Hunter Biden's tax charges trial postponed until September

A federal judge on Wednesday granted Hunter Biden’s request to delay his trial on tax charges, which had been scheduled to begin next month in California.

U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi granted a motion from Biden's legal team to move the trial from its previously scheduled June 20 start date to begin on Sept. 5.

Last month, Scarsi denied Biden’s bid to dismiss or at least toss out counts from the indictment, which includes allegations that Biden, the president’s son, failed to pay taxes, failed to file, evaded an assessment and filed a fraudulent form.

An attorney for Biden had argued that his team would not have enough time to prepare for trial by June 20 because Biden is standing trial in a separate case on gun charges in Delaware, which is scheduled to begin June 3.

The attorney, Abbe Lowell, said he fears Biden's gun case may go longer than previously expected, giving him little to no time to transition to the tax case. “There’s too much to do,” he argued.

Lowell also said Biden's defense team has struggled to obtain defense experts because of concerns about involvement in a high-profile case. A tax expert who was confirmed is embroiled in a separate trial and needs more time to prepare once his other trial work is finished, Lowell said.

He added that his team also needed more time to prepare Biden for potential testimony.

A prosecutor for special counsel David Weiss' office, Leo Wise, pushed back, arguing that a “delay has consequences.”

Wise maintained his team has subpoenaed 30 witnesses, who have arranged their schedules for June. He also took aim at the defense’s claim to have had trouble finding experts, arguing, “You can hire an expert to say anything.” He said they’re “everywhere at any price.”

Wise also described both Biden trials as “simple cases."

“There’s a lot of noise around this case," Wise said. "But that doesn’t make it complex or challenging.” He told the court he estimated his case for the tax trial would take six days.

Scarsi seemed reluctant to grant the request given that the trial date was set before the Delaware court set the June 3 trial date for the gun charges, but he relented after a prolonged back-and-forth in which Lowell, the high-profile attorney, said he chose September to leave time for appellate decisions, a family vacation and an unrelated oral argument in the 5th Circuit.

“The 5th will be the 5th,” Scarsi concluded definitively, foreclosing any further delays. “We will go forward on the 5th.”

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied Biden’s request to postpone the trial on gun charges, which is tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics.

Biden has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Lowell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon. Weiss’ office declined to comment.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com