and the white house. reporter: they have tried to keep distance. certainly, on that personal level, i think it s possible that the president and his son might speak by phone. they speak all the time. the president makes a point that he speaks to his grandchildren every day. there could be that level of communication. but from the white house, as an entity and organization, they have kept a distance from this, because they have said that the matter should be held and dealt with separately. obviously, hunter biden has his own counsel and so forth. in this place, in 1600 pennsylvania avenue, he is a first son more than an extension of the administration. politically, people often see that as him as a target politically. the president has no public events on his schedule today. he is here. we expect a white house briefing. i m sure she will get questions on this. she refers those to the white
so much. susan and alencia johnson, susan del percio, good stuff, ladies. that s going to do it for us today. i m reporting from new york. thank you for being with me. ana cabrera here. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i m jose diaz-balart, breaking news from delaware where president biden s son hunter is appearing in a federal courtroom at this hour. just moments ago, hunter biden told a federal judge he intends to plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes, also faces a separate felony gun possession charge. could be dismissed if he completes a pretrial diversion program. this is the first time the justice department, in which falls under the executive branch, has brought charges against the child of a sitting president. with us to start off our coverage this hour, nbc news correspondent mike memoli, he is in wilmington, delaware. michael schmidt, new york times washington correspond
election interference case around 2020. he s a central figure. we re watching the grand jury down the street from me at the federal courthouse in d.c. very chosely. they typically meet on tuesdays and thursdays which suggests tomorrow would be the next day we would see real action on this. but, you know, every day we re learning more about the scope of this investigation. we just learned yesterday that there are two more of the so-called fake electors from embattled ground states scheduled to come in and talk in august. the scope of this investigation remains broad. the investigative efforts continue even as we re kind of building on that countdown clock from the trump target letter received a week ago sunday. and so, i want to bring in mike memoli who is handling and reporting for us today on the hunter biden case, which is far different in every aspect. mike, what do we know? reporter: well, jose, a potentially significant development as we re getting information really up to the
indication of the fact that they believed this was a process that was ending, could be put in the rearview mirror. now the question of whether we will hear from hunter if there s an ongoing case, if there is a need for negotiations between his legal team and the government or whether the government proceeds on its own would put that in jeopardy as well. mike, just to be clear, there was an understanding that hunter biden after the his meeting in delaware would have something to say? reporter: that s right. we had been given indications from hunter biden s legal team that he would look for an opportunity to speak with those of us gathered outside of here after. obviously, everything, i would say, is up in the air at the moment. we will see if that proceeds, if and when we get a sense of how this is potentially being resolved as we speak behind closed doors. mike memoli, thank you very much. kelly, i m wondering if there s any understanding of any communication or kind of coordin
in the courtroom, or, you know, having discussed this. what are the what are the steps, what is the process if there is a break in an agreement? you know, during the actual case? what happens next? i would imagine the prosecution would go back and regroup, but the charges they would bring would likely be more serious than those to which they are allowing a guilty plea, that s how it goes. you get a break when you plead guilty. the stakes could get higher for hunter biden. i would imagine they would want to go back and take some time. i don t think this case is going to go to trial in 70 days because the charges that are on the table at the moment are those charges that were filed in contemplation of a guilty plea. i think the prosecution would go back, reassess, file charges, under the most serious readily provable offense, the ordinary charging position of the government. and then after those charges are filed, the speedy trial clock