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486

Hunter Biden's lawyers say prosecutors confused a picture of sawdust with cocaine (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

75 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The mix-up "sounds more like a storyline from one of the 1980’s Police Academy comedies than what should be expected in a high-profile prosecution,” Biden's attorney wrote.

Federal prosecutors mistakenly claimed in a court filing that a photo of sawdust they found while searching Hunter Biden's electronics was cocaine, attorneys for the president's son said Tuesday.

The sawdust picture was used in a court filing detailing incriminating information that prosecutors said they turned up while executing a search warrant of Biden's laptop and electronics, but his legal team said in court papers that the picture was sent to their client by his then-psychiatrist as inspiration.

The picture shows three lines of yellow dust on a piece of wood near some other dust. The psychiatrist sent the picture to Biden in 2018, saying it was "lines of sawdust sent to me by a master carpenter who was a coke addict.”

Biden's attorneys said the message and picture were "meant to convey that Mr. Biden, too, could overcome any addiction" and used the apparent mix-up to mock prosecutors.

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[–] IHeartBadCode@kbin.social 47 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Because Government officials are expected to operate at a higher standard. Submitting very clearly erroneous evidence is indicating that they are not operating at that higher standard.

Now does that mean the case altogether is bunk? No, of course not. But it allows defenders to sow mistrust in the presentation by the prosecutor. That’s the entire point. And that’s why it’s important for officials to do things “by the book”. When they start going off rails that technically allows defense to ask “what else did you mess up?”

Good lawyers go after every advantage they can offer their client. When prosecutors mess up, defense lawyers are allowed to file with the judge the question of “Hey they made a mistake, may I be allowed to inform the jury of this mistake?”

It’s up to the judge to allow that or not. But good lawyers file these kinds of motions. Now will it have major ramifications on the case as whole? Who knows? But the entire point is this, bringing a case to court needs to be airtight and things like this are reasons why. Same reason why folks like Matt Gaetz seems to continually avoid prosecution. If it’s not airtight small mistakes can completely derail getting a guilty verdict. You just need one juror out of twelve to be sympathetic on some sticking point, and mistrust of the government is a good sticking point for some people.

I get where you’re coming from, but shit, I’ve seen people walk free on more damming evidence simply because defense was able to sway on some particular mistrust.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

And that’s why it’s important for officials to do things “by the book”. When they start going off rails that technically allows defense to ask “what else did you mess up?”

Which is also why the prosecution in Trump's various trials are taking their time to get things right, and giving him as much latitude as possible.

They know he is going to appeal, no matter what they do, so they're making sure that appeal won't be sucessful.