America is washing watching on cspan part by powered by cable. Host i want dealings which are possibly unethical or illegal. What is in the laptop that has been reported widely has raised some suspicions about these business deals. It has fallen into tax charges but the possibility of a federal gun charge. In 2018, he purchased a firearm and on firearm applications you need to check off whether or not you have a Substance Abuse problem. At that time, he allegedly checked off no but he read in his book when he purchased the gun that he was dealing with a crack cocaine problem. This investigation his move slowly, we are not sure why it is move slowly. You would think a tax investigation and a gun charge would not take four years. Host let me ask you to david weiss, he was appointed by President Trump in 2018. The Biden Administration leaving him on in the attorney general said he would not appoint a special counsel. He will let judge david weiss continue this investigation without any interference from the doj. Guest theres a couple things of that, republicans have been screaming for a special counsel to investigate hunter biden. I dont know what that gets anybody because the special counsel will have the same power as david weiss. They will report to marek garland like david weiss does. One advantage you will have with the special counsel that you are not getting with david weiss is that if marek garland decides not to approve a subpoena, not to approve a wiretap, denies an investigative step in marek garland has to report that in writing to congress. That is the only difference, there is more accountability. Merrick garland can fire the special counsel just as much as david weiss. I think republicans are screaming about that because it is a talking point but it doesnt get them what they want. Host this is a headline from one of your pieces last week, dojs hunter biden inquiry back in the spotlight. If it is behindthescenes, why is it in the spotlight . Is there information being leaked out now . Guest there is information being leaked out. Some investigators reached out to Media Outlets and said they amassed enough evidence to where they could charge hunter biden with tax crimes or in a gun charge. It is interesting that they have leaked this because you have to look at the reasons why they leaked this. It is possible that it was leaked because there is going to be a republican outrage that these are minor crimes if he does get charged. Republicans have been saying that there is a lot more than tax and gun crimes. You could look at it as the fbi that leaked this because they are investigating this case. Hunter biden is not going to be charged and they want to get out ahead of that and say we did our jobs. We amassed the evidence. If he does not get charged, that is on the Justice Department. We have the evidence. Host based on what we know now through these leaks and other reporting of you and others there is a range of potential charges that could be filed here . Guest thats right. We could look at a possible new gun charge lying on a federal guns application. The possibility of any kind of tax crime from not paying tax to tax fraud. There is a possibility, republicans have raised the issue of looking at his business deals as possible influence peddling. Things of that nature. Host this is a statement from chris clark, Hunter Bidens attorn w said, after the leaks, it is a federaly to leak informati about a grand jury investigation such as this one. Any agent you cite as a source has committed a felony. We expect the department of justice will diligently investigate and prosecute bad actors. Does doj have a history of doing that . Guest the Justice Department talks about going after leakers, it was a priority under Jeff SessionsJustice Department. Their track record going after leakers is spotty at best. Look at the roe v. Wade opinion, the Dobbs Decision leak of the Supreme Court. That investigation really isnt going anywhere. There is a lot of calls to get that weaker, to arrest that leaker. This case is much less cut and dry than the dobbs case when that was leaked because the dobbs case, which is the Supreme Court decision that overturned roe v. Wade, that was a leak of government material. Here, you could look at this two ways. The prosecutor could look at it and save the agents leaking this information are leaking grand jury information because they are pointing out what is in the evidence that has been amassed in the grand jury and it is a crime to leak grand jury information. On the other hand, these investigators are not leaking specific grand jury information. They can always argue that im am giving my opinion. I believe that there is enough evidence, i am just saying from what i have seen. That is not leaking information. That makes it a much tougher case for prosecutors to pursue. Prosecutors will not pursue a case if they dont think they can get a charge out of it. Host jeff mordock has been writing a lot of articles on the investigation into hunter biden. We welcome your calls and comments 202 7488001, for republicans, 202 7488000 for democrats, 202 7488002 for all others. How does this work . How does the judge david weiss present to the grand jury . Guest he gathers evidence through subpoenas, subpoenas for evidence, peoples emails, people schedules, probably tax forms if they are pursuing a gun charge, that would be the federal firearms application. In panels witnesses to testify before the grand jury. How long the jury is impaneled, it could be weeks, months. The grand jury will make a decision and david weiss could reject with the grand jury says and do the opposite, or he could except what the grand jury said. In this case we dont know what the grand jury said but accepting what they do would give him an Merrick Garland a lot of cover regardless of what happens. Whatever decision he makes, there will be a tremendous amount of fire and heat. If they pursue criminal charges, democrats will