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been following this investigation in a recent headline from the washington times. guest: from what we've talked about with people familiar with the investigation, it sounds like it is nearing a conclusion. it's been a sprawling investigation and its gone on with prosecutor started looking into hunter biden in the waning years of the obama administration. the u.s. attorney of delaware opened his full investigation into hunter biden's taxes in 2018 and since then, it has turned into an investigation into possible gun crimes, possible money laundering, possible foreign lobbying violations. they are looking into a lot of different aspects of this investigation. this has been going on for four years and it sounds like we are coming to a resolution. what that resolution is going to be remains to be seen stuff

i talked to several former prosecutors. they tell me how they look at it reading the tea leaves on what could come out and what has happened. we could be going toward some kind of plea agreement and the reason they say that is because a plea agreement to a possible tax crime would check off a lot of boxes for a lot of people. it would give david weiss and merrick garland of the justice department the ability to send off republican critics by saying we scored a guilty plea and they charge him with something, it was not an investigation influenced by the administration because it produced a criminal charge and a spare the biden administration some embarrassing things coming out in the dykman because we would not get a report that would come out that would be detailed with a charge.

that's what prosecutors say this is how they look at it but it remains to be seen if we see charges or a guilty plea. host: you mentioned taxes and guns and the possibility of looking into the president's sons foreign business dealings. take us through the different avenues and if that plea agreement comes, which avenue would focus on? guest: let's start with the easiest one stop that would possibly be a gun charge. it is a federal crime to lie on a firearm application. in 2018, he purchased a gun and when you purchase a gun, there is a question on the application on whether or not you have a problem with drugs. hunter biden has been in and out of rehab. he's written a book about his struggles with addiction. in that book, he talks about having, going uncracked binges.

it's possible at that time when he purchased the gun, he was fresh out of rehab, we don't know. it seems that's a very easy charge to prove or not prove. the easiest one to prove in the smallest charge. i don't think the in delaware was spend four years on the gun crime when you think about whether or not it's what he checked up on the box. the other crime that would possibly be attacked is hunter biden had accumulated millions and foreign income from several entities, in ukraine and china. charisma is an energy company in ukraine and he was dealing with

a chinese gas company. it's possible he was not reporting that income on his taxes and that's what sparked the investigation. that's also probably -- he has also paid his taxes last year. he had a one million-dollar tax debt and that got paid. were not sure where the money came from. that will help his case if they decide to pursue taxes because he did make restitution and that could be a mitigating factor. the other charts we are looking at is the violation of farr which is the foreign agents registration act which means anyone operating in the united states on behalf of a foreign government whether it's lobbying congress or setting up meetings with influence makers or high level government officials or even printing editorials in newspapers must register with the justice department and there must be a record they are

working on behalf of a foreign government within the united states step there is a couple of emails that have come out in hunter biden's last book between hunter biden and his brother and which they talk about the possibility of what they are doing and whether it may violate farr. it is an insecure violation but we seen it gain in popularity because that's what the special counsel robert mueller used two sort of work his way up the chain of trump associates. paul manafort, michael flynn, george poppel up -- george papadopoulos were all charged with violations and it was used to get them to cooperate to build their case. the other possibility is a possible money laundering case. by that, it's possible that hunter biden had set up several u.s. entities which the money

from the foreign entities would come in and it would be used to obscure where it came from and it would help and not be able to report that on his taxes. that's another avenue prosecutors are looking into. there is for avenues that we are aware of where this case could go. the prosecutors i have talked to said they think if there is a guilty plea, and they think that's the most likely outcome, it would probably be in the tax case because that's the easiest one to prove and it would carry the strictest -- it would carry the biggest sentence you could make in a case that you went after hunter biden for something which would give -- get a lot of pressure off of attorney general merrick garland. he is facing a lot of pressure from republicans just don't like it because he's a democratic appointee.

they feel he's been very harsh on the january 6 defendants, the individuals at the capital. democrats don't like merrick garland right now because they think he is too slow and they want to see indictments of president trump and his associates for january 6. they feel he has moved to slow in that area. merrick is under ternary pressure. i think -- it merrick garland is under extraordinary pressure so there is a move to take some of the pressure off of him. host: you have been covering all aspects of this for the washington times. let me open the phone lines for viewers to call in. not to layer one more piece on this but this headline from the

washington times [video clip] guest: this is embarrassing for the fbi if this turns out to be true. what they are alleging is that some of the verified information that's been confirmed from hunter biden's laptop that's been in the media was falsely labeled disinformation. that cause the investigation the be on hold and it stopped the investigation for moving forward because some of the evidence said it was disinformation. i think that revelation will have a lot of impact that i don't think it will have a lot of impact on the hunter biden case but this is the latest accusation of partisanship

against the fbi. i don't know how many more allegations the fbi can take before they lose their credibility in achieving their mission. once their credibility goes, it will hurt when you put agents on the stand and get witness cooperation. they will have a real problem achieving their mission of keeping america safe stop host: the criminal probe on the generous six incident, finding out president trump's actions are one of the aspects they are looking into. what do you make of that revelation? guest: it's hard to say because we don't know where they are looking right now we don't know which aspect. i think merrick garland in his nbc interview did not rule out the possibility of president trump and this is starting to become a problem because we are

