Hunter Biden’s claim of right-wing bias is ‘fiction designed for a Hollywood script,’ special counsel says

CNN
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Special prosecutor David Weiss on Tuesday strongly pushed back against Hunter Biden’s accusations that he was only being prosecuted on gun charges because of right-wing bias.

In addition, Weiss also publicly released for the first time photos of the Colt Cobra .38 revolver that Biden is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing in 2018. (He has pleaded not guilty.) An image of the gun is included in the 52-page court filing.

President Joe Biden’s son is seeking to drop three gun-related felony charges on the theory that they were filed only because Weiss bowed to Republican pressure to prosecute him at the start of the 2024 campaign. Weiss dismissed those arguments Wednesday.

Weiss’ team dismissed the claims as “conspiracy theories.”

“Falseness aside, defendants’ retaliation theory is simply not credible,” special counsel prosecutors wrote in the filing. “Defendants’ attempts to explain how this occurred during the Biden Administration leave inconvenient facts that defendants believe the Department of Justice There are sinister motives lurking within.”

They added: “This theory is a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”

Hunter Biden’s attorneys argue that Weiss walked away from a previous agreement — which would have been possible without prosecution — only because of public pressure from former President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans and Justice Department conservatives case to resolve gun investigation.

The gun indictment accuses Biden of illegally purchasing weapons because he allegedly lied on an ATF form, saying he was not addicted to drugs at the time. It is also illegal to possess a firearm while using illegal drugs — Biden owned the gun for about two weeks in 2018 before discarding it.

In addition to the gun charges, Biden faces separate tax prosecutions. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.

Federal prosecutors revealed new details about Biden’s battle with drug addiction in court documents while pushing back against prosecutors’ claims that he was politically motivated.

They raised the details to support their argument that the charges were brought because the evidence was “overwhelming” and not because of any political bias.

Investigators said they obtained a search warrant for backups of Biden’s electronic devices as part of a tax probe and then uncovered messages suggesting he was using drugs while in possession of a gun. They also said they found a photo of crack cocaine on his phone that was taken on Oct. 12, 2018, the day he purchased the gun in Delaware.

CNN has reached out to Hunter Biden’s attorney for comment.

Biden has spoken publicly about his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine, including in his memoir, which prosecutors eventually used to build a gun case against him. He accused Republican critics of weaponizing his personal struggles for political gain. He testified at a court hearing last year that he had been sober since 2019.

Investigators said they found text messages between Biden and his then-girlfriend, his brother’s widow, Halle Biden, in which he said he was “sleeping in a car snorting cocaine” and “being Waiting for a drug dealer named Mookie”.

The couple got into an argument after she found the gun in his car 11 days after he bought it, threw it away, documents show.

“You say I invaded your privacy. What else could I do but come back to you and try again? And you do this????” Hunter Biden wrote, documents show A sane person would trust you to help me sober up. ”

According to the documents, Halle Biden responded: “I’m sorry, I just want you to be safe. That’s not safe. Doors open, unlocked, windows rolled down, kids searching your car. You’ve lost your soul.” Hunter. I’m sorry I didn’t handle it well today, but you are seriously denying yourself and the reality that I just want you to be safe.”

Weiss’ team also revealed in the document that when investigators examined Hunter Biden’s gun bag last year, they found a “white powdery substance” on the item that had been seized years ago and is now Retained in the state police vault. An FBI chemist later confirmed it was cocaine, documents say.

“Investigators did find drugs in the bag where the defendant stored his firearm,” prosecutors wrote.

The document appears to contain Weiss’s first public confirmation that his team examined a controversial laptop linked to Biden. Weiss said his team inspected “an Apple MacBook Pro that the defendant had left at the computer store.”

Biden has sued repair shop owners and Trump allies who worked with him for spreading explosive laptop materials to right-wing media. He said the leaked material, including embarrassing email disclosures and photos, could have been “hacked” or fabricated by Russia.

The lawsuits acknowledge that some of the leaked “data” are real, but revolve around the question of whether the laptop itself belonged to Biden or was discarded by him.

Federal prosecutors said the information they gleaned from the laptop “substantially duplicated” material they obtained from earlier search warrants. The search warrant was obtained in August 2019 for Biden’s iCloud account, which contained backups of his electronic devices, including a laptop.

Prosecutors also turned over to Biden’s defense team a copy of the laptop they obtained as part of evidence needed before trial, according to documents Weiss filed in court on Tuesday. The document suggests laptops may come into play when the case goes to a jury.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Paula Reid contributed to this report.