The Colt Cobra revolver pistol that Hunter Biden allegedly bought illegally for $900 in cash while addicted to drugs has been pictured for the first time in a damning court filing from prosecutors.
Chemists also found cocaine in the brown leather bag where the president's son kept his gun, special counsel David Weiss' office claimed in the damning document.
Federal prosecutors made the new revelations as Weiss fought back against the president's son, who was trying to get three gun crime charges that were punishable by up to 25 years in prison dismissed.
Hunter, 52, claims the Justice Department only charged him after he caved to pressure from Republicans and is calling for the charges to be dropped.
The top prosecutor called the “conspiracy theory” “a fiction designed for a Hollywood script.”
The Colt Cobra gun that Hunter Biden allegedly purchased illegally during his drug addiction has been pictured for the first time in a damning court filing from prosecutors
“The defendant’s theory of vindictiveness, when stripped of all its glory, is simply not credible,” prosecutors wrote.
“The defendant is left with the inconvenient truth of explaining how this could have happened during the Biden administration and suggesting that sinister motives lurk deep within the Justice Department.”
“This theory is a fiction designed for a Hollywood screenplay,” they added.
The court filing also discusses the fact that he decided to write a memoir in which he “made countless incriminating statements about his years of drug use” at the time of the gun purchase.
“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,” it continues.
“Investigators also obtained messages from his Apple iCloud account in which he discussed purchasing thousands of dollars' worth of crack while also taking videos of himself weighing and smoking crack.”
“In addition, a chemist was able to confirm the presence of cocaine residue on the brown leather bag in which the defendant stored his firearm.” The evidence against him does not end there.
“The allegations in this case are not fabricated or made by former President Trump – rather, they are the result of the defendant’s own decisions and were made despite, not because of, the outside noise from politicians.”
“The defendant cannot prevail on his claim for selective prosecution because he does not identify any person who made decisions similar to those of the person who was not prosecuted and he does not establish a connection between the statements of politicians and any discriminatory intent of the current ones Justice Department officials can produce.”
According to prosecutors, on October 12, 2018, Hunter went to a gun store in Wilmington, Delaware, and purchased a Colt Cobra 38SPL, an HKS speedloader used to quickly reload bullets and ammunition.
“When asked whether he was an illegal user of, or addicted to, depressants, stimulants, narcotics or other controlled substances, the defendant responded “no,” the filing states.
If he had answered “yes,” he would not have been able to buy the gun.
The Colt Cobra cost $886.81, so Hunter handed over $900 in cash, prosecutors allege.
Eleven days later, his then-girlfriend Hallie Biden – the widow of his late brother Beau – found the gun in his car with the windows rolled down.
Next to it was the quick loader and the ammunition. She threw the gun into a trash can behind a grocery store.
“Police later obtained the defendant's gun case and the defendant's gun, the ammunition contained in the ammunition box, the speed loader and the older man's brown leather bag,” the filing states.
The president's son also faces a nine-count indictment for alleged tax crimes.
Hunter, 53, is seeking to have three felony weapons charges dropped that carry up to 25 years in prison
An image from Hunter Biden's laptop showed the now 53-year-old first son posing naked with a gun
Eleven days after planting the gun, his then-girlfriend Hallie Biden — the widow of his late brother Beau — found the gun in his car with the windows rolled down.
In December, Hunter Biden's attorney filed a motion to dismiss gun crime charges against him.
Attorney Abbe Lowell, who vigorously counters prosecutors' arguments in both cases, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Delaware, where Hunter is accused of lying on a form when purchasing a Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 – at one point , when he had already written this, was abusing crack and other substances.
He pointed to recent court rulings on gun ownership, including a recent Court of Appeals decision striking down bans on gun ownership for drug users.
His lawyers argued the charges were “politically motivated” and accused Weiss of “succumbing to political pressure to bring harsher charges.”
The maximum total prison sentence if convicted on all counts is 25 years, although federal sentences are typically less than the maximum sentence. Hunter could also be fined a maximum of $250,000 and placed on probation for three years.
According to the indictment, Hunter lied about his drug use when purchasing a gun in 2018.
The First Son purchased a .38-caliber Colt Cobra pistol in Delaware, a state where every buyer must answer a series of questions before they can get their hands on a gun.