starting to see if charges are warranted but we are seeing a tremendous politicization of the fbi both parties are using to achieve their political end. host: george out of lansing, michigan, republican. are you with us? caller: i guess i'm george. host: do you go by a different name? caller: i thought i called it on the independent line. he said a minute ago the this was known about four years ago. i want to know why it wasn't properly disseminated before the last election as it should have. guest: we did see it try to get through the media but the problem is, a lot of media didn't cover it because people were quick to label the laptop as disinformation. what we have seen since then his many criticizing the new york

post which was the first to bring this out. the associated press, the washington post and the new york times verified what was in the laptop step we are starting to see a little more acceptance in the media of this story. host: what was your connection with that story when it first broke? guest: we looked into it. we took the time to confirm it. there was a lot in there and it was complicated to get confirmation of it. host: henry and port huron, michigan, democrat, your next. caller: in a perfect world, poetic justice affected the trump clan. they would probably suffer the same fate as the last czar of russia, the romanov family. host: before we go to this, why

don't you go to your actual question? caller: i'm trying to go to my actual question, why don't you let me speak? host: we are not going to condone violence. caller: i was not condoning violence. host: robert is next out of california, good morning. caller: yeah. host: go ahead. caller: i've seen investigation on the hunter biden laptop and people, the cia said there is no russian influence there. my biggest problem is i live in america where a president and a vice president can conspire against an incumbent president and also a president and the same people are conspiring with an english spy to come up with

trumped up charges against trump and these people want to take my guns. i see a person who set off the light let of america, or industry, everybody uses gas, oil -- the hunter biden and, this has been going on for years. these people know what they are doing. they are all in cahoots and if they can't you're out had to do a good job, find someone else to do the job. thank you. host: the person who is doing this job right now is david weiss, explain why he is the person heading this investigation? guest: the alleged crimes that took place, he is the u.s. attorney for deller were means he is responsible for investigating all sorts of federal crimes that occurred within delaware.

he was actually an appointee by president trump. when a new president comes in, it's tradition the fire the u.s. attorney appointed by the previous residence of george w. bush fired previous attorneys, etc. president biden did not fired david weiss because how that look -- would look would have been terrible. one thing i find interesting is merrick garland has appeared before congress twice this year and both times, republicans have pressed him on the independence of the hunter biden investigation and merit garland's response has been that you can trust it because being headed up by a trump appointee. it's problematic. in the end, merrick garland has

the final say on what happened . it seems like a defense of -- my politics are not interfering because somebody else's politics are interfering with it and it seems like he is trying to say it will not be run by a biden official because a trump official is running it and i know how that's takes the politics off of that and that's with the american people want to see. the american people are frustrated that they are seeing people of either party get away with certain crimes who are connected and they want to make sure these investigations whether they result in charges are above board. it's problematic to point to his politics. host: there were calls for a special counsel. guest: republicans have been calling for a special prosecutor into hunter biden.

obviously, what the republicans want is hopefully that will touch on something embarrassing they can use against president biden especially if he runs for reelection. i don't know where that gets the republican party. the special counsel still has to report to the attorney general. u.s. attorney david weiss reports to the attorney general. merrick garland will probably have the same influence and same control over that investigation. he can approve or supply subpoena or a warrant. i don't know what kind of independence that would give you that you will not get with david weiss. the other issue is you are hitting the reset button. you will start this investigation from scratch when we already know it's hitting a critical stage with the investigation in delaware. we sort robert mueller go on for

2.5 years and this investigation has hit three years and there's no sign of that ending. how long will that go on for? republicans want to use this in 2024 and now we appoint a special counsel, we are not going to get an answer until 2026. i don't know how that helps republicans at all. host: joseph is a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, i have a direct question and then i have some comments i would like to submit. jeff murdock, do you believe in the rule of law? guest: i think everybody believes in the rule of law. caller: thank you, i'm glad to hear that. now, do you know that grand jury testimony is secret? guest: yes.

caller: ok, you have revealed some pretty salacious details about possibilities, about hunter biden. do you have a source for that from the secret grand jury? guest: everything i've talked about his widely in the public domain stuff there is nothing i haven't revealed that we haven't already covered in the paper and other news outlets about what prosecutors are looking into. what i was saying about the possible phillies and that's based on several former prosecutors i have spoken with. there is nothing in here that i've revealed or talked about that is top secret grand jury information. host: where does the grand jury meet? guest: they meet in delaware. it expired last month was the that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

they can always present evidence to another grand jury. that's if it expires and there is no charges but that doesn't rule out further charges. host: they could have gone forward with charges but they haven't an unsealed yet? guest: or they could've convened without reaching a decision either way maybe david weiss will re-presented to another grand jury. the grand jury for the last caller, we've gotten from public reporting. we have had some of hunter biden's business is is testified and we've had some individuals testify. i think some of the names people want to hear. president biden has not testified and we know his brother jim, we have not heard

whether he's testifying and those are some of the things which shed some light on some of these investigations and on the grand jury. there are some big names that would help a grand jury make a decision either way but we have not heard from them. host: i assume you have asked the white house about the president not testifying? guest: yes. host: how does that information come out? guest: people leak information all the time and it's been leaked to news outlets.