The federal judge in Hunter Biden's tax trial has rejected a last-ditch effort to toss the charges, all but ending any chance that he can avoid trial in September.
Biden has sought to have the charges thrown out a number of ways. He has even claimed he is being targeted politically by his father's Justice Department, echoing Donald Trump.
Biden's lawyers redoubled an effort to disqualify the prosecutor in charge, Special Counsel David Weiss, after Trump's classified documents case was tossed in July. The judge in that case, Aileen Cannon, ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith wasn't appointed legally.
In a ruling Monday, California judge Mark Scarsi dismissed Biden's latest attempt to dismiss the charges as a rehash of matters that the court already ruled on.
"As he concedes in his notice of the motion, Mr. Biden plainly seeks reconsideration of issues already decided upon his February motion," Scarsi wrote, adding, "there is no valid basis for reconsideration of the court's [prior] order denying Mr. Biden's motion to dismiss the indictment."
Scarsi had threatened to sanction Biden's lawyers for lying about important differences between the Trump and Biden cases. Unlike Smith, Weiss was a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney before he was named Special Counsel, and he filed charges before his promotion.
The judge backed away from sanctions Monday but warned Biden's lawyers that "candor is paramount" after they admitted their argument was "inartfully" expressed.
Scarsi's latest ruling all but guarantees that Biden will stand trial in September for evading taxes on $1.4 million in foreign income from 2016 to 2019.
Prosecutors recently introduced evidence that Hunter tried to influence the U.S. government on behalf of a Romanian client during Joe Biden's vice presidency.
Hunter Biden's lawyers have accused Weiss of adding "irrelevant" claims to the tax case to levy broader "politically charged" accusations against the Biden family.
"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," attorneys wrote.
In November, Hunter Biden will be sentenced in his separate felony gun case. Biden was convicted in June for lying about his drug addiction when purchasing a firearm.
