OPINION
Defendants-Appellants Dale Schafer and Marion Fry challenge federal convictions that arise from their operation of a medical marijuana growing operation and dispensary in the Sierra Nevada community of Cool, California. A jury found Appellants guilty of conspiring to manufac *633 ture and distribute at least 100 marijuana plants. The jury specifically convicted Schafer of manufacturing at least 100 marijuana plants and found Fry guilty of manufacturing fewer than 100 marijuana plants. Appellants raise three claims on appeal: (1) the district сourt improperly denied their motion to dismiss the indictment on a theory of entrapment by estoppel without conducting an evidentiary hearing; (2) the district court erred when it precluded Appellants from presenting an entrapment by estoppel defense and a medical necessity defense at trial; and (3) the district court should have reduced their sentences on a theory of sentencing entrapment. We have jurisdiction over their appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.
I
Fry, a medical doctor, was diagnosed with breast cancer in Decembеr 1997. She received a recommendation to use marijuana in early 1998 to help alleviate the side effects of the chemotherapy treatments she was undergoing. Consequently, Schafer, her husband and a practicing attorney, began cultivating marijuana plants for Fry’s use. In July 1999, Fry contacted Detective Robert Ashworth, an officer with the El Dorado County Sheriffs Office, to inform deputies of the marijuana grow operation. 1 Detective Ashworth and Sergeant Timothy McNulty visited Appellants’ residence and inspected their marijuana plants.
In late 1999, Schafer’s cultivation of marijuana for his wife developed into a much larger marijuana recommendation and sales business, extending well beyond personal use amounts of marijuana. During the time that Schafer and Fry were operating their marijuana business, Ash-worth and McNulty repeatedly visited their residence and office. On one particular occasion, Ashworth and McNulty visited Appellants to discuss the unrelated investigation and arrest of two of their former employees. The employees had been involved in a major marijuana growing operation on a rural ranch elsewhere in El Dorado County that was not affiliated with Appellants’ business. That separate police raid and investigation involved law enforcement personnel from both local and federal narcotics units who cooperated with one another in a joint interagency task force.
Federal authorities with the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) separately began investigating Appellants in late 2000 after a shipping company reported intercepting several packages containing marijuana sent frоm “Dale.” This investigation included receiving reports from numerous undercover visits by local law enforcement operatives to Appellants’ place of business for the purpose of obtaining marijuana recommendations. The information gathered through these undercover investigations was then given to federal agents. Local and federal agents ultimately executed a federal search warrant at Appellants’ business and home on September 28, 2001.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Appellants on June 15, 2005, charging them with one count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana plants, and one count of manufacturing at least 100 plants. Appellants filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the United States could not prosecute them because of their defense of entrap *634 ment by estoppel. In support of their motion to dismiss, they filed a memorandum from the Office of National Drug Control Policy and a letter from the Attorneys General of Arizona and California. The attachments emphasized that local law enforcement officers would support fеderal attempts to enforce the federal laws criminalizing marijuana. In their motion to dismiss, Appellants alleged that both McNulty and Ashworth admitted that they wefe working on behalf of the federal government and further claimed that Officer McNulty had said Appellants’ conduct was legal.
The United States opposed the motion, arguing that Appellants were not entitled to invoke an entrapment by estoppel defense because they had not relied on the representations of a federal official or an authorized agent of the fеderal government. The opposition included a declaration from McNulty denying that he ever represented himself as a federal official or that he encouraged Appellants to continue growing marijuana. Alternatively, the government contended that Appellants had not reasonably relied on any of the alleged misrepresentations. To prove lack of reliance, the government submitted copies of written recommendations distributed to “patients” by Appellants’ business. These recommendations included a disclaimer that unequivocally stated that marijuana remained illegal under federal law.
At a hearing conducted to address the motion to dismiss, Appellants requested an evidentiary hearing for the purpose of resolving the conflict between the factual allegations in their pleadings and those in McNulty’s sworn declaration. The district court denied Appellants’ request and assumed for purposes of deciding the legal issue that McNulty was a federal official. Notwithstanding that assumption, the district court refused to dismiss the case because Appellants had not adequately shown that they relied on any alleged misinformation.