be in an uproar that this is a political prosecution. If they decline prosecution, republicans will be in an uproar that biden has put its thumb on the scale of justice. They are in a nowin situation and the best thing for them to do is throw their hands up and say this is what the grand jury said, it is out of our hands. Host it is at the same grand jury which wouldve been got together and 2018 . Guest it depends on whether or not it has expired or not. Sometimes they can rotate people in and out. A grand jury is not like the u. S. Jury where they meet every day and this is going to take weeks of time. It could be a day here, a day there. Host jeff mordock as our guest, we will get to your call shortly 202 7488001 for republicans, 202 7488000, 202 7488002 four independents and others. The president was asked about hunter biden and here is the headline from your paper this morning, biden denies knowing about hunter biden and his gun statement but he has confidence in his son. Here is President Biden last night. [video clip] how do you react to that . First of all, i am proud of my son. This is a kid, not a kid but a grown man. He got hooked on drugs, he has overcome that. He has established a new life. I am confident of what he says and does are consistent with what happened. For example, he wrote a book about his problems and was straightforward about it. I am proud of him. He came along and said, this thing about a gun, i did not know anything about it. It turns out when he made an application to purchase a gun, you get asked the questions are you on drugs or use drugs . He said no, and he wrote about it saying no in his book. I have confidence in my son. I love him and he is on the straight and narrow and has been for a couple of years now and i am so proud of him. Host jeff mordock, the president reflecting what Hunter Bidens attorneys upset about this gun charge. Guest i thought that was a tepid defense of his son. He does say that he is proud of his son, he believes his son is on the straight and narrow but he does not offer a full throttle defense of hison which is surprising. He takes the tact of he is someone who has struggled with drug abuse and made a mistake rather than offer any kind of defense. I was surprised at that. Host we have plenty of calls waiting, susan in worcester, massachusetts. On the republican line. Caller the drug and gun charges, that is not the story of the laptop. Its him asking for money, being a, uaine and russia. Biden is compromised. Everybody keeps forgetting this. He is compromised and involved in these countries and it is amazing. And the laptop, he has with underage girls that is something . He is with prostitutes. With a crack pipe. This guy is a sleaze bag. Another thing the diary, ashley biden accuses of assaulting her in the shower as a young kid. Dont say it is not true because they tried to prosecute to people because of the diary. We have a child molester in the white house. Host we will ask you about Hunter Bidens laptop. What do we know that was in that laptop . Guest we know there was evidence of a lot of shady business deals, potentially illegal, possibly unethical. These things are basically capitalizing on his dads name for jobs that he was not qualified for. Jobs that most people who have drug problems would not have access to that pay very well. To the callers point, this is raise a lot of questions. A lot of reason why republicans are asking for a special concert. Special counsel. They are looking into a tax charge of the gun charge. We hear very little about this is which is why the republicans are pushing a special counsel. They argue that in his laptop, there is a whole range of criminal activity that has yet to be examined. Host lets hear from david in concord, North Carolina on the democrat line. David, and North Carolina. Caller i am calling about to mr. Murdoch about the special counsel. There is a special counsel going on with january 6 because of the insurrection. The insurrection was in early 2020 when our judicial system did not prosecute these people for writing. They said it was a demonstration. That was a joke. All we need is someone that has the hair to call mr. Biden out for what he is. He is a joke. He is incompetent. He is using his position for his own gain. That is what the man is doing. He is not capable, him or the Vice President of capable of doing their job. You have a great day. Guest i do wonder if the american appetite for a special counsel is exhausted at this point. We had special counsel robert mueller. We are still fighting about some of his findings even though he brought that up three years ago. We have john door doing his investigation down in alexandria, virginia. Our american starting to get tired of special counsel looking into things. Republicans should take that into their calculus when they demand a special counsel. Host you wrote about the durham investigation and your paper this morning. They paid the fbis victims. What is the investigation all about and what is this trial all about . Guest john durham was appointed by bill barr to look into evidence that the fbi and other intelligence agencies may have committed some wrongdoing when investigating President Trump or his alleged ties to russia. He has looked into this for three years and he is only brought three cases. One of those cases is against a russian analyst who was on trial right now. He lied about how he compiled evidence for this deal report which was used in part by the fbi to obtain a surveillance warrant on carter page who was one of his Campaign Needs and 2016. They suspected he had ties to russia that compromise the trump campaign. No public evidence of mers that was the case. He has never been charged with a crime. Despite that, the fbi surveilled him and they had three renewal applications to keep surveilling him. What john durham is alleging because the analyst lied to the fbi, the fbi is responsible for his words. The fbi had troubling