alpha fraternity incorporated. >> a look at the fraternities and sororities, members of the divine 9 who took the stage on cnn's juneteenth, the celebration for global freedom concert. ♪ ♪ >> and the divine 9, of course, refers to a group of nine historically black organizations, four sororities, five fraternities, work for college change on campuses and beyond. >> several from my al mall mater howard university. >> victor asked me in the break if i was greek. i said, what, poppy? >> i didn't say name, i said organization.

>> that was an amazing concert. i'm so glad cnn did that. i'm so glad you're with us. we'll see you back here tomorrow. "cnn news central" starts now. thank you, guys. ♪ time is against us. that is the word from a friend and colleague in the pilot of missing dive vessel. there are five people on board with a limited supply of oxygen. and we have the very latest on where the search is focused today. he was warned that anything he says now could be use against him in court, so what does he do -- donald trump gives an interview filled with new claims about why he refused to give back sensitive documents. the legal hole he might be digging. and tropical storm bret picking up strength. it may become the first hurricane of the season. we'll tell where you it's headed. this is "cnn news central." ♪

the search operation out in the atlantic continues this morning. a research dive vessel that lost communications sunday has still not been found. and the obvious urgent concern is that the oxygen supply on board is dwindling by the minute, truly. officials say the sub lost contact with the support ship about an hour and 45 minutes into eye l its decent sunday. they say the vessel has enough oxygen to last about three to four days. the vessel is about the size of a minivan is what we're learning and is carrying a pilot, four passengers that are also called mission specialists. they were on an eight-day journey led by ocean gate technicians to view the bottom of the "titanic" at the bottom of the ocean. several agencies including the u.s. coast guard and the royal canadian air force are involved in the search. the search covers a huge area, 900 miles east of cape cod.

one of the biggest challenges is the depth that we're talking about here, the "titanic" wreckage sits at nearly 13,000 feet below the surface. the deepest underwater rescue ever recorded was just at over 1500 feet deep. and that was back in 1973. cnn's jason carroll is in boston following all of this. jason, what does the search operation looks like this morning? >> reporter: well, the depth is just one of the challenges that you sort of outlined there, kate. there are a number of challenges that search and rescue teams are going to be facing, as they get this effort under way. first, let's talk about the area that they're searching. it's a vast area. it's a remote area. we're talking about an hour about the size of connecticut, about 5,000 square miles across. and what search and rescue teams have done is not only searching by air, but they've dropped sonar buoys below the surface to see if they can try to hear any

sort of sound from the missing submersible. of course, at this point, time is of the essence. at last count there was about 54 to 80 hours of oxygen left only the submersible. there is a massive effort under way from a number of different officials here. you've got the u.s. coast guard here in boston that's heading up the effort. you've got the u.s. navy, you've got the canadian coast guard, as well as the canadian armed forces. just a short while ago, the head of the u.s. coast guard here in boston spoke to cnn about the search effort. and about how now today, they're able to search below the surface of the water. >> a lot of the search to date has been primarily focused on the surface of the water. and our aircraft flew patterns in combination with canadian aircraft and newark international guard patterns roughly about the size of the state of connecticut.

but today, we now have under water search capability on scene. so, we're going to be using that to see if we can locate the submersible in the water. >> reporter: so, that will certainly help with the search effort again that's underway. as for those who were on board the "titan" that's the name of the submersible. you have hamish harding, that english billionaire who was also on board blue origin spaceflight in 2022. you have the pakistani businessman, shahzada dawood and his son. and cnn has confirmed the french nationalist paul henry also on board. their families and colleagues praying for their safe return. kate. >> absolutely. and the search back at it this morning. jason thank you so much. john. all right. this particular submersible was designed by an american company called ocean gate.

it was first deployed in 2018. it can carry five people down to a september of 13,000 feet, that's 2.4 miles. i want to give you a sebs of how deep that is the word record for scuba diving is a depth of 1,000 feet. 3200 light no longer seen. 5200 feet, no animals were no longer survive. sperm whales can dive deeper than any other mammal, even they only get to 10,000. the average depth of the ocean is 12,000 feet. the "titanic" is still lower than, the record set at 12,450 feet, about 52 miles below the surface. the subs way 2300 pounds and is made of carbon and titanium and is small and uncomfortable. not enough for five people. it can carry five hours of oxygen. who made the trip said the hatch is sealed from the outside with 17 bolts. there's no other way out.

