Turns out that when
he made an application to purchase a gun,
what happened was he stayed.
I guess you get asked.
I don't
guess you could ask the question,
are you on drugs? You use drugs?
He said no.
And he wrote about saying no in his book.
CNN's Paula
Reid starts off our coverage today
with a look at what will happen next
before this deal is final.
President Biden's son, Hunter,
reaches an agreement
with the Justice Department
to resolve a long running
criminal investigation.
According to a letter filed Tuesday
by federal prosecutors.
Hunter will plead guilty
to two misdemeanor tax charges
and struck a deal to resolve a separate
felony gun charge
if he complies with his end
of the plea agreement.
According to court documents,
Biden owed
at least
$100,000 in federal taxes for 20, 17
and at least 100,000 for 2018,
but did not pay the IRS by the deadline.
His lawyers say
he eventually paid the tax bill
along with fees and penalties
as part of this deal.
The Justice Department has agreed
to recommend
a sentence of probation
for the tax charges,
according to sources,
but the final punishment
will be up to the judge
on the gun charge.
Prosecutors allege
he possessed a gun despite his addiction
in violation of federal law.
Biden's
lawyers met with the
Justice Department in April.
And sources tell CNN that negotiations
to resolve the case
have ramped up in recent weeks.
The deal comes
after a broad year long investigation
that also looked at Hunter Biden's
foreign deals and possible
money laundering.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans
have been focused
on the president's son
and his foreign business dealings,
but prosecutors have been charged him
on those claims.
On Tuesday, House Speaker
Kevin McCarthy criticized Hunter's deal
containing just to show
the two tier system in America.
If you were the president's
leading political opponent,
DOJ tries to literally
put you in jail and give you prison time
if you are the president's son
and get a sweetheart deal.
Former President Donald Trump
posting on Truth Social this morning.
Wow.
The corrupt Biden
DOJ just cleared up
hundreds of years of criminal liability
by giving Hunter Biden
a mere traffic ticket.
Our system is broken.
The Hunter Biden investigation
has been overseen by Trump appointed U.S.
Attorney David Weiss.
President Biden has
repeatedly defended his son amid
the ongoing investigation.
He's established a new life.
I'm confident that he is.
What he says
and does are consistent with what happens
For example,
he wrote a book about his problems
and was straightforward about it.
I'm proud of them.
Moments ago, Biden's lawyer weighed in
on the investigation, calling it dogged
but fair.
Let's take a listen
This was a five year
very diligent investigation
pursued
by incredibly professional prosecutors,
some of whom have been career
prosecutors,
one of whom at least
was appointed by President Trump.
They were very diligent, very dogged.
This was you know, it took five years
and it was five years of work
that they put in.
And even throughout
working out the ultimate resolution,
I think that they were always driving for
what they thought was fair.
We're still waiting for a hearing date
to be set for Joe
Biden to be arraigned and plead guilty.
We expect that will happen
in the coming weeks Jake.
All right, Paula, thanks so much.
Let's bring in CNN
senior legal analyst Ellie Hoenig.
Ellie, I'm not a lawyer.
I have no idea if this plea case,
this plea agreement comports with
what would happen
for the normal person or as Republicans
are today, insinuating
this is a sweetheart deal.
You're a former federal prosecutor.
Tell us, is this
what any buddy would get
in a similar circumstance
or is this a sweetheart deal?
Well, Jake,
I think, first of all,
nobody's really in a position
to know that
because we don't know the entirety
what the whole universe was of
what DOJ had.
If they had
evidence of more serious crimes
and they failed to follow up
or they gave Hunter Biden
substantially lesser charges,
then, yes, it's a sweetheart deal.
But if this is all they had
that was federally,
criminally chargeable,
then no, it's not a sweetheart deal.
Now, just to give you one example,
a lot of this is a matter of perspective.
If we look at the gun charge here,
It is exceedingly rare for somebody
to be charged with a federal gun crime
and given
pretrial diversion, as Hunter
Biden has been given, meaning
he doesn't even have to plead guilty
as long as he behaves himself,
the charge will go away.
On the other hand,
the vast majority of federal gun crimes
involve somebody who either use the gun
in some sort of violent crime
or somebody
who is a prior convicted felon.
So it's rare to even see
anyone prosecuted at all
under the law
that Hunter Biden was prosecuted for,
which is possession of a gun
by an addict.
So it's really largely
a product of perspective here.
The lawyer
for Hunter Biden
said the case is now, quote, resolved,
but the U.S.
attorney
David Weiss, appointed by Trump,
says it's ongoing.
So clear that up for us.
How does that make sense
in any plea deal like this?
It is absolutely the understanding
between both parties that this is
that there will not be further charges
based on what DOJ knows now.
I suspect when we see the paperwork,
it will say something to that effect.
So why is DOJ saying it's ongoing?
Because DOJ always says that
until the jury comes back,
until the appeal is over,
because you never know
if something new could pop up.
But that's sort of general,
very commonplace DOJ language.
I do not expect
there to be additional charges.
All right.
I am just asking this question.