behavior during the russian pro. What i find interesting, in this investigation he decided to look into what the fbi is doing. He is giving the fbi a task there. But for this analyst, nobody heard of him until 2020. The fbi would not have taken some of the actions that they had. I think that is a tough argument. I am surprised that he is taking that argument and it is a disappointment to republicans who hoped he would uncover widespread corruption in the fbi. He is taking a much more sympathetic approach to the fbi than trump and allies. His grand jury has wrapped up. He has not indicted anybody. His prosecutor is left to take a job in the private sector. There are signs that this is wrapping up. Even the fact the door was in doron wasnt court himself, it is a sign that this is wrapping up because he doesnt have anything else that he is working on right now. He wants to make sure that this one goes off without a hitch he brought charges in may against Hillary Campaign lawyer. He brought a trial against the Hillary Campaign lawyer, that ended and an embarrassing acquittal for him he is under a lot of heat from a lot of people. He prosecuted a lowlevel fbi lawyer, all of the evidence, that was handed over to him on a silver platter and a lot of people are wondering this investigation has cost 6 Million Dollars and gone on for three years and there is not a lot of evidence that he has accomplished a lot. I think republicans, especially President Trump and his allies thought this would end up like the molar investigation where we saw 27 companies and individuals indicted including five Trump Associates and we are not seeing that here. People are starting to wonder did durham not to what he was supposed to do or maybe this was overhyped and there was nothing to go after in the first place. Host lets hear from ed in hampton, new hampshire. Caller it seems to me that the grand jury has taken four years to investigate tax and gun charges. It stinks of a coverup. It is Common Knowledge that he was on the board of burisma, 2014, Vice President joe was on air force too, flew to china. And when they came back, hunter was on the board of two chinese company. How long does it take to investigate that . Guest that goes back to my earlier point, there is a lot of stuff that is suspicious around hunter biden that we have not seen investigated yet but we have not seen people take a deep dive into it. Which is why republicans pose for a special counsel. If this results in charges, that will sweep a lot of this under the rug because there will not be a trial. There will not be a discovery. There will not be evidence coming out. I dont think i will sit well with the republicans and i think some voters. That is something we have to talk about that is important is how voters are looking at this. We come from the Trump Administration where he put his kids in high positions at the white house that their qualifications were very questionable. Now, we have hunter biden where there is a lot of smoke surrounding what he has done and at best, if he does get charged it will be minor tax and gun charges. The American People are tired of one set of rules for them, one set of rules for president ial children. I think it is something the Biden Administration should be worried about. Host lets hear from bert on the republican line and columbus, georgia. Caller i think you have the wrong person on their to talk about hunter biden because you need to get somebody from the Washington Post, i think it is called the New York Post. You need to get somebody like ron johnson, the senator from wisconsin. Host jeff mordock has followed this investigation as closely as any of those other people. Caller you have a twotiered justice system. That trial was tainted, and the judge was tainted. You are coming at it from the wrong angle. You have 54 people who used to be an intelligence an intelligence and they come out and say it was russian collusion. I dont think all of that thats all smoke and mirrors. I am saying that you have the liberal side here now. This is a very liberal newspaper, you should get the conservative newspaper on to get the real story. Maranda, from the New York Post. Host jeff mordock, your response. Guest we are not a liberal paper. If there is some minor charges and a guilty plea or no charges at all, i dont think that will sit well with the American People. I think that will hurt the president with the voters because people are seeing the rich and powerful get away with things all the time. She was third point which was about the russian misinformation. Its interesting how quickly it was labeled russian disinformation and you had intelligence agencies label this is such right ahead of the election. Here we are two years out of the election and you have papers that dismiss it like the New York Times, the Washington Post, nbc news. They say we have verified it and the stuff on the laptop is now accurate. We have seen that play into the investigation. We had fbi whistleblowers come out and save the fbi used that as cover. They had verifiable evidence of wrongdoing by hunter biden and they labeled it misinformation us away to stymie the investigation. Those claims have helped stifle what the fbi was doing on this pro. Host special counsel or no, if the republicans take over congress there will be a house investigation into hunter biden. What will they target . What do you know of their plans to hold this investigation . Guest if republicans take over the house or Senate Hunter biden is their first priority. They will go after his business deals, they will look after him on the Chinese Energy board. They will go on a much deeper dive and thats one of the reasons we see this after this investigation come to a head now. The Justice Department wants to get this wrapped up because they are afraid that republicans are going to come in, take over and make their life miserable in this investigation. Host we dont know for sure that david weiss