An attorney for Hunter Biden is disputing a picture included in a Special Counsel Filing last week, saying it is not cocaine, as was previously described, but sawdust. 

The picture in question was among multiple photographs the president’s son allegedly took of his drug abuse. The Justice Department included the photos in a court filing last week to prove Hunter Biden was addicted to drugs when he answered ‘No’ to drug use on a gun application, which is a violation of federal law. 

Hunter Biden’s lawyer said one of the photos was taken in the office of his then-psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow. Ablow had received the picture, Biden’s lawyer said, from a ‘master carpenter’ who was a ‘coke addict.’ 

The message accompanying this photo, Biden’s lawyer said in the court filing, was meant to convey to the younger Biden that he too ‘could overcome any addiction.’ 

Biden’s lawyer called the prosecution ‘reckless’ for ‘making such a hyperbolic and sensational claim in a public filing,’ saying the move would surely ‘prejudice Mr. Biden in the public eye.’ 

‘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,’ Biden’s lawyer stated in the court filing. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Justice Department for comment. 

The president’s son pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in October, which accused him of lying about using drugs in October 2018 on a gun purchase form.

He previously acknowledged that he struggled with a crack cocaine addiction during a period in 2018, but his attorneys said he did not break the law. Hunter Biden has since said he has stopped using drugs and has been working to turn his life around. 

Later Tuesday, Hunter Biden filed a motion in a Los Angeles court to dismiss tax charges against him. In court filings, Biden argued has immunity from prosecution based on now-scuttled diversion agreement. 

He argued that David Weiss was unlawfully appointed Special Counsel, funding was not appropriated by Congress, subjected him to ‘selective and vindictive prosecution, and that the IRS was committing ‘outrageous conduct.’ 

Tuesday’s court filing comes after Special Counsel David Weiss charged an FBI informant with giving false information after he alleged that Joe Biden and his son were paid millions in exchange for their help firing the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. 

Fox News’ David Spunt and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report. 

The State Department announced Tuesday that the U.S. will be unveiling a ‘major sanctions package’ against Russia later this week to hold them ‘accountable’ for the death of jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny. 

The latest wave of sanctions to target the Russian government will be revealed on Friday, one day before the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

‘As the White House announced this morning at President Biden’s direction, we will be announcing a major sanctions package on Friday to hold Russia accountable for Navalny’s death in prison and for its actions over the course of the vicious and brutal war they have waged in Ukraine for the past two years,’ State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. 

‘The Kremlin has poisoned Navalny, imprisoned him unjustly, kept him in harsh conditions and denied him medical care,’ Miller continued. 

‘It is the Russian government that is responsible for Navalny’s death while in detention and now in any other society, in a free democratic society, we would see openness and transparency as his family seeks more information about their beloved son, husband and father,’ he added. ‘But of course, in Russia, openness and transparency remain in short supply.’ 

Navalny died last Friday at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp in northern Russia.  

The country’s prison agency said the 47-year-old opposition leader collapsed following a walk, but Navalny’s cause of death remains unknown, and his wife is accusing Putin of poisoning him. 

President Biden said Friday that there is ‘no doubt’ it was a ‘consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.’ 

Russia though has brushed off the accusations from Biden and other Western officials, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Monday, ‘We consider it absolutely unacceptable to make such, well, frankly obnoxious statements,’ according to Reuters. 

The Trump presidential campaign issued a scathing response on Tuesday after his last remaining GOP challenger, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, announced she is not dropping out of the race to ‘kiss the ring’ despite facing a 30 point deficit in her home state of South Carolina.

‘She’s going to drop down to kiss a– when she quits, like she always does,’ Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after she announced she is staying in the race at least through Saturday’s South Carolina primary.

‘I feel no need to kiss the ring,’ Haley told a crowd in Greenville, South Carolina on Tuesday. ‘And I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him. My own political future is of zero concern.’

‘I refuse to quit,’ Haley added. ‘South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere.’

