Photos that federal prosecutors claimed were evidence of Hunter Biden’s drug use didn’t actually depict cocaine — it was sawdust, his attorneys said.

       In a new court filing on Tuesday, lawyers for Mr Biden called prosecutors “reckless” for the alleged error, and said the results of their discovery cannot be taken at “face value.”

       “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 U.S. Department of Justice,” they wrote in the court filing.

       The filing comes amid special counsel David Weiss’s sprawling criminal investigation into the president’s son.

       As part of the case, Mr Biden faces felony charges for allegedly lying about his drug use on federal forms when applying for a gun permit.

       He has pleaded not guilty to the gun charge, as well as to tax charges.

       According to the Tuesday court filing, prosecutors said Mr Biden took the photo they claimed depicted cocaine. In fact, the attorneys said, he did not take it but was instead sent it by his psychiatrist.

       The psychiatrist, Dr Keith Ablow, received the photo from “a master carpenter who was a coke addict.” He sent it to Mr Biden as part of a message “meant 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, which is included in the filing, reads.