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Particular counsel David Weiss forcefully pushed back Tuesday towards Hunter Biden’s allegations that he was solely indicted on gun costs due to right-wing bias.
Additionally, for the primary time, Weiss publicly launched a photograph of the Colt Cobra .38 revolver that Biden is accused of illegally shopping for and possessing in 2018. (He has pleaded not responsible.) A picture of the gun was included in a 52-page courtroom filing.
President Joe Biden’s son is searching for to have the three gun-related felony costs thrown out, on the idea that they had been solely filed as a result of Weiss caved to Republican strain to indict him because the 2024 marketing campaign obtained underway. Weiss rejected these arguments on Wednesday.
Weiss’ workforce blasted the claims as a “conspiracy idea.”
“Stripped of its bluster, the defendant’s idea of vindictiveness is solely not credible,” particular counsel prosecutors wrote within the submitting. “Left with the inconvenient fact of attempting to elucidate how this might occur through the Biden Administration, the defendant means that evil motives are lurking deep inside the Division of Justice.”
They added: “This idea is a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”
Hunter Biden’s attorneys contend that Weiss solely deserted a previous deal – that might’ve resolved the gun probe with out an indictment – due to public strain from former President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans, and conservatives inside the Justice Division.
The gun indictment accuses Biden of illegally shopping for the weapon, as a result of he allegedly lied on an ATF kind when he mentioned he wasn’t hooked on medicine on the time. It’s additionally towards the regulation to own a gun whereas utilizing unlawful medicine – and Biden possessed the gun for about two weeks in 2018, earlier than it was discarded.
Along with the gun costs, Biden can also be going through a separate tax indictment. He pleaded not guilty to these costs final week.
Federal prosecutors revealed new particulars about Biden’s struggles with drug dependancy within the courtroom submitting as they pushed again on allegations that the prosecution is politically motivated.
They offered these particulars to assist their argument that the costs had been introduced as a result of the proof is “overwhelming” – and never due to any political bias.
Investigators mentioned they obtained a search warrant for backups of Biden’s digital units as a part of the tax probe – after which discovered messages implicating him in drug use whereas possessing the gun. Additionally they mentioned they discovered a photograph of crack cocaine from his cellphone that was taken on the day he bought the gun in Delaware, on October 12, 2018.
CNN has reached out to Hunter Biden’s attorneys for remark.
Biden has spoken overtly about his dependancy to alcohol and crack cocaine, together with in his memoir, which prosecutors finally ended up utilizing to construct the gun case towards him. He has accused his GOP critics of weaponizing his personal struggles for political acquire. He testified at a courtroom listening to final 12 months that he’s been sober since 2019.
Investigators mentioned they discovered texts between Biden and his girlfriend on the time – his brother’s widow, Hallie Biden – the place he mentioned he “was sleeping on a automobile smoking crack” and that he was “ready for a vendor named Mookie.”
The couple additionally fought over the truth that she threw out his gun, after discovering it in his automobile, 11 days after he purchased it, in line with the filings.
“You say I invade your privateness. What extra can I do than come again to you to strive once more. And also you do that???? Who of their proper thoughts would belief you’d assist me get sober,” Hunter Biden wrote, in line with the filings.
In keeping with the filings, Hallie Biden replied, “I’m sorry, I simply need you protected. That was not protected. And it was open unlocked and home windows down and the children search your automobile. You have got misplaced your thoughts hunter. I’m sorry I dealt with it poorly in the present day however you’re in enormous denial about your self and about that actuality that I simply need you protected.”
Weiss’ workforce additionally revealed within the submitting that when investigators examined Hunter Biden’s leather-based gun pouch final 12 months, they discovered “a white powdery substance” on the merchandise, which had been seized years earlier and was being held in a state police vault. An FBI chemist later confirmed that it was cocaine, the submitting mentioned.
“Investigators actually discovered medicine on the pouch the place the defendant had saved his gun,” prosecutors wrote.
The submitting seems to comprise Weiss’ first public affirmation that his workforce examined a controversial laptop computer linked to Biden. Weiss mentioned his workforce examined “the defendant’s Apple MacBook Professional, which he had left at a pc retailer.”
Biden has sued the repair shop owner and the Trump allies he labored with to disseminate the laptop computer’s explosive supplies to right-wing media retailers. He has suggested the leaked supplies, together with embarrassing e mail disclosures and images, may’ve been “hacked” or had been Russian fabrications.
The lawsuits acknowledged that a few of the leaked “knowledge” was genuine, however danced across the query of whether or not the laptop computer itself belonged to, or was dropped off by, Biden.
Federal prosecutors mentioned the knowledge they gleaned from the laptop computer was “largely duplicative” of fabric they already obtained from an earlier search warrant. That warrant, obtained in August 2019, was for Biden’s iCloud account, which contained backups of his digital units, together with the laptop computer.
In keeping with Weiss’ submitting in courtroom Tuesday, prosecutors even have handed over the copy of the laptop computer that that they had obtained to Biden’s protection workforce, as a part of the required proof productions earlier than trial. The submitting indicated the laptop computer is prone to come into play when the case is offered earlier than a jury.
This story story has been up to date with extra particulars.
CNN’s Paula Reid contributed to this report.