will not address burisma and other Business Ventures . Guest what we have seen another paper is a talking to people, that doesnt seem to be a factor here. When we talk to people familiar with this case of what is going on they will cite the tax issues, they will cite the gun issues. We dont see a lot of the burisma stuff. The overseas business deals and capitalizing on his kids name dads name. It will be interesting because if you have this wrapped up, it cuts off a venue to the republicans because you dont have a trial. It will be going on simultaneously with the republican investigation and it will limit what the republicans can go with this. Host lets get a few more calls here. Lawrence massachusetts, on the democrats line. Caller i have a couple of questions if i may. Steve scully was denying the legitimacy of the laptop information for over a year. There was no mention of any gun, no mention of any taxes. Nothing was done at the time. This investigation was about influence peddling and all these things that hunter biden was about to obtain by being blessed , benefiting the family. This is totally disingenuous. It is a hunter biden investigation, not a trump investigation. We all know the Washington Post lied about and printed retractions about but they lied about it. Cspan has been unbelievably shielding joe biden from all the things including this that he has done wrong. It is flabbergasting to me. I am a democrat and i want the truth. I dont want to since i went to jail because i did not get the whole story and cspan is not giving out the whole story. They are lying about it. Everything has been pretty much verified. Steve scully was lying about it a year before it happened and every moderator supported him. It takes me off. I love the show but it takes me off when you live about it. Host i hear your criticism, lets go to fill in minnesota on the independent line. Phil in brooklyn park, are you there . To savannah georgia, on the republican line. Caller i would like to say that the Business Partner of beau biden family. He was on tucker carl said in all the media xed him out. A couple of weeks ago he went back on tucker carl said and he has proof that the biden family is compromised through ukraine and china and that 10 goes to the big guy. He was a Business Partner. Host jeff mordock is there any indication that the broader biden family is being implicated in this investigation . Guest in this investigation no, tony will be brought before the investigation. To james in missouri on the republican line. Caller actually im on the independent line. I just want to thank cspan for bringing this to the forefront. It seems as though no media really wants to report on this at all. I do appreciate you bringing it to the forefront. A couple of things ive seen and heard. Biden never discussed anything about his dealings and stuff, it seems like nobody wants to talk about their that. They never did they never asked how he made so much money on the board of burisma. It seems like the media is the problem because they are trying to control everything that we hear and they refused to report on things the American People deserve to hear. I do want to address one thing the caller said. It is interesting that now we are starting to see the media pay more attention than they did. The New York Post was the first to break the hunter biden laptop story. Here we are two years later, the New York Times is looking at this and saying that the laptop is verified. I want to go back to something the caller said about the media has shielded whether or not President Biden new. There are things that have come out that show President Biden, even though he keeps saying was not aware of his sons business dealings. At least had some inkling of what is going on. President biden wrote a College Recommendation Letter of the son of one of Hunter BidensBusiness Partner. Is he in the habit of writing College Recommendation Letters . Host did he write that as president . Guest he wrote that out of office. Host you said that the president s defense in the jake tapper interview was a weak defense of hunter biden. Has that changed over the years . His defense of his son. Guest it has not changed. Even if you go back to the debate when trump tried to score points by attacking hunter biden. He acknowledged his sons drug problems and that he loved his son. That scored really well with voters and made trump look like he was bullying President Biden and that scored really well. That is what they have been using because it worked in the debate. Host what is hunter biden doing today . How is he supporting himself . Guest right now he is trying to sell paintings. He has had two archers. We have not gotten into this, the art deals that hunter biden, they raise ethical questions. The white house keeps saying that he has had these are chose for his art in new york, l. A. And the white house keeps saying, it is not an ethical violation because we are going to have anonymous bids and no one will know who bought the paintings. There is nothing in there from whoever bought the painting to say, i bought the painting. It seems like a very weak attempt at portraying the ethics behind this. Host lets go to georgia, marian on the democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. It is definitely election time when the hunter biden story keeps popping up. I just want to say, most kids of politicians and Supreme Court justices use their parents influence to make money. It is common, we see roger stone, michael flynn, everybody do it. My question to you is, hunter biden made 3 million . What about Jared Kushner with the 2 billion deal that he got because of his father that he got a loan from saudi arabia. Go after hunter biden but lets keep things in perspective. We also have Jared Kushner he was in the administration, which probably he should not of been. He got 2 billion. I am just trying to be fair here. Lets keep thing in perspective. Guest the caller made