In her remarks, Haley outlined her belief that the calls for her to drop out are coming from ‘the political elite’ and ‘party bosses’ and that only three states have voted so far with many more to come in recent weeks.

‘I’m campaigning every day until the last person votes because I believe in a better America and a brighter future for our kids,’ Haley said. ‘Nothing good in life comes easy. I’m willing to take the cuts, the bruises and the name calling because the only way you get to the blessing is by going through the pain.’

‘The presidential primaries have barely begun. Just three states have voted. That’s right. Three. That’s it. After this weekend, we’ll be four. That’s not a lot,’ Haley explained. ‘In the ten days after South Carolina, another 21 states and territories will vote, and they deserve a real choice, not a Soviet-style election when there’s only one candidate, and he gets 99% of the vote. We don’t anoint kings in this country. We have elections. And Donald Trump, of all people, should know. We don’t rig elections.’

Haley also said that part of her rationale for staying in the race is that ‘the majority of Americans’ have signaled they ‘dislike both candidates.’

‘We have plenty of time to hash this out,’ Haley said. ‘If the race ended today, we would have the longest general election in history. There are still eight and a half months before Election Day. How do we really want to spend every day from now until November? Watching America’s most two most disliked politicians duke it out? No sane person wants that.’

Nearly 800 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday as 15 states hold Republican presidential contests on March 5, with over 150 at stake over the following two weeks, the Trump campaign predicted in a memo released Tuesday that the former president would secure the nomination on March 19, even under a ‘most-generous model’ for Haley.

The Trump memo predicted an ‘a– kicking in the making’ in South Carolina and said the ‘true ‘State’ of Nikki Haley’s campaign’ is ‘broken down, out of ideas, out of gas, and completely outperformed by every measure, by Donald Trump.’

In response to Cheung’s comment, Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas wrote on X, ‘xoxo’ along with a kissing emoji to which Cheung responded, ‘All of our internship positions have been filled, but maybe you can apply for next term.’

‘What a move,’ Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney wrote on X in response to Cheung’s comment. ‘@TheStevenCheung is the key to winning back suburban women! #AreYouTiredOfWinningYet.’

‘You should ask Susie Wiles what she thinks about her people harassing women online and at our events,’ Perez-Cubas said in a statement to Fox News Digital referring to an earlier altercation on the campaign trail.

Cheung told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday that ‘Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley can’t name one state she can win’ and ‘she keeps getting crushed after every single contest.’

‘At this point, she’s Crooked Joe Biden’s biggest surrogate.’

Trump’s campaign memo and Haley’s speech came out hours before Trump returns to South Carolina on Tuesday to headline a Fox News town hall in Greenville hosted by Laura Ingraham. The pre-taped one-hour event, which will focus on both domestic issues and overseas conflicts, will air at 7 p.m. ET.

The Real Clear Politics average of polls heading into Saturday’s primary election in South Carolina shows Trump leading Haley by 25 points.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Prince William of the United Kingdom is urging an end to the war in Gaza, citing the ‘sheer scale of human suffering.’

The Prince of Wales made the statement on Tuesday via social media, at odds with the Royal Family’s general aversion to wading into current events.

‘I remain deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October,’ Prince William wrote in a monogrammed message shared on X. ‘Too many have been killed.’

‘I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible. There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza,’ the presumed future king of England said. ‘It’s critical that aid gets in and hostages are released. Sometimes it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanent peace is brought home.’

The statement does not call for a specific outcome but highlights the royal’s concern about ongoing issues and rendering aid to the region that has been torn apart by a war that began with the Oct. 7 terror attacks last year.

An estimated 29,000 Palestinians have died in the ongoing war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The Israeli Defense Forces reports approximately 574 soldiers killed since Oct. 7, with an additional 2,930 wounded. 

Approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed in the initial terrorist attacks.

