation for actions taken by his father that impacted national or international politics."