Hunter Biden Found Guilty on All Counts in Gun Case | The Lead with Jake Tapper

TAPPER: All right. Kayla Tausche and Paula Reid, thanks — thanks so much.

Let’s bring in my panel.

Tim Parlatore, this is what’s Special Counsel Weiss said shortly after the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WEISS, SPECIAL COUNSEL: — is above the law. Everyone must be accountable for their actions, even this defendant. However, Hunter Biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, Tim, if Hunter Biden should be no more accountable than anyone else, what does that mean in terms of sentencing?

TIM PARLATORE, CNN LEGAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. So everybody has been talking about how this goes up to 25 years, but really, that’s just the first step of sentencing. Federal sentencing is very involved. You start with the statutory maximum, then you go to the U.S. sentencing guidelines.

And sentencing guidelines are very sophisticated, you know, math equations of figuring out all the different things that could apply, I’ve done my calculation.

TAPPER: Okay. What do you got?

PARLATORE: Zero to six months.

TAPPER: Okay.

PARLATORE: — is what I think because you add all these points, it ends up as a base level offensive six. And I know some prosecutors may disagree with me on this point, but there’s a reduction if they possessed it for the purpose of lawful sporting purposes collection, and did not unlawfully discharge. Otherwise unlawfully use the firearms or ammunition.

With his criminal history category of one, that gives you a recommended guideline range of zero to six. Now when I heard Weiss say that in the press conference, I took that is an indicator that he is probably going to go into sentencing asking for probation.

TAPPER: You think so?

PARLATORE: I do. And I think it’s the right sentence in this — in this case. There’s — there’s a lot of things you can add on. If its an automatic weapon, if it was used as part of a larger crime, a crime violence, and all those things.

That’s what brings you up to the 25. But for this type of thing where there’s no other aggravating factors, a probationary sentence is appropriate.

TAPPER: Thereabout — I — one of our contributors, Stephen Gutowski, he writes about guns for us, is very knowledgeable, says, if I have this right, it’s about 200 charges like this a year and usually, it is along the lines of somebody’s found with drugs and a gun and the prosecutor decides to charge him with the gun charge instead of the drug charge.

[16:10:06]

It’s not somebody who confesses in a bestselling book to it. And then they go and get him, right? So do you agree with Tim’s analysis in terms of the sentencing?

VICTORIA NOURSE, FORMER CHIEF COUNSEL, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Yes. Yes, I do. And the other thing that this judge is going to want to see basically how she has rolled in other cases similar to this for first- time offenders. And you can look and see in various databases at the Justice Department how those kinds of cases have been led down, you know, these guidelines. So you can see whether this if it is as we suspect, zero to six is in line with other defendants with the same criminal history, and did not use the gun, and that’s one thing that’s a bit different about gun safety that the president was added.

TAPPER: Right.

NOURSE: He never used the guy.

TAPPER: And thrown out.

NOURSE: Yeah.

TAPPER: On his behalf, I guess, or kind of a bone (INAUDIBLE).

Kate Benningfield, on Twitter, Republican Congressman Tom Massie of Kentucky posted, quote, Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it. There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current law.

I wouldn’t say that Thomas Massie is a big Hunter Biden supporter, but saying that this is kind of bogus in his view.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, Republicans have kind of been all over the board today in their responsiveness. And it shows you, I think what a political challenge this is for them both from gun owner perspective, they’re kind of loathe to jump in and, you know, beyond on the opposite side of the NRA, for example, on the gun issues here.

But also I think that they have seen over time that trying to make a Hunter Biden’s struggles with addiction, which is fundamentally what this is for the average American when you heard that from juror ten, who talked about all of the case in terms of the heart wrenching testimony and the struggle of the family, Republicans have really struggled to make this line of attack stick because most people see this and feel sympathy.

Most people have somebody in their family who’s gone through addiction. They know —

TAPPER: What they feel for, though, President Biden?

BEDINGFIELD: I think they feel sympathy for the Biden family, and so, I think there has been —

TAPPER: I don’t know that they fill it for Hunter.

BEDINGFIELD: I think we’ve seen — well, but Hunter is not an elected official. I mean, ultimately, the point of a political attack —

TAPPER: No, I just want to be clear on sympathy though.

BEDINGFIELD: And they’ve really struggled — and they’ve really struggled to make the stick to Joe Biden. So, I think, you know, seeing that kind of reaction from Massie, the Trump campaign sort of struggled to respond today. They put out a statement than they retracted it. Then they said Trump was going to say something on Truth Social. I don’t think he has.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: He has decided not now.

BEDINGFIELD: We’ve been saying. We haven’t seen anything.

TAPPER: Yeah.

BEDINGFIELD: So, this is — this is not going to be a political winner for them.

TAPPER: But, Jamie, three jurors told CNN that they question whether the criminal case should have ever been brought against the president’s son.

Another said he doesn’t think politics plays a role in anyone’s decision to convict.

First of all, I mean, kudos to the jury for doing there duty, even though they didn’t think that this was worth it, they still just abided by what the judge told them to do. But what do you make of this?

GANGEL: So, first of all, if you cant have cameras in the courtroom, I want to say thank you, especially to juror number ten, for coming out and speaking to us and the others about what happened.

Look, I think what happened here today was the system worked as simple as that. It was common sense. Juror number ten said to us that the jury came to believe that Hunter was an addict at the time he felt out his forum and that he knowingly did — did that.

I also thought was very interesting. Juror number ten also said that politics did not come into play, that they put a sign, that this was the Biden family, although you could tell it was a federal case, but this was a Delaware jury. Juror number ten called the first lady, Jill.

TAPPER: Right.

GANGEL: This is a family they’re familiar with.

TAPPER: No, absolutely. Everyone, stick around. We’ve got a lot more to talk about.