The United Kingdom is strongly allied with Israel, and King Charles III released a statement following the initial attacks, saying he was ‘appalled by and condemns the barbaric acts of terrorism in Israel.’ 

Prince William is expected to meet in the coming weeks with humanitarian organizations helping to render aid in the region.

‘Even in the darkest hour, we must not succumb to the counsel of despair,’ the prince’s message concludes. ‘I continue to cling to the hope that a brighter future can be found and I refuse to give up on that.’

From Russia with love.

Vladimir Putin has gifted North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un a luxury Russian Aurus limousine in a show of the countries deepening ties, although observers said it could violate a U.N. resolution that bans supplying luxury items to North Korea in an attempt to pressure the country to abandon its nuclear weapons.

The Russian-made limousine was delivered to Kim’s top aides by the Russian side on Feb. 18, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.

The limousine is similar to one of the black armored limousines Putin uses and the decision to gift the Aurus to Kim came after the North Korean leader liked the car when the Russian president showed it to him last year, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. The pair met in September at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport above the 51st parallel north in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East.

Putin showed Kim one of the limousines and Kim sat beside him in the car and appeared to enjoy it, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

‘When the head of the DPRK (North Korea) was at the Vostochny cosmodrome, he looked at this car, Putin showed it to him personally, and like many people, Kim liked this car,’ Peskov said when asked about the gift.

‘So this decision was made,’ Peskov said. ‘North Korea is our neighbor, our close neighbor, and we intend, and will continue, to develop our relations with all neighbors, including North Korea.’

Kim’s sister ‘courteously conveyed Kim Jong Un’s thanks to Putin to the Russian side, saying that the gift serves as a clear demonstration of the special personal relations between the top leaders,’ North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.

Kim, 40, is known to possess many foreign-made luxury cars believed to have been smuggled into his country in breach of the U.N. resolution. Kim arrived at the September summit in a Maybach limousine brought onboard a special train he traveled on from Pyongyang, while he is also understood to possess several Mercedes limousines, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Lexus sports utility.

Kim reportedly used a Mercedes Maybach S600 Pullman Guard for his two summits with then-President Donald Trump in Singapore in 2018 and Vietnam in 2019, according to The AP. 

South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was closely monitoring the cooperation between Russia and North Korea while urging both countries to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.

‘Security Council sanctions on North Korea prohibit directly or indirectly supplying, selling or moving all transportation vehicles internationally categorized as HS Code 86 through to 89 regardless of their origin to North Korea including luxury cars,’ ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk told a media briefing, according to Reuters. 

North Korea and Russia have boosted their cooperation significantly since the September summit and since the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

The U.S., South Korea and their partners accuse North Korea of sending conventional arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, in return for high-tech Russian weapons technologies and other support.

North Korea has also been advancing its nuclear program, while Kim last week vowed to fire upon any South Korean vessel that violates its waters.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The U.S. Justice Department joined the United Kingdom and other international law enforcement partners to disrupt the LockBit ransomware group, one of the most active ransomware groups in the world, the department announced Tuesday.

The DOJ, the FBI and the U.K.’s National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Cyber Division disrupted the ability of LockBit actors to attack networks, steal data and extort victims in the U.S. and around the world after they seized numerous public websites used by LockBit, which connected the organization’s vital infrastructure, and seized control of servers used by its administrators, it said in a joint statement.

According to the statement, the DOJ and its partners also indicted two Russian nationals for deploying LockBit against numerous victims: Artur Sungatov and Ivan Kondratyev, also known by his online alias ‘Bassterlord.’

‘For years, LockBit associates have deployed these kinds of attacks again and again across the United States and around the world,’ said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. ‘Today, U.S. and U.K. law enforcement are taking away the keys to their criminal operation. And we are going a step further — we have also obtained keys from the seized LockBit infrastructure to help victims decrypt their captured systems and regain access to their data. LockBit is not the first ransomware variant the Justice Department and its international partners have dismantled. It will not be the last.’

