Cocaine was actually sawdust, Hunter Biden’s lawyers claim

PROSECUTORS investigating Hunter Biden mistook a picture showing lines of sawdust for cocaine, lawyers for the US president’s son have said.

The picture, which was found during a search of Mr Biden’s laptop and electronics, shows three lines of dust laid out on a piece of wood. Lawyers for Mr Biden, 54, have criticised the prosecutors for being “reckless” for the alleged error and said that any results of their discovery taken during the search cannot be taken “at face value”.

Prosecutors believed Mr Biden had taken the picture himself, but his legal team said in court filings that it was sent to their client by his then psychiatrist as inspiration to overcome addiction.

Dr Keith Ablow sent the photo to Mr Biden in 2018, saying that it was “lines of sawdust sent to me by a master carpenter who was a coke addict”.

The purpose, according to Mr Biden’s lawyers was “to convey that Mr Biden, too, could overcome any addiction”, the filing states. “I told him that, ultimately, [the carpenter] would have to choose between his art and his drug. He sent me the photo and a message that said, ‘Made my choice.’ Hope you do too,” the accompanying message, included in the filing, reads.

“Mistaking sawdust for cocaine sounds more like a storyline from one of the 1980s Police Academy comedies than what should be expected in a high-profile prosecution by the US Department of Justice,” the filing reads.

The filing comes amid a criminal investigation into Mr Biden by David Weiss, the special counsel. Mr Biden faces felony charges for allegedly failing to disclose his drug use on federal forms when applying for a gun permit, which he has pleaded not guilty to.

Meanwhile, a former FBI informant charged with fabricating claims about Mr Biden and his father had “extensive” contacts with Russian intelligence agencies, prosecutors have said.

Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant, was arrested last week and charged with lying to the FBI and creating false records. In June 2020, he claimed executives associated with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each in 2015 and 2016.

Mr Smirnov is said to have made the allegations against the president and his son after “expressing bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate in 2020, the prosecutors added. The president and his son deny any wrongdoing.