Hunter Biden’s attorneys and federal prosecutors will be waiting for a federal judge in California to rule on motions to dismiss felony tax evasion charges against the president’s son. 

Judge Mark Scarsi of the Central District of California is expected to rule in the coming days on Mr. Biden’s arguments for dismissal. If the charges — either all of them or just some — are allowed to proceed, then the trial will begin on June 20. 

At a hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Biden’s lawyers argued that the special counsel, David Weiss, was not permitted to prosecute his quarry because he was illegally appointed, and that the first son is a victim of selective prosecution, among other arguments.

The first son was not present at the hearing, according to a filing from his defense team. 

Mr. Biden is accused of failing to pay and failing to file his taxes in a timely manner between 2016 and 2019. He was indicted by Mr. David Weiss on December 7 for engaging “in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns.”

According to the indictment, Mr. Biden made a gross income of nearly $8 million in those four years. He spent more than half of that money on personal expenses, including more than $1.5 million in cash withdrawals at a time when he was crippled by a severe drug addiction. He also spent nearly $700,000 on payments to “various women,” $400,000 on clothing and accessories, and $300,000 on his children’s tuition. Mr. Biden dispersed more than $70,000 for rehabilitation and nearly $200,000 on “adult entertainment.”

He faces four misdemeanor charges of failing to pay his taxes, two misdemeanor charges of failing to file, two felony counts of failing to file, and one felony charge of filing a false return. If convicted, Mr. Biden faces up to 17 years in federal prison and a hefty fine. 

Mr. Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, has made a number of 

motions to dismiss the tax charges. In one filing, Mr. Lowell argues that Mr. Weiss only indicted Mr. Biden “in response to pressure from extremist Republicans.”

“Mr. Biden did timely disclose his tax liability and he ultimately paid his 2019 taxes, with interest and penalties, at a time when the federal government was especially mindful in being lenient about late payments due to the COVID-19 epidemic,” Mr. Lowell argues, saying that his client — with the help of his millionaire entertainment lawyer friend Kevin Morris — eventually paid off his tax debts, thus causing no real harm to the government. 

“Why should Mr. Biden be treated any differently than millions of taxpayers for tax year 2019?” Mr. Lowell says in the filing. “The extension and relief programs provided by the IRS in 2020 and 2022, which covered tax year 2019, confirm this was not an enforcement priority for the IRS.”

Mr. Biden is also facing up to 25 years in prison for lying about his drug and alcohol use when he bought a handgun in 2018 at Delaware. He says that he was not high when he bought the weapon, and therefore is not guilty of violating federal law — even though he attempted to make a plea agreement with the government that would have allowed him to enter a pretrial diversion program for the purchase. 

Mr. Lowell first argued in the Delaware case that the first son is a victim of a “vindictive” prosecution by Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by Mr. Trump and is now doing the bidding of Congressional Republicans and “extremists” on the right.