there's no gps on board. that means had the submersible is dependent on guiding them. the cbs crew took a trip last year, it was surprised by some of the materials used onboard. >> and yet, i couldn't help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised. >> these are all of-the-shelf components. >> i got this from camper world, we run the whole thing with this game control. >> come on! it seems like this submersible has some elements of macgyver jerry-riggedness. you're putting that, i don't know if i'd use that description of it, but there's certain things that you want to be buttoned down. the pressure vessel is not macgyver at all. that's where we work with boeing and nasa and washington. everything else can fail. your thrust can go, your lights can go, you'll be safe.

>> ocean gate used off-the-shelf materials to simplify construction and easy to replace parts. with me tim taylor ceo of subgate. tim, nice to see you it's not like a arena crashes in the sea. they know where the "titanic" is. they know roughly where the sub was operating when it lost contact. so why is it so hard to find now? >> well, i'm asking a lot of questions about that, myself. you mitigate risks when we work with underwater vehicles. all of our vehicles have pingers on them like black box pingers that you can locate. i'm asking myself why that's not the case. there's a lot of -- first of all, we need to focus on the rescue attempts, whatever is out there now. let's hope that they find these people and they're still alive and they can bring them to the surface. but, questioning why there

wasn't an rov on that vessel to be able to start looking two days ago is another question. i don't understand the risk communication that i see from shore. again, that's a different perspective. but those are questions i have. >> so, so they are still alive, and let's hope, and if they are still conscious, is there anything they can do on board right now to help themselves get safe? >> i think that conserving resources, obviously, oxygen, is the big thing. if they are alive in there, they're going to be almost freezing temperatures, assuming they lost all of their power, that's why they can't communicate. it's going to be dark, cold and oxygen is there most precious resource. so consuming that, staying calm. sleeping. there's been talk about them potentially banging on the hulls

to make noise so the acoustic pingers can hear them. so that can be an effort made, you know, as team work to do -- locate it, to bang on the hull. so outside people can hear them. again, should have a pinger on this, but that would sufficed to do almost similar, and works in very much a similar way. >> so, look, we've heard from officials that they've been searching on the surface area about the size of connecticut. now, they're moving the search under the water itself. in a perfect world, how would they do that? what would they be using? >> as far as underwater? >>y. >> yes. >> well, underwater, they have to locate them. and time is of the essence, so whatever assets they have on location, they should deploy. if they have a sonar -- in our instance, where we work, we specialize in autonomous underwater vehicles. so we would launch an autonomous

vehicle. if the data is not -- you don't know what the autonomous vehicle surfaces, i'd do a one or two-hour search of the area last known and download that data as fast as they could to try to locate them. and the remote operated vehicle which i understand just arrived onsite is a tethered vehicle that runs from the surface to ship. they can go down and assess the situation. whether they're alive, whether they've had catastrophic failure, if they're stuck in the ship wreck. and if they are, they can device a plan onsite to get them out of that entanglement. or the vehicle. and help thrust them out and bring them to the top as west they can. rovs aren't meant to track around, so they would have to be an assist to get it, floating on its own, or moving on its own,

kind of drag it. it's a knewneutral system. >> tim, how does that work? say they do find it? say it is on the bottom of the ocean, how can they get it up? >> well, an rov is usually equipped with manipulate arms. they're used in deep water construction and things of that nature. they're equipped to kind of handle equipment. the sub is neutrally born. it has a lot of mass. it's big and heavy. but it's not like you're lifting it off the bottom. it should be naturally buoyant. they're able tole m move it, th it around, like a tugboat on the surface. and get it ascending on its own. if they've drops weights and they're stuck in a wreck, that's another scenario. if they've imploded then it's a

recovery and studying what happened so they can have answers for the families. and the people that were there. >> well, look, nothing about this is easy. tim taylor, thanks for helping us understand the challenge very much ahead. kate. >> absolutely. we're also tracking donald trump. and donald trump taking questions. the former president is adamant right now in an interview with fox news that he did nothing wrong in how he handled classified documents after leaving the white house. in the new sitdown with trent baird, trump offered explanations for why he kept them in undisclosed places like his bathroom. listen. >> i've got a lot of things in there. i will go through the boxes. i'll take out personal things. as far as the levels and all, everything was declassified because i had the right to declassify. >> why not just hand them over then? >> because i had boxes, i wanted

