A federal judge on Monday rejected a fresh attempt by Hunter Biden to dismiss his indictment on federal tax charges.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi said in an order that he would not revisit an argument by the president’s son that federal prosecutor David Weiss was ineligible to be appointed as special counsel and that funding for the probe and prosecution of Biden was not approved by Congress.
Biden previously filed a motion to dismiss the charges, with a focus on Weiss’ appointment, but he made another attempt recently following a pair of judicial decisions tied to the appointment of a special counsel in cases against former President Donald Trump. The earlier motion was also denied.
“As he concedes in his notice of the motion, Mr. Biden plainly seeks reconsideration of issues already decided upon his February motion,” Sca r si wr ote.
“The Court declines to reach the merits of the motion because there is no valid basis for reconsideration of the Court’s order denying Mr. Biden’s motion to dismiss the indictment,” he added.
Scarsi, who was nominated by Trump, also said the motion was “untimely,” as it came after a Feb. 20 deadline he had set for parties in the case.
“The Court specifically indicated that this was the deadline for motions on issues the parties at that time intended to raise,” he wrote.
After the earlier motion to dismiss was denied, Biden’s attorneys mounted a new challenge to Weiss’ prosecutorial authority, citing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the high court’s presidential immunity ruling and a decision by a federal judge in Florida to dismiss the classified documents case against Trump.
In Monday’s order, Scarsi said the court was not bound to abide by either of the opinions.
“Neither Justice Thomas’s opinion nor Judge Cannon’s order is binding precedent,” Scarsi wrote.
At attorney for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
Weiss, who was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland, says Biden failed to pay taxes, failed to file, evaded an assessment and filed a fraudulent form. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is scheduled to begin in September.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, last month tossed out special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump, finding that Smith’s appointment and the funding tied to his probe were unlawful.
In a single-justice concurrence, Thomas had suggested that Smith’s appointment as special counsel raised a potential violation of the Constitution’s provisions about appointment power and how an office may be created.
Biden’s attorneys have tried to get his conviction on federal gun charges tossed out on special counsel appointment grounds. They have not been successful.
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