Before trial, the government filed a motion in limine seeking to prevent Appellants from asserting either a medical necessity defense or an entrapment by estoppel defense. The government argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in
United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative,
Appellants contested the applicability of OCBC II and argued that a retroactive application of the Supreme Court’s decision would be a violation of the ex post facto clause. Although the district court had previously rejected Appellants’ entrapment by еstoppel defense, they asked that the district court “keep an open mind as to the characterization of the evidence.” To further support their argument that McNulty and Ashworth were federal officials, Appellants submitted an affidavit from their attorney attesting to the fact that an agent with the DEA directed the investigations conducted by local law enforcement officers. Appellants incorporated excerpts of the police reports chronicling the investigation of Appellants’ business. These reports establishеd that officers from local *635 law enforcement agencies collaborated with federal agents to conduct undercover investigations of Appellants.
The district court granted the government’s motion in limine. It reasoned that OCBCII applied retroactively because the decision “was foreseeable in light of a circuit split on the issue,” and because marijuana had been illegal under federal law to use or possess since at least 1970. In the alternative, the district court found that the medical necessity defense was viable for only a limited time, and Appellants’ illegal conduct began prior to the application of the defense and continued until after the Supreme Court rejected the defense. The district court affirmed its earlier denial of the entrapment by estoppel defense because Appellants “could not identify an authorized federal government official who erroneously told them it was permissible to sell marijuana.”
After the federal jury returned a guilty verdict, 2 Appellants sought mitigation of their sentences on a theory of sentencing entrapment. They claimed that Ashworth encouraged them to continue growing medical marijuana, that he induced them into expanding the amount of marijuana they were growing, and that they were not predisposed to illegally grow marijuana. Again, Appellants requested an evidentiary hearing. The district court denied the request after concluding that Appellants had not shown that a federal official either bought or sold any marijuana or engaged in any transactions to make Appellants manufacture a higher number of marijuana plants. Appellants re-asserted their sentencing entrapment claim at sentencing. The district court interpreted our precedent to require active participation by a law enforcement officer in the purchase or sale of controlled substances, and it rejected Appellants’ request for sentence mitigation because they could not show that Ashworth was actively involved in their production or distribution of marijuana. Consequently, Appellants were sentenced to the statutory minimum term of sixty months imprisonment. Appellants timely appeal their convictions and sentencеs.
II
A
Appellants’ first challenge focuses on the district court’s denial of their request for an evidentiary hearing on their motion to dismiss. They argue that they were entitled to an evidentiary hearing because the filings submitted in support of and in opposition to the motion to dismiss presented significant factual disputes. We review a district court’s denial of an evidentiary hearing for an abuse of discretion.
United States v. Hagege,
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12 allows a defendant to assert a defense in a pretrial motion if the merits of the defense can be determined “withоut a trial of the general issue.” Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b)(2). However, if the pretrial motion raises factual questions associated with the validity of the defense, the district court cannot make those determinations.
United States v. Shortt Accountancy Corp.,
*636
Appellants requested an evidentiary hearing to resolve two factual disputes presented by the motion to dismiss: (1) whether McNulty and Ashworth were federal officials or authorized agents of the federal government; and (2) whether McNulty and Ashworth erroneously informed Appellants that their marijuanа grow was legal under federal law.
3
These two factual disputes directly impacted the validity of Appellants’ defense because to establish the defense Appellants were required to prove “reliance either on a federal government official empowered to render the claimed erroneous advice” or on “an authorized agent of the federal government” and “affirmative misleading” by a government official.
United States v. Brebner,
Appellants’ reliance on cases discussing the propriety of evidentiary hearings to resolve factual disputes raised by motions to suppress is misplaced. Generally, any factual differences highlighted by a motion to suppress do not impact the ultimate issue of guilt. Evidence must be suppressed when it is obtained in violation of a defendant’s constitutional rights.
Mapp v. Ohio,
B
In addition to challenging the district court’s denial of an evidentiary hearing, Appellants argue that the district court further erred in denying their motion to dismiss on the merits. We review the denial of a motion to dismiss de novo.
United States v. Holler,
In order to succeed on their motion to dismiss, Appellants would have had to
*637
show that they were entitled to an entrapment by estoppel defense as a matter of law. In
Sherman v. United States,
Whether Appellants were lulled into believing their marijuana operation was legal and done on the express authorization of agents who could bind the federal government necessitated a credibility determination that fell within the province of the jury.
See id.; cf. Mathews v. United States,
Ill
Appellants’ next set of arguments contend that the district court improperly granted the government’s motion in limine and prohibited Appellants from presenting entrapment by estoppel and medical necessity defenses. A district court’s decision to exclude evidence of a particular defense is reviewed de novo.
Brebner,
A
Entrapment by estoppel is the “unintentional entrapment by an official who mistakenly misleads a person into a violation of the law,” and it is a theory derived from the duе process clause.
