Jamiesfeast – Four search warrants were made public on Monday in response to a federal judge’s order, as part of the years-long investigation into Hunter Biden, the first son.
Delaware US District Judge Maryellen Norieka, who is presiding over the federal weapons case against the now-53-year-old, has granted the request of an independent journalist to make the warrants public. The warrants were ordered to be released on Friday.
The newly revealed warrants provide fresh insights into the legal grounds on which the federal authorities seized Hunter Biden’s electronic devices, as well as the evidence that was utilized to construct the two criminal cases against him.
The tax authorities and the FBI obtained two warrants to investigate Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud account. These warrants were issued on August 29, 2019, and July 10, 2020.
In August 2019, a warrant was issued to search a hard drive for information pertaining to the iCloud account. Similarly, in July 2020, another warrant was issued to search the backups of Biden’s iPad and three of his iPhones, specifically an iPhone X, iPhone 6S, and an iPhone XR.
On December 13, 2019, authorities obtained a third search warrant to investigate the Apple MacBook Pro laptop and hard drive owned by the now-first son. It is the same hard drive that contained a copy of Biden’s laptop, which was later given by computer store owner John Paul Mac Isaac to Robert Costello, Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer.
Mac Isaac willingly granted the FBI access to the hard drive and laptop by signing a consent form on December 9, 2019. Hunter legally abandoned the contents after leaving them at the computer shop for over 90 days.
According to all three warrants, the federal authorities would confiscate any evidence indicating Biden’s involvement in tax evasion, willful failure to file tax returns, and failure to pay income tax.
The authorities acquired the fourth warrant on December 4th of last year. This warrant was utilized to gather electronic evidence related to the gun case. It is worth noting that this warrant was obtained nearly three months after the indictment against the first son was unsealed.
Hunter Biden, despite facing felony indictments, is still considered to be in “good standing” with the DC Bar Association.
Both Biden’s defense team and the prosecutors, led by special counsel David Weiss, did not oppose the unsealing of the records. However, Weiss’ team has maintained their stance that the affidavits supporting the search warrants should remain confidential.
Hunter Biden is currently facing three felony charges for supposedly lying about his drug addiction when he purchased a firearm back in 2016.
In Los Angeles last month, he faced multiple charges for allegedly avoiding $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019.
The younger Biden faced mounting legal cases after an unexpected turn of events during a July court hearing led to the collapse of a plea deal that would have spared him jail time.
In December, Biden’s lawyers made a request to Noreika to dismiss the gun charges against him. They argued that the prosecution had violated the previous agreement between Biden and the federal authorities.
In a scathing response, Weiss’ office filed court papers on January 16, asserting the strength of their case against Biden. The investigators discovered traces of cocaine powder on the pouch of the Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, which Biden’s sister-in-law-turned-lover, Hallie Biden, had discarded in a trash can behind a Delaware grocery store in October 2018. This evidence supports the claim that Biden was under the influence of drugs when he acquired the gun and subsequently lied about it on the background check form.
Prosecutors provided explicit details, stating that drugs were discovered on the pouch where the defendant had stored his firearm.
In his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things,” Hunter also acknowledged his addiction to crack cocaine during the period of the firearm incident, as noted by the authorities.
The Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment on Monday, while Biden’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.