to go through the boxes and get all of my personal things out. i don't want to hand that over, and i was very busy, as you've sort of seen. >> last week, donald trump pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to this. also, this just in a federal judge has scheduled an initial criminal date for donald trump related to the classified documents case to begin during the two-week period that begins august 14th. let me bring in cnn senior legal analyst and former prosecutor elie honig. there's a lot in this interview i want to ask you about. but first this trial date, initial trial date set what do you see in this? >> this is in all likelihood, a placeholder. it's just a date put on the calendar to mark it off. under the federal rules a defendant has a right to a speedy trial within 70 days of the first court appearance. if you go 70 days from last week it lands within this period. now, the prosecutor jack smith has already said, we're ready. we're ready to go, that's what

prosecutors always say. the judge is saying i'm ready to go but the "x" factor is the defense donald trump. if he says i want my trial within 70 day, then we could well see a trial at the end of the summer. but that is very unlikely. he'll say i need more time to prep, i need more time to bring motions and try to drag this out. >> you have to say, it's understandable, at's why they're calling it a placeholder. they've got to get something on the books. everybody needs a deadline. obviously, it's necessary for the defendant to have a trial date. >> right. trump has substantial motions to bring here. and they're not one-week motions. the other thing, the judge is signalling that she means business. she understands this is high priority and intends to move this as quickly as possible. >> let's talk about the interview that donald trump did overnight with brett baird, before we get to what he said, someone, anyone, sits down for a lengthy interview to face questions about the 37 criminal

charges that they are facing. we know every attorney worth their saltological say it's ill-advised. but what do you do with this? as a prosecutor, you're looking for what? >> a statement that donald trump has made before or after his arrest is fair game. you can admit a defendant's own statement in evidence. a jury can see this. if i'm a prosecutor, i love this, because it gives me some the basic building blocks i need to make the case. okay. he had the documents, he knew about it. that's not an always given. he knew about it. the fact that he knew about it and went through them by hand. that's one of the allegations in the indictment. >> and that he wasn't ready to give them back, right? >> right. that whole defense is easily pierced. first of all, you don't get to do this at all as president. that's not what the presidential records act says, second of all, you had the documents 2 1/2 years ago when you left office. third of all, there's a subpoena that you and your team represented we've given you everything back. >> what do you think about what he's presenting now, the bit we

played, him saying one of the reasons he was very busy at the time. is that something that could work in court? >> no, i don't think so. i think what trump is trying to do with these appearances is communicate with the potential jury pool. don't you remember, he's popular politically in florida where this jury is going to be drawn from. i think it stands to reason some of the potential jurors are seeing these comments. legally that defense goes absolutely nowhere. you don't have the right as a former president to leisurely go through the documents decide what you will and will not return, particularly when there's a subpoena. what i do wonder maybe there's a method to the madness and send messages and community with potential jurors. >> one other bit, donald trump, something el he said, when he's asked about the recording in the indictment we've talked about the recording of the meeting in bedminster, where he allegedly held up sensitive documents with war plans relating to iran. let me play this.

>> there was no document. that was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about iran and other things. and it may have been held up or may not but that was not a document. i didn't have any document per se. there was nothing to declassify, these were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles. >> what do you think of this? >> so, in a sense, it doesn't matter whether he actually had a classified document and held up at bedminster and showed to the writers because the charge is not disseminating information. the charge is unlawful retention. holding on to information. and the indictment does not actually allege specifically that he had any such dument that we have been reporting that the doj doesn't have the document. the indictment focuses on 31 specific documents identified in the indictment saying these are the ones being charged. with that said, if in fact there is no document that he was sag rating or puffing that mayhem with a jury that, well, i didn't do anything. it's not a defense but may help.