LockBit has targeted more than 2,000 victims and has received more than $120 million in ransom payments. It has also made ransom demands totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to the Justice Department statement, the law enforcement agencies also developed new capabilities to decrypt systems and data stolen by LockBit. This new discovery may enable hundreds of victims around the world to restore systems encrypted via the LockBit ransomware variant, the DOJ added.

‘Today, the FBI and our partners have successfully disrupted the LockBit criminal ecosystem, which represents one of the most prolific ransomware variants across the globe,’ said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. ‘Through years of innovative investigative work, the FBI and our partners have significantly degraded the capabilities of those hackers responsible for launching crippling ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure and other public and private organizations around the world. This operation demonstrates both our capability and commitment to defend our nation’s cybersecurity and national security from any malicious actor who seeks to impact our way of life. We will continue to work with our domestic and international allies to identify, disrupt, and deter cyber threats, and to hold the perpetrators accountable.’

Additionally, the department unsealed two search warrants issued in the District of New Jersey for multiple U.S.-based servers used by LockBit members.

According to the indictment, Sungatov allegedly deployed LockBit ransomware against victim corporations and took steps to fund additional LockBit attacks against other victims at least as early as January 2021.

Several U.S. attorneys joined in the effort to prosecute the Russian nationals and praised the indictments as successful progress in clamping down on international criminal activity.

‘Today’s actions are another down payment on our pledge to continue dismantling the ecosystem fueling cybercrime by prioritizing disruptions and placing victims first,’ said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. ‘Using all our authorities and working alongside partners in the United Kingdom and around the world, we have now destroyed the online backbone of the LockBit group, one of the world’s most prolific ransomware gangs. But our work does not stop here: together with our partners, we are turning the tables on LockBit — providing decryption keys, unlocking victim data, and pursuing LockBit’s criminal affiliates around the globe.’

‘Today’s indictment, unsealed as part of a global coordinated action against the most active ransomware group in the world, brings to five the total number of LockBit members charged by my office and our FBI and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section partners for their crimes,’ said U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger for the District of New Jersey. ‘And, even with today’s disruption of LockBit, we will not stop there. Our investigation will continue, and we remain as determined as ever to identify and charge all of LockBit’s membership — from its developers and administrators to its affiliates. We will put a spotlight on them as wanted criminals. They will no longer hide in the shadows.’

With the indictments unsealed Tuesday, a total of five LockBit members have now been charged with cyber crimes. These include Russian nationals Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, Mikhail Vasiliev and Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov.

The LockBit ransomware variant first appeared around January 2020 and has become one of the most active and destructive variants in the world.

The FBI Newark Field Office continues to investigate the LockBit ransomware variant.

Police in Spain say a recently discovered body is believed to be a Russian soldier who previously defected to Ukraine.

Spanish authorities are identifying the victim, who was found on Feb. 15 with multiple gunshot wounds in the town of La Cala, as Russian defector Maksim Kuzminov.

Last year, Kuzminov abandoned his post and flew an army helicopter over the front lines into Ukrainian territory. The Mi-8 AMTSh helicopter had been loaded with parts for Sukhoi fighter jets.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Andrii Yusov confirmed Kuzminov’s death to local news outlets.

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin also confirmed the reports, calling Kuzminov as a ‘traitor and criminal.’

Naryshkin told state news agency Tass that Kuzminov became a ‘moral corpse’ after planning his ‘dirty and terrible crime.’

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexei Danilov reportedly told Kuzminov to stay in Ukraine following his defection, citing the risk of attack by Russian agencies if he left the country.

Spanish Civil Guard officers found the corpse with six gunshots and run over by a vehicle. 

Kuzminov’s body was also planted with documents that identified him as an unrelated 33-year-old Ukrainian citizen, authorities say.

After the investigation commenced, police became confident that the documents were false and began suspecting the victim was actually Kuzminov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said he had no details on the incident and had not received information from diplomatic channels.