Prosecutors in Hunter Biden’s gun charge case on January 16 asked a federal judge to reject the defense’s motion to dismiss, revealing that cocaine residue was discovered on the pouch Hunter used to store his gun, the Associated Press reported.
In their motion pressing for the case to proceed, prosecutors argued that the evidence against the President’s son was “overwhelming” and disputed the defense’s claim that Hunter’s prosecution was politically motivated.
Prosecutors said that in addition to Hunter’s “incriminating statements” from his 2021 memoir, investigators found white powder on the leather pouch Hunter used to store his gun when they pulled it from a state police evidence vault last year. A test on the powder conducted by the FBI forensic lab determined it was cocaine, the prosecutors said.
Last fall, Hunter pleaded not guilty to lying about his drug use on a federal gun application in October 2018. During Hunter’s arraignment, attorney Abbe Lowell told the court that he would file a motion to dismiss the charges on constitutional grounds.
While Hunter admitted that he was struggling with a crack cocaine addiction at the time he purchased the firearm, his attorneys maintain that he did not break the law.
In the defense’s motion to dismiss filed in December, Hunter’s lawyers alleged that he was charged for political purposes and argued that special counsel David Weiss “buckled under political pressure” to file charges after facing criticism from Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump.
However, federal prosecutors rebuffed the claim, saying that there was no evidence supporting the allegation of political pressure. They argued that the special counsel is part of the Executive Branch that is “led by his father,” specifically the Department of Justice, which is “led by the Attorney General appointed by his father.”
The prosecutors also insisted that the charges were not “trumped up or because of former President Trump.” Instead, they were the “result of the defendant’s own choices” and brought against him, despite the “outside noise made by politicians.”
