Hunter Biden arrives in court with his wife Melissa Cohen as his $1.4 million tax evasion trial begins in LA

Hunter Biden arrived at federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday morning with his wife Melissa Cohen as jury selection begins in his tax evasion trial.

The First Son, who faces his second criminal trial this year, is charged with nine offenses, including three felonies and six misdemeanors, for failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes and lying on his tax returns.

He was chauffeured to court from his Malibu home by his Secret Service escort in a convoy of blacked-out SUVs. The photo shows him walking into the courthouse, dressed in a navy blue suit and tie, clutching his wife’s hand.

The sordid details of the case include evidence that Hunter spent tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes, drugs, hotel rooms for day-long drinking binges, subscriptions to porn sites and the rental of a Lamborghini – and then deducted those sums from his tax return as business expenses.

He comes to federal court in Los Angeles after suffering a humiliating defeat in Delaware in June, where a jury found him guilty of lying about his crack addiction in 2018 in order to buy a gun.

The case is the second high-profile trial this year for Hunter, who faces multiple charges of tax evasion totaling $1.4 million.

The president’s 54-year-old son, embroiled in scandal, is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles for jury selection for his second trial in a year in which the sordid details of his life have been in the spotlight.

Hunter, 54, is facing the same two federal prosecutors, Leo Wise and Derek Hines, who trounced his star Washington, D.C., attorney Abbe Lowell in the previous criminal trial.

He is desperately hoping for a better outcome in this case, because if convicted, he could face a much longer prison sentence of up to 17 years and a fine of $750,000.

He has replaced Lowell as lead attorney with Los Angeles-based star attorney Mark Geragos – known for representing Chris Brown, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Bill Clinton’s brother Roger, Michael Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, Winona Ryder – and most recently Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “ketamine queen” charged in connection with the death of Matthew Perry.

Both criminal proceedings were initiated by Special Counsel David Weiss after a five-year investigation into Hunter’s lavish lifestyle and shady foreign business dealings.

According to Geragos, the prosecution plans to discredit First Son in front of the jury by using salacious details.

Hunter’s team has already suffered a series of defeats in pre-trial hearings that may have derailed his defense plans.

Geragos wanted to convince the jury through the testimony of psychological experts that Hunter’s debauched behavior and alleged tax evasion were due to his drug addiction. He blamed this on the childhood trauma of his mother and sister dying in a car accident in 1972 and his brother dying of brain cancer in 2015.

The president’s son changed lawyers ahead of his trial and hired prominent Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos in July. He will arrive in federal court on Thursday morning.

The criminal defense attorney has previously sued Chris Brown when he was charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna, and more recently Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “ketamine queen” who is accused in connection with the death of Matthew Perry.

But Judge Mark Scarsi would not hear of it and ruled that Hunter’s expert witness Joshua Lee could not testify.

Another blow to the defense was Scarsi’s decision not to tell the jury that Hunter’s multimillion-dollar tax debt, which he allegedly failed to pay, was later settled by his wealthy Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris.

In a pretrial hearing last month, the judge threatened to fine lawyers who spoke to the jury about topics he had banned six figures.

Prosecutors plan to present evidence similar to the one presented in the Delaware gun case, including recordings of Hunter’s own voice reading potentially incriminating passages from the audiobook version of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he confesses to his drug binges.

A group of 100 jurors were questioned about their attitudes toward tax law, their opinions about people who don’t pay their taxes, their family history of drug addiction, and their political activities.

During a pretrial hearing last month, the defense suffered a setback after Judge Scarsi ruled that the jury should not learn that Hunter’s multimillion-dollar tax debt, which he allegedly failed to pay, was later settled by his wealthy Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris (pictured).

Hunter finds himself in legal trouble after compromising photos, videos, texts and emails of the president’s son were published online from his abandoned laptop

The potential jurors came from LA and six neighboring counties.

In the 2020 presidential election, 63% of voters there sided with Hunter’s father and against Donald Trump, while 35% were against.

Judge Scarsi said he would select 12 jurors and four alternates.

Jury selection is expected to continue through Thursday and Friday. Attorneys are expected to begin the trial with opening statements on Monday.

Both sides estimate that the trial will last eight days.

The witnesses include Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen, his brother’s widow who became Hunter’s mistress, Hallie Biden, and Lunden Roberts, whom he hired as an assistant, impregnated and then dropped from his company’s health insurance.

If convicted, Hunter could be pardoned by Joe Biden during his presidency. He has stated that he will not pardon Hunter or commute his sentence, but he could change his mind in the weeks following the November election.

Hunter is scheduled to be sentenced for his weapons offenses in Delaware on November 13, eight days after the presidential election.