There is no evidence that he intends
to do this, but could President Biden,
if he wanted to pardon Hunter?
And is there any precedent
for such an action?
So, absolutely
the president, Joe
Biden, has authority
to pardon Hunter Biden or anyone else.
Really?
Of course,
I don't expect
that that's likely to happen.
Certainly before the election,
there is precedent for this,
actually, Jake.
Bill Clinton
famously or infamously pardoned
his half brother, Roger Clinton,
on his final day in office.
Roger Clinton, years
before, had been convicted
of a drug offense.
And depending on how broadly
you want to define family.
Donald Trump, on his last day
in office pardoned
Charles Kushner,
who was the father of Donald Trump's son.
In law, Jared Kushner.
So there is precedent for presidents
to pardon family members
or sort of more distant family members.
Yeah, and the US attorney
who went after Charles Kushner,
Chris Christie,
you guys, you know, Alyona,
thank you so much.
Let's get the latest
from both ends of
Pennsylvania Avenue now.
CNN's Mike Rogers on Capitol Hill.
CNN's Jeremy
Diamond is at the White House.
Manu,
you just caught up
with some senior members
of the Republican Party.
What did they have to say?
Yeah.
House Oversight Chairman
James Conner
just told me moments ago
that that is one of the big questions
that he has is
what does it mean
when the Justice Department's
investigation is ongoing?
Because he's trying to seek
a number of records into this case.
Now, he also is indicating
that House Republicans
plan to call the U.S.
attorney in this case, David Weiss.
There's some discussion
ongoing about
bringing him in to testify
and he also downplayed
the notion that this was, in fact,
a Trump backed attorney
who is held over
into the Biden administration
that led this effort into Hunter Biden
Now, when I spoke,
caught up with Speaker
McCarthy earlier today,
he tried to compare the Hunter Biden case
with the case involving
former President Donald Trump,
even though the two cases
are much different
and the facts are different as well.
David Weiss is the Trump plan attorney.
Do you not have confidence in him?
No.
The question I have.
You want equal justice in America.
It just seems to me
that if you are the leading
opponent of the president,
you're going to get jail time.
But if you're the son of the president,
you don't get any jail time
because there's two separate reasons
why conflate them.
I'm not conflating them,
but they're alleging
he lied to investigators.
That's that's the issue.
Handle it different.
Well, did
you did Hunter Biden lie about his taxes?
That Hunter lied?
Hunter Biden lie about the gun?
I don't know.
He pleaded guilty to the situation.
That's a choice.
Well, there's no there's
no time for him to serve.
Remember, this will be no prison time.
But they're trying to put President
Trump in prison.
That's what they're different
cases are different facts.
Equal equal justice here.
And that's the
problem most Americans have
I was
thinking McCarthy also
said today
that he believes the result of this
plea deal will,
quote, enhance
the House GOP investigation
into Hunter Biden and to Joe Biden.
Trying to link the two, trying to link
business deals that happened overseas
with the White House directly
and with Joe Biden's actions
as vice president.
The question will be, what will happen
if the Justice Department
does not provide
those records
that they are now going to be seeking
in the aftermath of this plea deal?
So Carmen
indicating to me moments ago
he has not made a decision
whether to subpoena for those records,
but they do plan
to at least potentially call
for that U.S.
attorney to come testify
before one of the House committees, Jake.
U.S.
attorney appointed by Donald Trump
and Joe Biden
kept him in office
because of the obvious
conflict of interest,
because he was investigating his son.
I saw Speaker McCarthy
didn't address
that part of your question there, Manu.
Jeremy, the short statement
from the White House
today is really emblematic
of how President Biden
has handled the controversy
around Hunter. Yeah, that's right, Jake.
President Biden really hasn't
sought to distance himself from his son
publicly at all.
In fact, he's done
quite the opposite, really embracing him.
We have seen Hunter
Biden at the president's side
at public events repeatedly, most notably
perhaps in April when Hunter Biden
joined the president on his trip
to Ireland.
He was a near constant presence
at the president's side.
And so it's no surprise
when we see this statement
from the White House
focusing on the fact that the president
and the first lady love their son
and ultimately saying
that other than that,
they have no further comment.
We know that the president,
the first lady
and talking about this previously,
as the president did to you, Jake,
talking about the fact
that they're proud of their son
for overcoming his struggles
with addiction.
The president recently said
in an interview
that he didn't believe
that his son has done anything wrong.
Of course, Hunter
Biden in this guilty plea is indeed
admitting to wrongdoing.
But, look,
this is not something
that ultimately came
as a total surprise to the White House.
And that's
because I'm told that the White House
and the president's
personal attorney, Bob Bauer,
they have kept an open line
of communication
with Hunter Biden's attorneys
throughout this process,
and that that is a line of communication
that's been open on both ends.
That being said, a senior Biden
adviser told me
that, look,
they are not directing or advising
Hunter Biden's legal team.
They were not doing that
throughout this process.
President Biden, for his part,
he is currently on the West Coast
in California.
He's about to start
a meeting with experts.
This will be the first opportunity
for reporters
to try and shout questions
at the president.
We will see if he decides to answer any
of those.