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♪ at morgan stanley, old school hard work meets bold new thinking. ♪ partnering to unlock new ideas, to create new legacies, to transform a company, industry, economy, generation. because grit and vision working in lockstep puts you on the path to your full potential. old school grit. new world ideas. morgan stanley. the fbi and authorities in kansas are investigating a slew of suspicious letters sent to legislators and public officials. across the state. we're talking about 100 letters that were received. and the letters contained some type of white powder.

cnn's rosa flores joins us with the latest. rosa, the preliminary investigation, if you will, the preliminary tests on this powder suggests it is not a biological agent. but/so many questions surrounding all of this, you spoke to lawmaker who received one of these letters what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, i talked to a representative tori marie blue, she's a legislator. and she said the gop in kansas has voted to override multiple vetoes by the democratic governor. she said this has been very controversial. and of course, it's made news but she zeros into one of the specific bills. the bill regarding transgender female athletes. the reason she does that is because there is a clue, a link, on the envelope that she received. i believe i need to wrap it up -- >> i'm going to jump in. there's breaking news coming in.

john. the breaking news is this, a major development in the federal investigation into hunter biden the son of president joe biden. let's get right to kara scannell for details on this. kara, i understand there say plea agreement, what have you learned? >> reporter: yeah, john, the five-year investigation coming to a head. we have learned from court filings here, that hunter biden has agreed to plead guilty to multiple charges. these are two counts of filing tax returns in a timely fashion. those are misdemeanors. he's also going to plead guilty to the charge of a firearm offense. this is the possession of a firearm while you are addicted to a controlled substance. now, the firearm offense is going to be diverted. what that means if he meets certain conditions that charge will go away.

this will be over a set period of time. otherwise, it's the tax and other misdemeanor charges. this is a plea deal he's been reached with the u.s. attorney, that u.s. attorney david weis is a trump appointee and someone that president joe biden did not replace. one of the reasons he didn't replace them because of this investigation. they wanted to avoid any appearance of political interference. we are seeing more court filings hitting the dockets. we should learn more information about this. this certainly does resolve a long running investigation. remember, this investigation had included allegation where is they were looking into potential money laundering offenses and lobbying offenses. and it had narrowed over the years as me and my colleagues have been reporting to tax evasion, intimely filing of and paying of taxes, in this case. and the gun charge. and also the negotiations between biden's legal team, and the justice department to try to

wrap this up and resolve this. so, here, now there is a deal where the president's son will plead guilty to these tax-related charges. you know, it is a moment here to conclude, we believe it will conclude, this criminal investigation. but certainly, it is not going to go away. there are a lot of political dynamics to this. you have house republicans looking into the biden family business. they have also been focused on the department of justice's handling of the investigation. there's a supervisory agent of the irs who has come forward who has alleged he believes there was some political interference in the investigation. the attorney general merrick garland has said that he hasn't, he's leaving this to the u.s. attorney's office to resolve. you know, also, can't help be noted that this comes one week after former president trump was arraigned on 37 counts of federal charges related to his handling of classified documents. we do expect hunter biden will

be appearing in a court. the judge will set a date where he will come into the courthouse and enter the guilty pleas. certainly, a big development here in a long-running investigation, but one that will not go away from the public sphere, as president biden makes a run for re-election. john. >> kara scannell in delaware. hunter biden has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax returns in a diversion of a charge, kate. >> let's go to evan perez as well. evan has been following this. evan, how long has this been going on? a five-year long investigation? how did we get to this? >> yeah. look, this has been an investigation that has gone on through three, three attorneys general here at the justice department. jeff sessions was the attorney general when this investigation first started. and as kara just covered there, just a minute ago, you know,

there are aspects of this investigation that looked into hunter biden's financial dealings in ukraine. if you remember, he was getting paid millions of dollars, as a member of the board of this ukraine energy company called burisma. and that is something that the fbi looked into for many, many years. we also know that he was getting paid, again, millions of dollars, working for -- with a chinese company as well. again, something that the fbi and the irs is looking into, looking into whether he was using shell companies to hide money. to money launder. these are all things that they spent years looking into, in indiana. as kara pointed out, last year, it was clear that this investigation had narrowed to these tax issues. one of the things hunter biden and his lawyers have argued is that he paid the bax taxes some time ago. so this initial investigation

should have gone away. it did not. the political dynamics of this as kara pointed out as well cannot be understated. the republicans are not going to let this go. we know from the house that they are doing an investigation not only of what they believe are still some unanswered questions about those financial dealings that hunter biden had, other members of the family had, overseas. but also just how the justice department handled this investigation. i remember talking to you guys last year, last summer, when we expected that this investigation was going to get wrapped up. we expected that, certainly, before the campaign season, there might be some movement on sealing these charges. and, of course, that did not happen. so, now, we finally have some conclusion, at least for this part of the investigation. the criminal part of this investigation, by the justice department. that hunter biden is going to plead to these two tax charges. and, of course, you know, as far as the gun charge, if he

