Prosecutors in Hunter Biden Gun Case Dismiss Political Persecution Argument in Scathing Filing: ‘Hollywood Script’

Federal prosecutors dismissed Hunter Biden’s argument that the gun case against him is politically motivated in a scathing court filing, pointing out that the first son readily admitted in his memoir to smoking crack on an almost constant basis around the time he purchased a firearm in 2018.

Responding to Hunter’s recent motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that he is being persecuted by his father’s political enemies, prosecutors submitted a filing in Delaware court on Tuesday arguing that the “theory is a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”

The 52-page filing repeatedly cites the younger Biden’s 2021 memoir, which highlights his past struggles with drug addiction. Hunter writes in the book that he decided to purchase a firearm in 2018, around the time he was smoking crack nearly every 15 minutes, after a drug dealer pointed a gun at him during a transaction. Prosecutors also reveal in the filing that cocaine was found on the pouch Hunter was using to store his firearm before his then-girlfriend threw it in a trashcan in a public parking lot after finding it in his unlocked car.

“He recounted his interaction with a drug dealer who pointed a gun at him during a drug deal before he decided to buy his own gun. Investigators also obtained messages from his Apple iCloud account in which he discussed buying thousands of dollars’ worth of crack while also taking videos of himself weighing crack and smoking it. Furthermore, a chemist was able to confirm the presence of cocaine residue on the brown leather pouch in which defendant stored his firearm. The evidence against him does not end there.”

Prosecutors further point out that Hunter’s lawyers failed to substantiate their political persecution claim by identifying any individual who committed similar offenses and was not prosecuted.

“The charges in this case are not trumped up or because of former President Trump — they are instead a result of the defendant’s own choices and were brought in spite of, not because of, any outside noise made by politicians,” prosecutors wrote. “The defendant cannot prevail on his selective prosecution claim because he does not identify any individual who chose to make similar choices as him who was not prosecuted, and he cannot establish any link between statements of politicians and a discriminatory purpose by current DOJ officials.”

In a separate Tuesday filing, prosecutors push back against Hunter’s additional claim that his Second Amendment rights shield him from prosecution for possessing a gun while under the influence of drugs. The DOJ declared that Second Amendment rights can be suspended when the possessor of arms is a threat to public safety.

“Anglo-American law has long recognized that the government may disarm those who, by their conduct or characteristics, present an increased risk to public safety if they possess firearms,” the DOJ said in Tuesday’s court filing.

DOJ special counsel David Weiss indicted Hunter Biden in September 2023 on charges that the president’s son lied on a federal form while purchasing a gun in 2018. The indictment came after Weiss brokered a plea deal for Biden in the summer of 2023 that fell apart upon further scrutiny from a District Court judge.

The four-page indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware last September, says that Hunter Biden “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive” a dealer in his effort to acquire a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018.

Weiss, who has been in charge of the sprawling case against the younger Biden since late 2018, has been accused by Republicans of dragging his feet on the investigation because of the defendant’s relationship to the president. Before the September indictment was filed, the statute of limitations on the federal gun charge was about to lapse in the case.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty.