Hunter Biden Conviction Aftermath, Garland Contempt Vote, Inflation Report

three felonies.

House Republicans are demanding that the head of the Justice Department turn over audio

recording of the president's deposition for mishandling classified documents.

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he hugged Hunter Biden, who a federal jury had just convicted on felony gun charges.

Hunter denied his drug addiction when filling out a form to buy a firearm.

The trial revealed many details of his addiction and persuaded a jury.

Ryan, good morning.

Now we have the president's reaction.

He says he's a dad, too.

What is the toll this has had on the Biden family?

And Weiss spoke a bit after the verdict yesterday.

Here's a bit of what he said.

United States, including Hunter Biden's family.

This case was about the illegal choices defendant made while in the throes of addiction.

And members of the Biden family were in the front row of the courtroom every day of the

trial.

Hunter's wife was there.

First Lady Jill Biden and other family members showed up for several days as well.

And at times they were in tears listening to the ugly sordid testimony about Hunter's

addiction to crack cocaine.

Now, the government introduced the evidence to make their case to the jury, and ultimately

the jury found that evidence convincing and convicted Hunter on all charges.

The president, in his statement yesterday, noted that a lot of families in this country

have loved ones who have battled addiction.

And interestingly enough, the degree to which addiction hits American families was apparent

during jury selection for Hunter's trial when some of the members of the jury said that

they had either friends or family who had struggled with addiction.

How have they responded?

The response from congressional Republicans has varied.

Representative Thomas Massey from Kentucky, for example, he said on X that Hunter might

deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it.

Speaker Mike Johnson said on X that Hunter was only prosecuted because House Republicans

had sounded the alarm.

And he called on the Justice Department to investigate the Biden family.

Now, some of that sentiment is rooted, of course, in anger over the criminal cases against

former President Trump, including his recent conviction on state charges in New York.

Trump's legal troubles have fed into Republican claims that the Justice Department targets

Republicans, but it goes easy on Democrats.

But here with this case against Hunter, you have the son of the sitting Democratic president

charged and now convicted of federal gun crimes.

There's also the ongoing federal trial in New York against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez

on corruption charges.

And another congressional Democrat, Henry Cuellar of Texas, he was indicted last month

on corruption charges as well.

There are some Democrats have insisted that Hunter Biden would not have been prosecuted

for the statement on a form except for the political pressure by Republicans.

You just said, Speaker Mike Johnson agrees with this.

He was prosecuted because Republicans demanded it.

Does Hunter Biden appeal this conviction?

He certainly challenged many aspects of the indictment and pretrial motions, including

on Second Amendment grounds.

Yesterday, his attorney, Abby Lowell, said they respect the jury's decision, but they'll

continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges that are available to Hunter.

Now, as for what's next, the judge in Delaware did not set a sentencing date yesterday for

the gun conviction.

She said she'd do so later.

But there's another trial already on the horizon for Hunter Biden.

Remember, Special Counsel Weiss also charged Hunter Biden with tax crimes.

That is a separate case.

It's in California.

He faces nine counts there related to his failure to pay taxes on millions of dollars

in income.

And that case is currently scheduled to go to trial in September.

Thanks, Ryan.

contempt of Congress.

the prosecutors conducted with President Biden.

Garland said the administration doesn't have to do that, that it would violate the separation

of powers between the president and Congress.

line now to talk more about it.

Hey, Kerry.

of President Biden and because they're considering an update to laws that cover how sensitive

and classified information is handled.

But really, there could be another explanation, too, that the tapes would make Biden look

and sound bad.

Remember, prosecutors decided to close this investigation of how classified information

came to be found at the home of President Biden with no charges, in part because they

said jurors could conclude Biden was a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.

Here's House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer.

face the consequences of his actions.

to be?

a couple of decades as a federal judge before his current job.

But that reprimand doesn't have quite the sting it used to.

I've now covered two other attorneys general who were held in contempt, Eric Holder and

Bill Barr, and it's important to note Garland has some legal protection here.

Last month, President Biden asserted executive privilege over these tapes, so Garland won't

be prosecuted for refusing to hand them over, not that the U.S. attorney in D.C. would even

want to pursue a prosecution against Garland, who happens to be his boss.

courtrooms.

But over the past few weeks, Merrick Garland has really pushed back.

Here's what he had to say recently about this tapes dispute.

legitimate requests.

But this is not one.

To the contrary, this is one that would harm our ability in the future to successfully

pursue sensitive investigations.

want with the special prosecutor, and that handing over audio could really make it harder

for future prosecutors to interview people in the White House.

He's also blasting attacks on the Justice Department, saying people are making false

claims about DOJ being political when it's really the critics who are trying to put prosecutors

in the middle of politics here.

The attorney general took the unusual step of writing an opinion piece in the Washington

Post this week.

There he said disagreements about politics are totally normal, but lying and conspiracy

theories are really not.

The odds are low the Biden administration does not want to give them up.

Media groups and conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation have sued to get access

to the tapes, but the case is taking a long time to get through the court system.

Right now, it seems unlikely the tapes would be released in time for them to show up in

campaign ads or Republican fundraising pitches before the presidential election in November.

Thank you.

to keep interest rates where they are, which is comparatively high.

Okay, just in time for that Fed meeting, we also find out what happened with consumer

prices in May.

He joins us now.

Hey, Scott.

What's happening with prices?

Inflation did come down a lot last year after topping 9% back in 2022, but in recent months,

that progress has kind of plateaued.

The annual inflation rate in April was 3.4%.

Forecasters think it was in that same ballpark in May.

We have gotten lucky with gas prices lately.

They're down about 14 cents a gallon from this time last year, so it is cheaper to gas

up your car.

But the cost to insure your car is still going up, and if you need a car loan, that's also

expensive because of those high interest rates.

Joe Bersuelas, who's chief economist at the big accounting firm RSM, thinks inflation

will eventually moderate, but he says we're going to have to be patient.

basis back towards the long-term 2% target.

for longer until policymakers are more confident that prices are under control.

carrying a balance on their credit card wants to know.

And the answer is it's going to depend on what happens with inflation.

If it does cool off during the summer, the Fed might be ready to start cutting interest

rates in September.

Investors think there's about a 50-50 chance of that.

But if inflation remains elevated, it could take longer.

A survey of Fed policymakers back in March found that, on average, they thought they'd

get three quarter-point interest rate cuts this year.

Now that looks like that might have been too optimistic.

Maybe we'll only get two cuts, or maybe none at all by year's end.

Fed policymakers will deliver some updated forecasts this afternoon of where they think

interest rates are headed.

And of course, that's going to be very closely watched.

How is this affecting voters' attitudes about the economy?

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on some research that found people

think a 1% jump in inflation is twice as bad as a 1% jump in unemployment.

Now, if you're out of work, you might disagree with that assessment.

But everybody's affected by rising prices, whether they're working or not.

Economist Bruce Whalis thinks we will enjoy a further slowdown in inflation over the summer

and early fall.

But keep in mind, falling inflation just means prices level off.

It doesn't mean they go back to where they used to be.

But they're still going to be angry about the price shock and elevated financing costs.

Those things are simply not going to go away.

And thanks to that tight labor market, we're still getting pretty good wage gains.

Wages have been rising faster than prices for over a year now.

So people's paychecks are stretching further.

The only thing is, if wages keep going up and people keep spending that money, it makes

it harder for the Fed to get inflation under control.

Thanks, Scott.

I'm Rob Schmitz.

Find more in-depth coverage of the stories we talked about today and more on NPR's radio

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