A 2018 application asks whether the applicant uses drugs or is addicted to drugs. The box is clearly marked “No”.
Hunter has admitted that he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time of the gun purchase.
Video discovered on Hunter's laptop shows him naked and brandishing a handgun in a hotel room in 2018, allegedly five days after purchasing the weapon.
About two weeks later, Hallie Biden, his mistress and his brother's widow, found it “unlocked” in his truck and threw it in a grocery store trash can. His discovery sparked a police investigation.
Additionally, now-President Biden appeared close to tears in the voicemail he left on Hunter's abandoned laptop on October 15 – three days after Hunter bought the gun and lied about being a drug addict – pleading for help .
“It’s dad. I called to tell you that I love you. “I love you more than the world, buddy,” Joe said in the Oct. 15 message. “You need help. I know you don't know what to do, neither do I.'
On July 27, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon for Hunter by President Biden. But it remains to be seen whether the White House's stance has changed after Hunter faced the three new felony charges.
Republicans insist that Joe's son committed more crimes and that Weiss' gun charges should be just the tip of the spear.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who is leading an investigation into the Biden family's business dealings, responded to the indictment, saying the indictment was a “very small start.”
“Unless U.S. Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in the fraud schemes and influence peddling, it will be clear that President Biden’s Justice Department is protecting Hunter Biden and the Big One,” he continued.
“Ironically, this is the only crime he committed that you can’t blame on Joe Biden,” Comer added.
Firebrand Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz responded: “Charging Hunter on firearms charges is like convicting Jeffrey Dahmer of littering.”
The White House is referring investigations into the new charges to the Justice Department, saying it is an independent investigation.
Earlier this summer, after a five-year investigation, the president's son reached a plea deal that would have allowed him to avoid trial on firearms charges if he had followed probation for 24 months.
Republicans in Washington complained that the president's son cut a “sweetheart deal” to protect President Biden.
However, the deal collapsed spectacularly in court in July, leaving Hunter open to new charges.
Hunter allegedly lied about a gun report (above) that was required for his gun transaction. A photo of the form shows he answered “no” when asked if he was an “unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or a depressant, stimulant, narcotic or other controlled substance.”
Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned the “diversion agreement” of Hunter’s plea deal — a provision that gave him blanket immunity for a host of other potential charges, including illegal foreign lobbying — and nixed the deal.
In August, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel after heightened scrutiny.
Garland's decision to promote Weiss came after an IRS whistleblower alleged that Hunter received “special treatment” during the criminal investigation.
IRS agents Joe Ziegler and Gary Shapley testified under oath before House Republicans that their investigation into the president's son “supported felony and misdemeanor tax charges” that were ultimately not filed against Hunter because of political pressure.
Weiss tried to file felony charges against him in Washington, D.C., but was blocked by the district's top federal prosecutor, Matthew Graves, a Biden appointee.
The “special treatment” for Hunter has become a pattern that occurs again and again, said the whistleblowers, who were told they would get into “hot water” if they tried to talk to the adult children and grandchildren of Hunter during the course of their investigation President Joe Biden to speak.
Shapley also shared handwritten notes from an October 2022 meeting in which he quoted Weiss as saying he was “not the key person” in charging Hunter Biden with tax crimes, raising questions about possible improper handling of the case by the DOJ raises.
The collapse of Hunter Biden's original plea deal also presented further problems for his father, Joe Biden. The president now faces more headlines and questions surrounding his drug-addicted son's case as he heads toward the 2024 campaign.
The White House and the president himself have maintained that he was never involved in Hunter's business dealings.
But Republicans are well advanced in their own investigation into Hunter's foreign dealings.
As part of their investigation, they spoke with Hunter's former business partner, Devon Archer, who testified that President Biden had actual knowledge of his son's business dealings and was present on at least 20 calls and several dinners with his son's business partners.
Additionally, they uncovered over a dozen shell companies that Hunter and at least 12 members of the Biden family used to smuggle in foreign money.
Joe Biden also used various private email addresses from which he sometimes sent, received and forwarded government correspondence, according to emails found on Hunter Biden's now infamous laptop.
“Robin Ware,” “Robert L. Peters,” and “JRB Ware” were three pseudonyms used in emails covering both official and family matters.
House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry last year against President Biden over his alleged ties to Hunter's multimillion-dollar foreign “influence trafficking” program.