A federal judge in California ruled against Hunter Biden on Monday, rejecting eight separate motions from the president’s son arguing that the tax charges he’s facing should be thrown out.
U.S. District Judge Marc Scarsi rejected arguments that the charges are part of a politically motivated prosecution and that Biden had immunity from a plea deal he’d previously negotiated. Biden has pleaded not guilty to felonies and misdemeanors related to an alleged scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes between 2016-2019.
Scarsi’s ruling means that the case is likely to go to trial on its scheduled June 20 start date. Biden also faces the prospect of another trial in Delaware, where prosecutors have charged him in relation to an allegedly unlawful gun purchase, which he denies.
Biden has made a series of similar arguments to dismiss the charges in the firearm case that Scarsi rejected Monday, but the Delaware judge, Maryellen Noreika, has not yet ruled on those efforts.
If Noreika is similarly unimpressed, the Delaware trial will likely get underway on June 3.
That means Biden—the first child of an incumbent president to be criminally charged—could be facing two trials at the height of his father’s re-election campaign. President Joe Biden’s rival, Donald Trump, is himself facing four criminal trials.
