USA, California: A judge known for condemning an "abhorrent" protest against Jewish students at a California university is now set to oversee Hunter Biden's tax evasion case.
Judge Mark Scarsi, appointed by Trump, gained international attention on August 14 for issuing an injunction against a protest at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The protest had blocked access to certain campus areas unless students denounced Israel. Scarsi's injunction criticized the exclusion of Jewish students from parts of the campus for refusing to renounce their faith, calling it a violation of constitutional religious freedom.
Scarsi will now preside over Hunter Biden’s tax trial, scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in September. Prosecutors accuse Hunter Biden, the 54-year-old son of President Joe Biden, of failing to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 to 2019. He faces three felony tax charges and six misdemeanor tax charges.
In his injunction order, Scarsi emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating: Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating.
Scarsi also noted that while UCLA claimed no responsibility for the protest, the university could not permit some students to be excluded based on religious grounds, regardless of the protest’s organizers.
Jury selection for Biden’s case is scheduled for September 5, with the trial set to start on September 9. Special counsel David Weiss' team has indicated that a witness will testify about an alleged arrangement between Hunter Biden and a Romanian businessperson who sought to influence U.S. government policy during Joe Biden's vice presidency.
Newsweek has reached out to Hunter Biden's attorney for comment.
Scarsi's career has been diverse. His LinkedIn profile details a background in software engineering, including work on defense systems and submarine technology. He later transitioned to patent law, representing TV Guide in a software-related case before the International Trade Commission. He worked at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy for 11 years, leading the firm's West Coast intellectual property practice.
Trump nominated Scarsi as a federal judge for the Central District of California in 2018, and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 15, 2020.
