A federal judge ruled that Hunter Biden will face trial on federal gun charges on June 3 in Delaware.
The president’s son, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three charges related to lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted at the trial, which could last up to nine days.
His June 3 gun case comes immediately to a separate trial in a case brought by special counsel David Weiss on nine tax charges set for June 20 in California.
Hunter tried to avoid the spectacle of a full trial by striking what Republicans called a “sweetheart” plea deal with the DOJ. But it fell apart spectacularly last summer, and he now faces the two jury trials.
That’s sure to be a headache for his father Joe, who just clinched the Democratic nomination for president last night as he heads into the 2024 campaign.
Last month, Weiss released pictures from Hunter’s iPhone and hard drive that prosecutors said were evidence he was using cocaine when he bought a gun.
But Hunter’s legal team says the DOJ mistook sawdust for lines of cocaine during their investigation.
The president’s son, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three charges related to lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018
He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the weapons charges
Hunter Biden’s legal team has accused the Justice Department of mistaking lines of cocaine for sawdust
Hunter’s lawyers say the photo in question was actually sent to his psychiatrist by someone else as a joke.
‘The prosecution is completely wrong – both that Mr Biden “took” this photo and in claiming it depicts ‘cocaine’,” Biden’s lawyers said.
“Multiple sources have indicated and a review of the discovery confirms that this is indeed a photo of sawdust from an expert carpenter and it was sent to Mr. Biden, not the other way around.”
“More specifically, discovery identifies this as a photo of a photo taken in the office of Mr. Biden’s then-psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow,” Hunter’s attorneys said.
The court documents said that Dr. Ablow originally received the photo from a patient who was a master carpenter, and later texted it to Hunter.
In his text to Hunter, the doctor wrote: ‘This one in my office is from lines of sawdust sent to me by a master carpenter who was a coke addict.’
“The message accompanying the 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 1980s Police Academy comedies than what you might expect 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 from Hunter Biden’s laptop
Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s attorney, said the sawdust error “reinforces why Mr. Biden and the court could not 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 in relation to the sawdust photo.
They said it would “damage Mr. Biden in the public eye.”
The dispute over the photo came as Hunter’s lawyers filed a 22-page document regarding the sharing of evidence between the prosecution and the defense.
US President Joe Biden hugs his son Hunter Biden as they leave The Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles, California on February 4, 2024
In this courtroom sketch, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, center, with attorney Abbe Lowell, right, appears before Judge Mark C. Scarsi, left, in federal court, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. Biden pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, is seen making a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee meeting to vote on whether to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a request to testify before the House in last month. on Capitol Hill in Washington on January 10, 2024
A photo from Hunter Biden’s phone used by prosecutors to show his drug use