Share this @internewscast.com
Hunter Biden pictured on Feb. 4, 2023 (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky); disputed lines of sawdust or cocaine (Biden discovery motion)
Criminal defense lawyers for President Joe Bidenâs adult son Hunter Biden say federal prosecutors mistook sawdust for cocaine.
The allegation was made in a Tuesday discovery motion obtained by Law&Crime. The younger Biden is pushing for the court overseeing his federal firearms case to set discovery deadlines â and to force the government to fully comply with defense discovery requests.
When federal agents mistakenly confused sawdust for cocaine, they made a series of telling, demonstrative, and demonstrable errors that suggest the government cannot be trusted to fulfill discovery obligations without a court order, Bidenâs motion argues.
âThe prosecutionâs latest filing amplifies why Mr. Biden and the Court cannot take the prosecutionâs assertions concerning its discovery production or what that discovery reveals at face value,â the motion reads.
In a recent exhibit filed by the government, prosecutors supplied a photograph showing three lines of an unknown substance. The photograph was preceded by the line: âDuring November and December 2018, the defendant took multiple photographs of videos [sic] apparent cocaine, crack cocaine, and drug paraphernalia.â
Bidenâs attorneys say the photograph actually depicts sawdust â and that their client clearly was not the source of the image.
âThe prosecution is flat out wrong â both that Mr. Biden âtookâ this photograph and in claiming that it depicts âcocaine,”â the motion reads. âMultiple sources have pointed out, and a review of discovery confirms, this is actually a photo of sawdust from an expert carpenter and it was sent to Mr. Biden, not vice versa.â
Instead, the motion claims, the image is âa photo of a photo taken in the office of Mr. Bidenâs then-psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow.â
In the discovery motion, the image in question is accompanied by two text messages from a person identified as Ablow. One of those messages reads: âThis one in my office is of lines of sawdust sent to me by a master carpenter who was a coke addict.â
The Ablow messages and image. (Biden discovery motion)
âThe message accompanying that photo was meant to convey that Mr. Biden, too, could overcome any addiction,â the motion argues.
Bidenâs attorneys criticize the prosecution by saying the alleged mistake is redolent of Steven Guttenbergâs âPolice Academyâ films.
âThe prosecution was reckless in making such a hyperbolic and sensational claim in a public filing, which it surely realized would prejudice Mr. Biden in the public eye,â the filing goes on. âMistaking sawdust for cocaine sounds more like a storyline from one of the 1980s Police Academy comedies than what should be expected in a high-profile prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice.â
More Law&Crime coverage: âAn inconvenient truthâ: Special counsel blasts Hunter Bidenâs âimproperâ attempt to subpoena Trump and Bill Barr as âfishing expeditionâ
The 46th presidentâs son has waged an aggressive criminal defense strategy as he fights special counsel David Weissâ gun prosecution in Delaware, where Biden was indicted in September 2023 after an agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes fell apart.
More Law&Crime coverage: âThe statute is indefensibleâ: Hunter Biden uses Justice Thomasâ major Second Amendment decision to attack special counselâs gun indictment
Tuesdayâs motion is the latest salvo in what looks likely to be a knock-down-drag-out fight to the end between both sides in the case â which the defense has blasted as part of a partisan feud.
âThe law does not give the prosecution a participation trophy for playing in the event; they should finish the process without a defendant cheering for the partial effort,â the defense motion reads. âFor all its bluster, there is nothing improper nor out of the ordinary for Mr. Biden to make the same request that virtually every defendant makes, asking that the prosecution give him all the information that he is due so that he can prepare for and receive a fair trial.â
Also on Tuesday, Alexander Smirnov, 43, a U.S. citizen who has an Israeli passport, appeared in federal court in Las Vegas, Nevada. The court appearance is related to allegations that Smirnov, while an informant for the FBI, fabricated claims that Hunter and Joe Biden were bribed by a Ukrainian energy company.
Matt Naham and Brandi Buchman contributed to this report.
Â