that point that i made earlier. Whether we talk about hunter biden, or. Old and eric trump. They are sick of seeing these kids of politicians capitalize on their parents names in success. If you look at chelsea clinton, she is doing a show with her mom. These kids cannot escape the shadow. The American People are looking at that and saying, my parents were not president and they are frustrated with that. Host lets hear from mary in North Carolina on the independent line. Caller hi, i am from rose, North Carolina. I am not worried about what the kids do or does not do. What i am worried about, i think about it often, is biden selling our country out for his own use her familys use . Like ukraine, i feel sorry for the people of ukraine but i dont think we should send the money. Is this the quid pro quo for biden . Is he paying a debt back by destroying their country moneywise . Why is he not concerned about the border. We are being overrun. He is not concerned about the border but hes worried about ukraine. I hate that i feel that, but this is payback for ukraine. Guest the caller is raising the point when there was a prosecutor in ukraine investigating hunter and he went over there and bragged that he got that prosecutor fired. Whether or not that is influencing ukraine policy is hard to say at this point. Whether or not anything that hunter biden did in ukraine is influencing u. S. Policy. We are sending a lot of money over there. Host let me ask you about the status of the hunter biden investigation, this is from the wall street journal, prosecutors hold off a final case decision among talks with defense attorneys. Could they be looking for a plea bargain from hunter biden . Guest i think that is exactly what they are looking for and a plea bargain would make things very neat and tidy for everyone involved. It gives david weiss and Merrick Garland the cover to say, we charged him with something, he is facing consequences for his alleged actions and it gives them cover. Also, it protects him from wider investigations of influence peddlings. It keeps that under wraps and avoid a trial which could have discovery that could be embarrassing, evidence could be embarrassing and playing out here in the courtroom with all the press there and having the Biden Administration constantly on the defensive. A plea deal, if they pursue charges is the most likely outcome. I asked Hunter Bidens attorney a few months ago and he said that there will not be a plea deal because he is confident that hunter biden did not do anything wrong. But i think there are signs that they are trying to hammer out a deal. Host any please, that would not forestall the congressional investigation. They could come up with their own set of charges, could they not . Guest congress cant charge him, they would have to refer everything to the Justice Department and they would have to investigate. The question is, who was running the Justice Department at the time they are ready. If they decide to make a referral, we would be passed 2024. If President Biden is still president , i am not sure that the Justice Department has the appetite. If its a Republican Administration they will have the appetite. Host here is david on the republican line in texas. Caller every time you get a new caller it changes what i want to talk about. This is election time which is why the biden thing is coming back up. It never went away for the handful of the news media that has been covering it for people like sweitzer. He has a lot to say about that. Mitch mcconnell and his wifes ties to the chinese shipbuilding industry. You have been discussing with the motives and what does that look like the Justice Department is doing now and the reporter just said they are trying to get a plea deal and make it go away. I agree with that. The idea that Tony Bobulinski has never been called back again. I watched both of his interviews with tucker, one was almost week. He said he would call him the next weekend. The fbi never called back at all. He has gone through all the evidence, and as far as the news media showing whether or not its biased or trying to cover something up. The one question that has not been asked to joe biden, when he is walking away from the podium, you might get a chance for him to turn around and ask him one question. There has never been a president answering less questions and less responsive to the American People to get real answers answered. Not even fox news steve ducey has asked if he is sat down and met with Tony Bobulinski. Guest this administration does not answer a lot of question. S. You see it in the briefing every day and you see President Biden answers fewer questions than his two predecessors. He does not do as many media interviews. It is hard to get questions into this administration. Host jeff mordock covers the white house for the washi january 6 returns thursday for its next hearing ahead of its release of the written report expected by the end of the year. You can watch the hearing life beginning at 1 00 p. M. On cspan. Middle and high school students, its your time to shine. You are invited to participate in this years documentary competition in light of the upcoming Midterm Election picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress. What is your top priority . Make a five to six minute video that shows the importance of your issues from opposing and supporting perspectives. Dont be afraid to take risks. Among the cash prizes is a 5,000 grand prize. Visit our website for competition rules, resources and a stepbystep guide. American history tv saturday on cspan two celebrating the people and stories. Revealing the life of first lady Martha Washington from her personal letters. And Catherine GarrettResearch Editor at the papers of George Washington project at the university of virginia. At 8 00 p. M. , a professor talks about american churches and religion during world war i. 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