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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe, and I'm here with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for joining us, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, we've got a big story on Hunter Biden. He's reached a tentative deal to plead guilty on charges of tax evasion while dodging a felony gun possession charge. I'm joined now by Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce to discuss this story.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me on the show, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Tim, let's dive right in. What did Hunter and the DOJ prosecutors agree to?
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to a court filing by U.S. District Attorney David Weiss, Hunter has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor tax charges and admit to the facts that led to a felony gun charge. In return for his cooperation, Hunter will reportedly receive two years probation and must participate in a diversion program. The gun charge will be wiped from his record upon completing the program.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And this deal does not touch on the legality of any of Hunter's overseas business dealings or any alleged involvement by President Biden. Let's talk about the reaction to this deal. How are critics viewing this plea deal?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, many see this as a sweetheart deal. Hunter's defenders say that the president's son, at least as it relates to the gun charge, was tangled up in a prosecution that seldom results in charges. So Hunter is actually getting the opposite of soft treatment on that count. Hunter's attorney, Chris Clark, appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday and said he thought his client was treated fairly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But many are calling this a sweetheart deal. Remember, even though these are misdemeanor tax charges, Hunter's total value of unpaid taxes and liabilities in 2017 and 2018 was $1.2 million. And the gun charge stemmed from a 2018 incident where Hunter lied on a federal gun application about his drug addiction and his gun was later thrown into a grocery store trash bin that sat across the street from a high school.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And it's worth pointing out that others have faced much stiffer penalties than Hunter for committing the same crime. And of course, many Republicans are saying this deal is more evidence of a double standard at the Department of Justice.
--:-- Georgia Howe: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reacted to the plea deal, saying, "It continues to show the two-tier system in America. If you are the president's leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. If you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart deal."
--:-- Tim Pierce: And former President Trump put out a statement on social media saying that Biden's DOJ cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere traffic ticket.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Hunter and President Biden are still under suspicion of taking bribes from several countries, including most prominently $5 million each from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. What impact does this plea deal have on any other investigations going on?
--:-- Tim Pierce: There appears to be some confusion on that point. Hunter's attorney came out soon after this plea deal was announced and said this resolves the U.S. District Attorney's investigation into Hunter Biden. But U.S. Attorney Weiss contradicted that. He said the investigation is still ongoing, though it's unclear what that means exactly and whether the Biden family's business dealings in China and Ukraine are part of that investigation or not.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If they aren't, McCarthy said this could help Republicans' investigation into corruption allegations against Hunter and President Biden.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, this does nothing to our investigation. It actually should enhance our investigations because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that because of pending investigation, they should be able to provide Chairman Comer with any information that he requires.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sounds like still a lot of questions unanswered, Tim. Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me on the show.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A frantic search is underway for a submersible that went missing Sunday with five passengers aboard while visiting the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: [Senior Editor, Daily Wire] Yeah, just hard to imagine. So on Sunday, a small submersible carrying five people, a pilot and four passengers, descended from a surface ship into the waters of the North Atlantic to visit the wreckage of the Titanic. An hour and a half later, the sub lost all contact with the surface ship and has not been heard from since.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The 22-foot sub was operated by Ocean Gate Explorations, a deep sea exploration company that offers visitors a chance to go to the Titanic for $250,000 a ticket. Officials with the company say the craft has enough oxygen to last until Thursday morning, setting off a race against time to find them in some of the most treacherous waters on Earth.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For context, the Titanic wreckage is located about 900 miles east of Boston, sitting 13,000 feet beneath the sea. So miles beneath the sea, what do we know about those on board?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, first there's Hamish Harding, a British billionaire adventurer who holds multiple world records for other deep sea dives and flights around the globe. Harding had previously been to space with Blue Origin and posted an Instagram message just before departing Sunday, cheerfully giving details on the expedition.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Then there Shanzada and Suleiman Dawood, a father pair from one of the most prominent business families in Pakistan. On board is also Paul Narjale, a famed French diver known as Mr. Titanic. He's been to the wreck site 35 times and was actually part of the first human-led expedition visit to the site back in 1987.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And finally, there's Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of Ocean Gate itself. So far, what has gone into this search and rescue effort?