completes all of the diversion, all of the things that he's supposed to do, that goes away. but as you guys know, this is probably only the beginning for house republics who are now going to want to see everything that the justice department did. one of the complaints they have, that they're looking at is whether the fbi thoroughly looked into all of those financial dealings. things i just described. the burisma dealings. the chinese energy company so y believed that the fbi did not do to investigate this, of course, that's going to be now the subject of months of investigation by house republicans. guys. >> got pouint, evan perez. end of the federal investigation, but not certainly congressional interest in this from republican-like committee information the house. with us cnn senior analyst elie honig. this is a plea deal reached with

david weis, the u.s. attorney appointed by donald trump who stayed on to continue this investigation. i think the big question everyone wants to know is this deal that hunter biden reached, is this the type of deal that would happen for joe smith or joe schmoe? >> it's hard to know that john, because we don't know the universe of information that doj had. we don't know if perhaps they had more and narrowed it down to this which sometimes do you when negotiating a plea deal. david weis say longtime career prosecutor at doj under administrations of both political paerments. he was a fairly senior prosecutor throughout the eight years of the obama administration. he was nominated to become u.s. attorney by drchl trump but it's important to note he had the support of both of delaware's democratic senators at the time. and when joe biden took office in 2021, usually, the president gets rid of all of the u.s. attorneys. they usually resign in anticipation of that. biden kept on three u.s. attorneys. one of them being john durham,

one being one in chicago. and david weis was the third. presumably because biden knew that david weis had this case involves his son. and did not want the appearance of getting ready of this individual. he's a longtime career prosecutor, biden intentionally kept him in place. stick with us, new reporting. let's get to paula reid. she's got new reporting for us. paula, on the back and forth between hunter biden's attorneys and the justice department, what are you picking up? >> reporter: well, we've been following this very closely over the past year or so, evan and our team reported last summer, that prosecutor has narrowed down the list of potential charges, looking specifically at potential tax crimes and then a possible gun charge. and cnn reported just a few months agatha hunter biden's lawyers met with the justice department officials in april. among those officials, of course, the u.s. attorney who is overseeing -- the trump-appointed u.s. attorney overseeing the case to make their arguments for why hunter

biden should not be charged. we've learned they made a presentation. and during that presentation, they made several different arguments about why hunter biden should not be charged including that he had already paid back the taxes including the fees and penalties. they also argue that this gun charge was not strongly supported by the evidence. and that recent supreme court decisions last spring was going to make it difficult for their case to hold up in court. now, of course, they did not get their wish. their client, of course, is facing multiple charges here. but in recent weeks, negotiations have really ramped up. they've been back and forth between the justice department and defense attorneys trying to hammer out a plea deal. we're told they had a deal in place, and it fell through. and it was back in place. and now they finally come to an agreement to resolve the years' long investigation. this is something for five years now. the fact it's come to resolution is certainly a relief, we're told to hunter biden to his

lawyers. they tell me overall, they are pleased with this deal. >> and, paula, stick with us, keep working your sources. it's striking as evan was pointing out this was initiated under jeff sessions which just shows how long that has spanned through thtrump administration, through the first second -- however many attorneys general -- >> i lost count. >> -- that donald trump had. >> how will you assess this deal, elie? how will we know whether this was a good deal for hunter biden? >> yeah. >> you know, a stiff deal, how do we look at it? >> it's a great question. i think in part through the congressional investigation. because we sort of know -- we need to know the numerator and the denauominatordenominator, w- >> do you get that in the plea agreement? >> no, normally, we wouldn't in the public. the only way that comes out is through congressional inquiry. the bottom line charges, i think

it's worth running through them. first of all, according to the documents we have, hunter biden is going to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses. usually that means two years where he had income he did not declare. those are misdemeanors. there's no chance that a first-time offender would be get sent to prison. >> typically, it would be what? >> probation and fines for misdemeanors. especially tax-type misdemeanors. the firearm charge, there is a federal law that makes it illegal for an addict, a person addicted to drugs or alcohol to possess a firearm. this is a strange, somewhat obscure, rarely used, not never, but rarely used firearms. the vast majority of firearms are a firearm used in a crime of violence or a firearm possessed by somebody who are has a prior felony. this is sort of low down on the list of firearm offenses. it's not entirely clear whether