United States v. Batterjee,
An entrapment by estoppel defense is “available only when [the] defendant can demonstrate a reasonable belief that his conduct was sanctioned by the government.”
United States v. Burrows,
Instead, the government’s uncontradicted evidence established that Appellants were aware that marijuana was illegal under federal law during the time that McNulty and Ashworth allegedly stated that it was legal under federal law — Appellants were not misled into believing that their conduct was permissible under federal law. “The defense of entrapment by estoppel is inapplicable if the defendant is nоt misled.”
United States v. Tallmadge,
In light of Appellants’ inability to establish reliance, we need not address their arguments regarding whether McNulty and Ashworth were de facto federal officials or authorized agents of the federal government.
See Moreno,
B
“Medical necessity is not a defense to manufacturing and distributing marijuana.”
OCBC II,
“[J]udicial alteration of a common law doctrine of criminal law violates the principle of fair warning, and hence must not be given retroactive effect, only where it is unexpected аnd indefensible by reference to the law which had been expressed prior to the conduct in issue.”
Rogers v. Tennessee,
The Supreme Court’s
OCBC II
decision is analogous to the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision. Notwithstanding our temporary indication that a medical necessity defense was legally cognizable,
OCBC I,
Furthermore, Appellants’ reliance on
OCBC I
was unfounded. Our decision recognizing a medical necessity defense did not occur until almost six weeks after the alleged beginning of Appellants’ conspiracy. When conducting a due process foreseeability analysis, we must “look only to cases decided before the crime was committed” because the focus is on notice to the defendant.
Clark v. Brown,
IV
Appellants’ last argument contests the district court’s denial of their request for an evidentiary hearing on their claim for mitigation of sentence on a theory of sentencing entrаpment. The district court rejected Appellants’ request because they had not established a factual basis supporting their allegation that a government official actively induced them to manufacture and distribute more marijuana than they were otherwise predisposed to manufacture. We review de novo a district court’s interpretation and application of the Sentencing Guidelines, and we review its sentencing phase factual findings for clear error.
United States v. Naranjo,
“Sentencing entrapment occurs when a defendant is predisposed to commit a lesser crime, but is entrapped by the government into committing a crime subject to more severe punishment.”
United States v. Mejia,
We have never found sentencing entrapment unless it involves active inducement by government officials. For example, in
Staufer,
the defendant maintained that he wanted to sell only 5,000 doses of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) to the confidential informant and undercover agent.
Subsequent precedent affirms the necessity of more than passive government involvement.
See, e.g., United States v. Haynes,
In support of Appellants’ sentencing entrapment claim, Schafer later submitted affidavits that alleged that McNulty and Ashworth told Aрpellants that their conduct complied with the law. Even if we accept Schafer’s allegations as true, there is no evidence that either McNulty or Ash-worth directed Appellants to grow more marijuana or offered them something in exchange for the production of higher amount of plants. There is simply no allegation of active government involvement. We decline to hold that Appellants are entitled to lesser sentences because government officials failed to inform them that their conduct was illegal.
Consequently, Appellants’ affidavits are insufficient to establish a prima facie showing of sentencing entrapment, and it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to deny their request for an evidentiary hearing.
See United States v. Irwin,
V
For the reasons outlined above, the judgments and sentences entered against Schafer and Fry by the district court are
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. Under California law, it was, and still is, legal to grow marijuana or to possess for personal use small amounts of marijuana as a palliative for illness. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.5.
. As stated earlier, the juiy found Schafer guilty of both the conspiracy and manufacturing at least 100 marijuana plants. It convicted Fry of the conspiracy and of manufacturing plants, but concluded that Fry had manufactured fewer than 100 plants.
. We note a procedural defect in Appellants' attempt to create a factual dispute before trial. None of the averments were set forth in sworn declarations that would be competеnt evidence for consideration of pretrial motions. Eastern District of California Local Rule 230(h) provides: "Factual contentions involved in pretrial motions shall be initially presented and heard upon affidavits, except that the Court may in its discretion require or allow oral examination of witnesses.”
See also
E.D. Cal. Rule 430.1(b) ("Motions and accompanying documents shall conform to the requirements of ... these Rules.”). Appellants' factual statements were raised as unsworn arguments of defense counsel in their pleadings. The district court would have been well within its rights to reject the request for an evidentiary hearing on this ground alone.
Cf. Cohen v. United States,
. Appellants framed their challenge by relying on the ex post facto clause. However, the ex post facto clause applies only to the legislature and "does not of its own force apply to the Judicial Branch of government."
Rogers
v.
Tennessee,
