Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Accuse Federal Prosecutors of Mistaking Sawdust for Cocaine in Evidentiary Photographs James Lynch
Hunter Biden’s attorneys are seeking to undermine special counsel David Weiss’s criminal prosecution by accusing his team of mistakenly identifying sawdust as cocaine in evidentiary photographs.
Biden’s attorneys, lead by Abbe D. Lowell, filed a motion in Delaware Tuesday to support his effort to compel discovery in his federal gun case. They criticized Weiss’s investigation by invoking the photographs and the indictment of a former FBI informant for making false allegations of bribery against Joe and Hunter Biden.
“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,” the court filing reads.
“The 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,” the motion continues.
A federal grand jury in California indicted FBI confidential human source (CHS) Alexander Smirnov Wednesday on false statement and obstruction charges. Smirnov is the CHS behind an FBI whistleblower form produced in June 2020 featuring allegations Joe and Hunter Biden took $10 million in bribes from Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. Senator Chuck Grassley (R.,Iowa) released the FBI document in July after the FBI allowed a select group of House lawmakers to view the document.
The indictment features text messages from Smirnov to his FBI handler disparaging then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Smirnov was previously thought to be credible by the FBI and supplied information about Burisma in 2017 memorialized by a different whistleblower form.
Hunter’s lawyers used Smirnov’s indictment in an attempt to undermine Weiss’s case.
“The Special Counsel charged Mr. Smirnov with lying and obstruction, but the more interesting part of this story is not that Mr. Smirnov lied. It is more remarkable that beginning in July 2023, the Special Counsel’s team would follow Mr. Smirnov down his rabbit hole of lies as long as it did,” the motion adds.
“Disclosure about why the Special Counsel abandoned its June/July 2023 agreements with Mr. Biden and the role played by the Smirnov allegations may reveal flaws worse than mistaking sawdust for cocaine.”
The Justice Department and Hunter Biden’s guilty plea deal for two tax misdemeanor charges and a pretrial diversion agreement for a single felony gun charge collapsed in July because of a dispute over whether Hunter would be given broad immunity from charges related to his foreign lobbying.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys insist the contents of his abandoned laptop archive were tampered with before the government came into possession of it, without providing detailed evidence to substantiate the allegation.
Federal investigators verified the laptop contents in late 2019 by cross referencing them with an Apple iCloud search warrant, Justice Department prosecutors said in a January court filing. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley gave similar testimony in May to the House Ways and Means Committee.
“Investigators also later came into possession of the defendant’s Apple MacBook Pro, which he had left at a computer store. A search warrant was also obtained for his laptop and the results of the search were largely duplicative of information investigators had already obtained from Apple,” Weiss’ team said in the filing.
Burisma paid Hunter Biden as much as $83,333.33 per month to be a board member of the company, bank records show. His salary dropped significantly after Joe Biden left office, according to his federal tax indictment in California resulting from Weiss’ criminal prosecution. Hunter Biden has plead not guilty to the tax and gun charges.
House Republicans are investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Burisma as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The younger Biden’s businesses dealings with individuals and entities in Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan have drawn scrutiny throughout the impeachment inquiry.
Hunter Biden’s uncle James Biden is set to testify Wednesday for the impeachment inquiry. His testimony is scheduled to take place next week.
Comments are closed.
