In a filing Wednesday, Special Prosecutor David Weiss’ office cited evidence it plans to introduce at trial that allegedly shows Hunter Biden received kickbacks from a Romanian businessman who tried to influence U.S. policy and end a local investigation into him in Romania.
Prosecutors will present evidence in the trial that the president’s son “received kickbacks from a foreign principal who sought to influence US policy and public opinion and get the US to investigate the Romanian investigation” of the businessman, Senior Assistant Special Counsel Derek Hines wrote. in Wednesday’s application.
The special counsel’s team also plans to further target Biden’s business relationships, saying in the filing that prosecutors plan to present evidence at trial of Biden’s business deals with Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma and China’s CEFC China Energy Company.
“The evidence will come No include evidence that the defendant engaged in lobbying in exchange for this compensation,” Weiss’ team wrote.
“Rather, the evidence shows that the defendant did almost no work in exchange for the millions of dollars he received from these entities,” the filing added.
Prosecutors included more details about their trial plans in a filing urging the court to reject Biden’s request to exclude certain evidence his attorneys say is unfairly prejudicial in his federal tax case. He is suspected of not paying taxes, filing an application, evading taxation and filing a fraudulent form.
Biden’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.
Prosecutors previously alleged in their indictment that from November 2015 to May 2017, Biden received a third of about $3.1 million in compensation related to a verbal agreement to help a businessman referred to in the filings as “GP” fight bribery charges. he met in Romania.
Prosecutors said the business associate, who was not named in the filing, would testify at trial about the Romanian businessman’s alleged efforts to hold his partner and another partner in an attempt to pressure federal agencies to open an investigation in an effort to end the Romanian criminal investigation.
Prosecutors do not plan to present evidence of “direct compensation from abroad or evidence that the defendant received compensation for his father’s actions that affected national or international politics,” Hines wrote.
However, he argued that the salary structure and details of Biden’s work were relevant to the case.
“Furthermore, the evidence of what the defendant agreed to do and did for GP shows the defendant’s state of mind and intent during the tax year included in the indictment,” Hines wrote.
Just because Biden suffered from drug addiction does not mean he was impaired, a legal theory that says a person does not have the mental state necessary to form the intent to commit a crime.
“It is also evidence that the defendant’s actions do not reflect a person with diminished capacity because he agreed to attempt to influence the public policy of the United States and to receive millions of dollars pursuant to an oral agreement” with an associate as part of a scheme “that “hid the true nature of the work,” he added .
Biden’s trial is scheduled to begin next month.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
