- ‘Cocaine lines’ photo was actually sawdust, Hunter’s lawyers say
- They accuse the Department of Justice of a Police Academy-style blunder
Hunter Biden’s legal team accused the Justice Department of a stunning mistake in which investigators mistook sawdust for lines of cocaine during their investigation into the president’s son.
Hunter’s attorney claimed that special prosecutor David Weiss made a mistake “straight out of a 1980s Police Academy movie.”
It came after Weiss posted photos of Hunter’s iPhone and hard drive that the prosecutor said were proof he was using cocaine when he bought a gun.
Hunter’s lawyers say the image in question was actually sent to his psychiatrist by someone else as a prank.
“The prosecution is completely wrong: both that Mr. Biden ‘took’ this photograph and that it represents ‘cocaine,'” Biden’s lawyers said.
“Multiple sources have noted, and a review of the discovery confirms, that this was actually a photo of sawdust by an expert woodworker and was sent to Mr. Biden, not the other way around.”
Hunter Biden’s legal team accused the Justice Department of mistaking cocaine lines for sawdust.
“More specifically, discovery identifies this as a photograph taken in the office of Mr. Biden’s then-psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow,” Hunter’s attorneys said.
Court documents say Dr. Ablow initially received the image from a patient, who was a master carpenter, and then texted it to Hunter.
In his text message to Hunter, the doctor wrote: “This one I have in my office are lines of sawdust sent to me by a master carpenter who was addicted to cocaine.”
“The message accompanying that photo was intended to convey that Mr. Biden could also overcome any addiction,” Hunter’s lawyers wrote.
They continued: “Mistaking sawdust for cocaine sounds more like a story from one of the ’80s Police Academy comedies than what should be expected in a high-profile prosecution by the US Department of Justice.”
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, speaks to reporters at the US Capitol in Washington on December 13, 2023.
A photo of Hunter Biden’s laptop
Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s attorney, said the sawdust error “amplifies why Mr. Biden and the court failed to take what the prosecution said “at face value.”
Weiss has accused Hunter Biden of crimes including lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018. The president’s son has pleaded not guilty.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers accused prosecutors of being “reckless” in making a “hyperbolic and sensational” claim regarding the sawdust painting.
They said it would “harm Mr. Biden in the public eye.”
The dispute over the image occurred when Hunter’s lawyers filed a 22-page document related to the sharing of evidence between the prosecution and defense.
US President Joe Biden hugs his son Hunter Biden as they leave The Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles, California, on February 4, 2024.