Attorneys for Hunter Biden claimed in a Tuesday court filing that federal prosecutors mistook sawdust for cocaine in a photo used to justify a gun charge.
Biden pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and a felony gun charge during a July 26 hearing after a plea bargain announced June 20 collapsed. Attorneys Abbe Lowell, Christopher Man and Bartholomew Dalton claimed that a photo apparently showing three lines of cocaine was not the substance, according to the filing.
“The prosecution is flat out wrong—both that Mr. Biden ‘took’ this photograph and in claiming that it depicts ‘cocaine,’” Biden’s attorneys wrote in the brief. “Multiple 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.”
“More specifically, the discovery identifies this as a photo of a photo taken in the office of Mr. Biden’s then-psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow, which Dr. Ablow initially received from [a] master carpenter and later texted to Mr. Biden, stating: ‘This one in my office is of lines of sawdust sent to me by a master carpenter who was a coke addict,’” Biden’s attorneys continued. “The message accompanying that photo was meant to convey that Mr. Biden, too, could overcome any addiction. The prosecution does not provide a date for the photo, but the message from Dr. Ablow is dated November 20, 2018.”
Biden was indicted in September on three felony gun charges for making false statements and illegally possessing a firearm while addicted to drugs. He pleaded not guilty during an October arraignment.
Federal prosecutors said in a January filing that powder cocaine was discovered on a holster for the Colt Cobra revolver Biden purchased. Biden could face up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted.
Harold Hutchison on February 20, 2024