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the Coast Guard is leading the effort in conjunction with the Canadian Royal Air Force. Rescuers are using C-130s to scan the surface for wreckage or other signs of life, while ships in the water search below with sonar and other high-tech listening devices. And on Tuesday, the Coast Guard announced that they'd employed the use of a pipeline ship equipped with deep-sea underwater rovers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Officials say a growing number of private vessels have also joined the search in the last 24 hours, so the rescue operation is immense to say the least. Here's Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick on Tuesday.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Logistically speaking, it's hard to bring assets to bear. It takes time. It takes coordination. And then we're dealing with a surface search and a subsurface search. And frankly, that makes it an incredibly complex operation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So I hesitate to ask, but what's the most likely scenario they're facing?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, the big fear is that the submarine imploded at some point on its visit down to the Titanic. But experts say if they are still alive and if the sub is intact, they're most likely resting somewhere on the ocean floor or have floated to the surface somewhere above the wreckage.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Both situations present serious problems. Obviously, the better option would be that they floated to the top, but even then, they'll be hard to find. Coast Guard officials say because of currents and the unpredictable path of the sub, they're searching an area of ocean roughly the size of Connecticut.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And even if they did float to the top, the sub's exit hatch only opens from the outside, so they'd still be in grave danger. If they're on the ocean floor, things get even more difficult. It's important to understand just how far down they are. The Titanic lies nearly two and a half miles underwater.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Only a handful of subs on Earth can even dive that deep, and experts say even if the craft is found, the odds of another sub being able to lift it to the surface are incredibly slim. If successful, though, this would be the deepest ever rescue mission in history.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So even if they've come up to the surface, we still have only till 6 a.m. Thursday to find them. Yeah, that's what they're estimating, and just a race against time at this point.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Kevin, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Three months after the Covenant school shooting, the shooter's writings and manifesto have remained under wraps, in part due to requests from the parents of the victims.
--:-- Brandon Dre: [Daily Wire Reporter] Yes, so last month, the Davidson County Court judge in Tennessee ruled that the Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church can have their say in the lawsuit over the public release of the shooter's writings. And it seems like the parents have coalesced around keeping the documents sealed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An attorney for the groups argued that the parents are also victims and thus have a constitutional right to be free from harassment. Even the shooter parents have requested they stay sealed even though they legally transferred ownership of their daughter's writings to the parents of the Covenant children.
--:-- Brandon Dre: They say that releasing evidence from past murderers can cause additional psychological trauma to the surviving victims. Now the letters written by two of the victim's parents are just heartbreaking.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Erin Kenny, the mother of nine-year-old William Kenny, who was killed in the March 27th shooting, started her declaration stating that she has no desire to write it at all. She said the media has robbed her family of privacy during this time of grieving and argues releasing the materials would only help the dead shooter accomplish, quote, immortality.
--:-- Brandon Dre: Katie and Michael Dickhouse said their life and family have been, quote, turned upside down since losing their youngest daughter, Evelyn. They've also called for the material to stay out of the public eye to hopefully prevent others from planning similar devastation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I encourage listeners to read the letters online. But there are still a host of organizations and individuals calling for the release of the shooter's writings, saying the public has a right to know what motivated the killer and to hopefully learn from the incident.
--:-- Brandon Dre: Now, who are the groups lobbying to get the documents released? Right now, it's the National Police Association, the Tennessee Firearms Association, the Tennessee Star, the Tennessean newspaper, and Republican State Senator Todd Gardenhire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They have all attempted to obtain the documents under the Tennessee Public Records Act. I spoke to the National Police Association's attorney, Doug Pierce. He pointed out that despite the arguments of whether releasing the writings is a good or bad thing, the issue really comes down to what the law requires, which states that any documents taken or received in connection with official government business must be released to the public unless there is a valid legal exception.
--:-- Brandon Dre: And again, supporters of a public release say the basic concept of transparency is that we can learn from experience.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. Now, aside from the manifesto, there has been some new information released. What did the toxicology report say?
--:-- Brandon Dre: Right. So last week, authorities released the autopsy report, which detailed the shooter's injuries as well as various tests for substances. The report indicated that the shooter's blood and urine were unremarkable. She didn't have any recreational drugs or other tested substances in her system.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Many have been wondering if the trans-identifying female shooter was on psychiatric drugs or if she was taking testosterone, but those were not tested for.
--:-- Brandon Dre: All right. Well, we're going to keep an eye out for any developments with this story.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for coming on, Brandon.
--:-- Brandon Dre: Thank you.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire reporter Brandon Dre. Another story we're tracking this week is French authorities raided the offices of the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games organizers on Tuesday as part of multiple ongoing probes into corruption.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with our mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: You can also follow us now on Twitter and Instagram. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
