Georgia prosecutors have decided to drop a felony gun possession charge against Offset. But, a bigger case is reportedly being looked into by federal authorities.
In a statement to TMZ, the Clayton County District Attorney's Office said that the rapper was cleared by the state of all his charges on July 1. Yet, this was only done at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office who are conducting their own investigation. According to TMZ, this federal investigation is the only reason Offset was initially arrested. As a result, they didn't want to take the rapper to trial and possibly have to reveal why they are scoping his activity. Currently, prosecutors are declining to detail the nature of this investigation. But, they claim continuing his state charges "would alert other potential future parties to the investigation and evidence that may support federal charges against said parties."
Offset's lawyer, Drew Findling, has said they are unaware of anything about a federal investigation.
"We have received no information to indicate that Mr. Cephus is the target of any federal investigation," Findling told TMZ. "As to the dismissed state case, it is true that a motion challenging the legality of the stop and search was filed by his defense team. Even though the case was dismissed, we maintain that this was an illegal stop." Findling continued: "A couple points need to be made clear, in the many hours of video footage from multiple officers, no traffic violation is captured, and at no time does any officer claim or mention that Mr. Cephus failed to maintain a lane which was later used to try to justify the stop. Lastly, what is supported by the evidence contained in the reports is that more than $10,000 of Mr. Cephus’ money that was seized by law enforcement on that date has gone missing and unaccounted for and is currently the subject of an internal investigation within the Clayton County Police Department."
Per court documents, the ATF alerted Clayton County authorities to stop Offset's vehicle whenever there was probable cause and to identify all of the passengers. According to authorities, the probable cause occurred when the rapper made an illegal lane change while driving a heavily tinted car. Upon the stop, officers claim the car smelled of weed, leading them to search the vehicle. During the search, police allegedly found firearms and marijuana. That led to the felony charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon which is now being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
