The White House and Secret Service are pushing back on a report alleging that the Secret Service got involved in a 2018 gun incident involving President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
The pushback comes after Politico reported on Thursday that Secret Service agents intervened after Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother Beau and who Hunter Biden was dating at the time, threw his .38 revolver in a trash can behind a grocery store.
The Secret Service said in a statement to The Hill that it had “no involvement in this incident.”
A White House official also told The Hill that President Biden had no knowledge or involvement of the incident.
“President Biden did not have any knowledge of, or involvement in, the Secret Service’s alleged role in this incident, and neither he nor any family member was a protectee at that time,” the official said.
The alleged incident occurred in October 2018, when Biden no longer had Secret Service protection. Biden wouldn’t get protection again until he became the Democratic nominee for president in 2020.
The Secret Service didn’t answer questions from Politico on whether it was informally involved with Biden’s security in between that time.
The incident was first reported by conservative news outlet The Blaze in late October, and gained attention after Politico’s reporting.
Politico, citing a report from the Delaware State Police, reported that Hallie Biden found the gun inside of Hunter Biden’s pickup and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store where they frequently shopped. When Hallie Biden went to retrieve the gun, she found that it was missing and reported it to the store.
The store’s manager contacted the Delaware State Police, and the FBI reportedly got involved
Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden were questioned by police outside the store, Politico reported. Afterward, Hunter Biden retrieved the case for the gun and handed it to police.
People familiar with the incident told Politico that while police where questioning the pair, two Secret Service agents arrived at the store where Hunter Biden purchased the gun. The agents reportedly showed their badges and asked the store’s owner, Ron Palmieri, to turn over the Firearms Transaction Record that Hunter Biden used to buy the gun.
Palmieri refused to give them the records, and the agents left empty handed. He later turned them over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Politico reported. Palmieri declined to comment to Politico on the matter.
People familiar with the matter told Politico that the gun was eventually returned by a man who rummaged through grocery store’s trash to collect recyclable items.