A judge on Wednesday granted Hunter Biden’s request to delay his tax trial in California, moving it from its scheduled date of June 20 to Sept. 5.
Upon issuing the decision, Judge Mark Scarsi, a Donald Trump appointee, made Biden attorney Abbe Lowell vow that he would not file any further delay requests, according to a CNN report from the courtroom.
Lowell said the delay was necessary in part because he was having trouble obtaining expert witnesses for the trial.
A prosecutor appearing on behalf of special counsel David Weiss opposed the postponement and accused Lowell of employing delaying tactics.
“I reject that zealously representing a client is a delaying tactic,” Lowell said.
Biden is facing nine charges brought by Weiss over allegations he evaded taxes, failed to file taxes, and filed false returns during a four-year period beginning in 2016.
The small victory for the first son in his tax trial comes after his legal team had been scrambling to ask for delays and dismissals of his charges both in California and in his separate criminal gun case in Delaware.
The trial in Delaware is scheduled to begin on June 3, and Judge Maryellen Noreika, another Trump appointee, denied Biden’s attempt this month to delay it. Lowell had asked the judge at a hearing to push it out until at least July, citing a pending Supreme Court ruling that could affect the case and Lowell’s struggle to obtain expert witnesses who could testify for the defense.
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Biden also filed a slew of requests to toss out his charges in both cases earlier this year, but Noreika and Scarsi denied them.
Biden then turned to the appellate courts, but in both cases, three-judge panels found his appeals were premature. In Delaware, he asked this week for the appellate court to reconsider one of his appeals.
