TUR: “Breaking news from the Washington Post. They’re reporting that federal agents investigating Hunter Biden say they have gathered ‘sufficient evidence’ to charge him with tax and gun purchase crimes. Joining me right now is Washington Post national security Reporter Devlin Barrett. So, Devlin, walk us through what we know, what you know.”
Barrett: “Right. So, this investigation was opened in 2018, it’s been going on a long time, and it’s been supervised since the Biden Administration began, by a holdover U.S. attorney from the Trump Administration, in Delaware. And what we’re told is that agents believe, and have believed for a number of months, that they have a chargeable case against Hunter Biden, but it’s important to remember, charging decisions are not made by agents. Charging decisions are made by prosecutors at the Justice Department.”
TUR: “And they will decide this, these crimes that we’re talking about, what are the details of these alleged crimes regarding taxes and regarding a gun purchase?”
Barrett: “Well, right, on the tax question, it’s — we don’t know a lot of the specifics, but we know it’s on the sort of general problem of allegedly failing to report significant amounts of income. And on the gun issue, it’s a little more complicated in that when a person buys a gun, they fill out a — from a licensed dealer, they fill out some paperwork and they have to say a number of things and they have to be truthful in those statements. And the allegation or concern is that in 2018, when Hunter Biden bought a gun, he said he did not have a substance problem, and was not addicted to drugs, when in fact, in his own autobiography, he writes that he was using drugs quite significantly in that time period and he has since said he has gotten clean and beaten than addiction.”
TUR: “Does this have anything to do with the laptop?”
Barrett: “So, it’s really unclear. We can’t tell at this point how important or unimportant the laptop has been to this federal investigation. Just to back up, for folks who don’t remember, there was a lot of to do just before the 2020 election that a laptop that Hunter Biden supposedly dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware had been turned over to the FBI and Republicans made a great deal of hay over what they said were, you know, data on the laptop that showed bad dealings by Hunter Biden. That’s been the subject of a lot of political debate. And we know that the FBI has looked at that data. What we don’t know yet is how important they think that data is to this case.”
TUR: “So, I said alleged crimes a second ago. Let me be abundantly clear. This is, from the reporting, it’s sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement relating to a gun purchase. They’re not even alleging crimes yet officially. So I want to be clear about that. You guys reached out to Chris Clark, a lawyer for Hunter Biden. I’m just going to read what he said to you: ‘It is a federal felony for a federal agent to leak information about a grand jury investigation such as this one. Any agent you cite as a source in your article apparently has committed such a felony. We expect the Department of Justice will diligently investigate and prosecute such bad actors, as is proper and legally required.’ We have also reached out to the Justice Department at NBC News and they currently do not have a comment. Devlin Barrett, thank you so much for bringing us that reporting. We appreciate it.”
Barrett: “Thanks for having me.”
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