Hunter Biden’s defense team in his upcoming tax evasion trial will not be allowed to introduce evidence that childhood and family trauma caused his spiral into crack cocaine and alcohol addiction, a judge has ruled. The federal district court judge, Mark Scarsi, ruled that the 1972 car crash that killed Biden’s mother and baby sister, and the death of his older brother, Beau Biden, in 2015, are “irrelevant” to the case.

The ruling comes as the president’s son gears up to stand trial for allegedly failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes on millions of dollars he made between 2017 and 2019, when he was trading on his father’s name to reap income from overseas business interests in China, Ukraine and Romania among other countries. Instead of paying his taxes, Biden spent the money on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the special counsel leading the case, David Weiss, charged in his 56-page indictment of the president’s son.  

Biden has pleaded not guilty to all nine charges, arguing that he was so overcome by addiction during the period that he could not have formed criminal intent. 

“The fact that Mr. Biden was intoxicated or had an addiction during the timeframe charged in the Indictment is relevant to his defense,” Judge Scarsi wrote. “But Mr. Biden has not advanced an argument as to why the underlying causes of the addiction are relevant.”

As a result, the judge barred the defense from making “any reference to the 1972 accident” and also forbade them from arguing that “the death of Mr. Biden’s brother caused Mr. Biden’s addiction.” 

The latest written ruling provides an explanation for Judge Scarsi’s decision, made orally last week, to rule in favor of the special counsel’s motion. 

In the same hearing, Judge Scarsi granted the prosecution’s motion to prevent Biden from calling a substance abuse expert, Dr. Joshua Lee, to testify in his defense, arguing that the defense team failed to adequately connect Dr. Lee’s research to Biden’s own struggle with addiction. 

“None of the information in the record indicates how Dr. Lee applied his knowledge and research of addiction pharmacotherapies and substance use, or treatment of other patients suffering from addiction and substance abuse, to Mr. Biden’s individual struggle with addiction,” Judge Scarsi wrote.  

Further, the judge noted that the “expert disclosure” offered by Mr. Lee offers “insufficient information regarding what Dr. Lee’s opinions about the facts of this case are and the bases for those opinions.” As a result, “the Government cannot adequately prepare for Dr. Lee’s cross-examination, nor can it secure an expert of its own to oppose whatever Dr. Lee’s opinions may be,” he added. 

The prosecutors had pushed to throw out the evidence out of worry that the defense would use it to portray Biden as a tragic figure not responsible for his actions — a tactic which they argue Biden’s lawyers employed in both the opening and closing statements of his recent Delaware firearms trial, even though the facts were deemed irrelevant to the case. 

“Nowhere … does he argue that the government’s evidence of the defendant’s partying and drug use while incurring expenses that he later falsely claimed as ‘business’ expenses is inadmissible,” the prosecution wrote in its court filing to dismiss the evidence. “Instead, he argues that the psychological origins of the defendant’s dependency will help de- stigmatize him and asks the Court to adopt an incorrect reading of the ‘rule of completeness’ that would allow him to circumvent the prohibition against hearsay.”

Both rulings serve as a blow to Biden’s defense strategy, which hinges on the argument that his drug and alcohol abuse impacted his decision making abilities. However, the judge made clear that witnesses called by the defense would still be permitted to speak on Biden’s “frequency of drug use during the relevant time period or any other relevant events that took place.”

The trial is set to begin on September 7. If convicted on all nine charges, Biden could face up to 17 years in federal prison. He had already been convicted earlier this year, in the aforementioned firearms trial, of lying about his drug use to buy a gun. A sentencing date has yet to be set. Biden could also face a prison sentence for that conviction.