TRENTON - Ocean County GOP Chairman George R. Gilmore "chose over and over again to prioritize funding his lifestyle," instead of paying his income taxes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jihee Suh said in her opening argument Tuesday at the Republican boss' trial on six federal tax charges.

"You'll see this case is not about someone who is just struggling, struggling to pay his taxes," Suh said.

Instead, she argued, Gilmore used money he borrowed from colleagues and friends, as well as millions in money he took from his law firm's accounts to pay for personal expenses, including $380,000 in renovations to his home, $700,000 in mortgages and related payments on other properties, $20,000 for Steinway piano, and $80,000 for luxury vacation accommodations in Vail, Colorado.

"We are here today because of those choices by the defendant, to cheat and conceal," Suh said.

But Gilmore's lawyer, Kevin Marino, said his client "made foolish choices with money," but is not a criminal.

While the prosecution "believes that George Gilmore is a tax cheat and a bank fraudster, I will prove to you that he is neither," Marino said.

Gilmore is, instead, a devoted husband, a highly respected lawyer and GOP leader, and "a spendthrift," Marino said.

"He squanders money on what we would call frivolous and unnecessary purchases," Marino said of his client.

Because of his free-spending ways, Gilmore was unable to pay his taxes though he was earning a hefty salary, Marino said. The government noted that Gilmore earned close to $1 million a year during the period when he did not pay his income taxes.

Related:Hoarding a defense for tax evasion? Ocean GOP boss George Gilmore makes case

Suh and Marino made opening arguments Tuesday in Gilmore's trial in Trenton federal court. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.

Watch Gilmore arriving at court Monday in the video above this story.

Marino said Gilmore has had tax issues for more than 20 years but argued that the GOP boss never tried to conceal his income or assets from the IRS. Instead, he frequently paid his taxes late, incurring hefty fines, Marino said.

""Paying his taxes late was a way of life for George Gilmore," Marino said. He noted Gilmore paid $709,000 in taxes for the tax years 2011, 2012 and 2013.

'Shareholder loans'

By mid-2016, Gilmore had borrowed more than $9 million from his law firm to use for personal expenses, but reported the money as "shareholder loans" instead of income, to avoid paying taxes on it, Suh said.

"These were not loans," she said. "There was no promissory note, there was no loan agreement between him and the law firm, between him and his law firm partners."

Gilmore used this money, and law firm credit cards, to pay for lavish Colorado vacations, art and antiques, she said.

Related:Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore indicted on federal tax charges

Gilmore also took more than $200,000 from payroll tax payments made by his law firm's employees, and used the money to pay personal credit card bills for himself and his wife, Joanne, Suh said.

"The defendant had the money to pay," Suh said. "He just chose, again and again, to spend it on other things."

In August 2015, while Gilmore was telling an IRS officer that he did not have the money to pay the more than $490,000 he owed for his 2013 taxes, he had already spent over half a million dollars on personal expenses, Suh said.

She said in October 2015, Gilmore stopped returning calls from the IRS officer assigned to his case. In early 2016, he spent more than $25,000 to stay at a "luxury vacation residence" in Vail, Colorado.

But Marino said that Gilmore "wasn't lying" when he said he didn't have the money to pay his taxes. He said Gilmore was "borrowing money and spending frivolously," so did not have the money to pay the IRS.

"I don't dispute any of it," Marino said. "...Every person who doesn't pay his taxes has spent the money on something else."

Marino said he would prove that Gilmore also paid more than $260,000 in taxes for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, years when the government claims he paid no taxes.

Gilmore's history:Ocean GOP boss George Gilmore's family roots led him to top; is he about to fall?

That money was automatically deducted from Gilmore's pay at the law firm. He did not make any additional payments to the IRS for those years, prosecutors have said.

Marino also said Gilmore & Monahan, the law firm, frequently paid payroll taxes late, but Gilmore did not think this was against the law.

"He believed in good faith that it wasn't a crime to pay your payroll taxes late as long as you paid interest and penalties," Marino said.

On Oct. 16, 2014, Gilmore sent the IRS a $493,526 check as payment for his 2013 taxes despite having no more than $2,500 in his personal bank account at the time, Suh said. Gilmore’s check bounced and he never resubmitted payment in lieu of the bounced check.

Marino said that Gilmore had applied for a $650,000 loan from Two River Community Bank, and both Gilmore and his law firm partner, Thomas Monahan, were assured by a bank officer that they would receive the money.

Watch the video below to learn more about George Gilmore.

Both Gilmore and Monahan wrote checks to the IRS that day, after speaking to the bank officer, Marino said. But the bank did not approve the loan.

"The bank didn't come through," Marino said. "Who bounces a check to the IRS as an affirmative act of evasion?"

He also said that Gilmore has repaid $7.8 million of the "loans" he took from his law firm.

Hoarding disorder?:Ocean GOP boss Gilmore's hoarding can't explain tax evasion, feds argue

Monahan is expected to testify as a prosecution witness at the trial, after receiving a government subpoena, Marino said.

Before jury selection began on Monday, Gilmore, 69, who pleaded not guilty to the charges in January, turned down a plea agreement offered by the government. The specifics of the plea deal were not disclosed.

Gilmore, a Toms River resident, faces years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if he’s convicted on all charges.

Hoarding expert can't testify

Gilmore's defense in the case was dealt a blow on Friday, when a judge granted the government's motion to block testimony from a psychiatrist and author who claims Gilmore has a "hoarding disorder."

U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson ruled to exclude the testimony of expert witness Dr. Steven Simring, who submitted a Nov. 30 report that said Gilmore "meets the criteria for hoarding disorder," as described in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, according to the court documents.

The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a motion to exclude Simring's testimony in early March, noting that Gilmore had never sought treatment for hoarding disorder before being indicted on tax charges.

More:Hoarding a defense for tax evasion? Ocean GOP boss George Gilmore makes case

Related:Hoarding expert can't testify in Ocean County GOP boss George Gilmore's trial

The government's motion also pointed out that the psychiatrist's report did not explain how the GOP chairman's mental illness "would cause Gilmore to pay some bills, including mortgage payments for multiple homes and credit card bills, but not others, like his federal tax bill."

Gilmore's lawyer, Marino, did not mention the hoarding defense in his opening statement Tuesday.

Gilmore's January indictment sent shock waves through Ocean County's political establishment. Gilmore has served as party chairman since 1996 and has headed the county Board of Elections since 1995.

So far, though, there have been no public calls for his removal as party leader.

His organization's ability to turn out Republican voters in both local and statewide elections has made him "the most important Republican Party chair in the state," according to Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.

Gilmore & Monahan, the Toms River law firm where the GOP leader is a partner, is estimated to make more than $2 million each year from taxpayer-funded legal work in a number of Republican-controlled towns in Ocean County, including Jackson, Lacey, Little Egg Harbor, Plumsted, Berkeley and Seaside Heights.

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Gilmore was indicted Jan. 10 on six federal tax charges.

The long-time GOP power broker is charged with one count of income tax evasion for the calendar years 2013, 2014 and 2015; two counts of filing false tax returns for calendar years 2013 and 2014; failing to collect, account for, and pay payroll taxes for two quarters in 2016, and making false statements on a 2015 loan application submitted to OceanFirst Bank, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A federal grand jury alleged that Gilmore spent more than $2.5 million on personal expenses — including antiques, art work, animal tusks and marble flooring — even though he owed nearly $1.5 million in federal taxes.

Jean Mikle: 732-643-4050, @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com