he's going to plead guilty to that firearms offense because this letter from doj specifies that he will plead guilty to the tax misdemeanors. it does not say he will bleed guilty to the firearm offenses. it says he's going to a pretrial diversion agreement. >> ellie, hold on to one second for that let's get to evan perez. he has more information on that. the exact wording, evan, in this letter, is that the defendant has agreed to enter pretrial diversion agreement with respect to the firearm information. what do you think? >> yeah, look. this is one of the things, certainly, it's a little confusing, the language. he has agreed that he's going to enter this program. one that has to do with his substance abuse issues which hunter biden has been very, very public about. he wrote a book. ironically, that's the book, the book where he talked about his substance abuse issues. very, very candid, things that he said about what he was doing

at the time. it is what really compounded his problems in the federal investigation. because it was from that, from his own words that prosecutors and investigators learned that at the time that he had owned or he had purchased a gun he was addicted to drug which is is a violation of federal firearms law. one of the things you do when you buy a gun is you fill out this form that goes to the bureau of alcohol and tobacco, firearms and explosives, and you swear, one of the things you wear to, that you are not addicted to drugs. of course what hunter biden did when he wrote that book, he admitted and said it in interviews, he said that he was addicted. so, one of the things that happened was, they became very, very focused on that particular charge, because it is something that the biden administration has been pushing, certainly to go after people who lie in order to buy firearms. so, what this program will do is, you know, hunter biden will get some treatment for his drug issues.

and if he completes this to the satisfaction of a judge, this charge, as if it never happened, this charge goes away. so, elie's right. it is a plea to two tax charges and if hunter biden agrees. you know, if a judge approves all of this. and if a judge is satisfied that he's complied with all of the terps, then this charge just disappears. so that's part of -- certainly, the probationary period here that hunter biden will have to live through for the next couple of years. it is a fascinating thing, though, certainly for hunter biden and the candidness of him talking about his substance abuse problems is what ended up causing some issues for him in this case, guys. >> real quick -- evan, thanks so much. elie, what evan was saying it needs to be approved by a judge any chance that the judge doesn't? >> no, unless the judge seeing

manifestly unfair or improper. on the firearms charge this is what is called a pretrial diversion agreement which is fairly knew to the federal courts. a lot of states have diversion programs where if you have mental health issues and the crime is fairly minor, there are crimes you can't get diversion on. you go and get treatment, stay clean, six months a year, you can go back to the court and essentially wipe this off the books. it's actually up to each u.s. attorney's office federally, whether they want to have this program. we didn't have it when i was here in manhattan, but they're having it. >> this now moves from the legal world squarely into the political world where it's already been for some time but now supercharge. >> yeah. >> let's bring in abby phillip to join this discussion. abby, how do you see this being

received? >> well, i mean, i think republicans are probably going to be disappointed. this has been, as evan noted, just such a long running investigation dating back to the trump administration. but i do think it is telling that so far, it has resulted in what could only be described as relatively minor criminal charges. and a plea deal. and not on the substance of the things that republicans have been harping on, as it relates to hunter biden and president biden for quite some time. that's going to be a major disappointment for republicans who see this as hunter biden as one source of, you know, major -- what they say is corruption when it comes to president biden. this really doesn't substantiate that. and i think the biden administration, they've been waiting for this to come to a conclusion. president biden himself has really ignored so much of this.

really keeping his son hunter close, in spite of all of the criticism and in spite of all of the attacks. he's taken hunter biden on foreign trips. and what you hear from the president himself is that this is my son. he's had a troubled past. he is still my son. and i'm going to keep him close. and i think that this resolution on the legal front is only going to really allow president biden to kind of double down on that strategy. even arepublicans now shift to capitol hill to see what else they can -- they can dig up here. so far, really, they've not been able to stubstantiate anything concrete. just a lot oallegations flying back and forth so far. >> we should note president biden is on the west coast right now, i believe. >> right, he is. >> it will be sometime i think before today before we have an opportunity to hear from him. it will be fascinating to his

reaction, as abby said, lately, he's avoid the direct on the question, saying i don't think he did anything wrong. i love my son. and we'll see what the president has to say about his son admitting he broke the law. >> his reaction will be interesting. abby stick with us, i also want to bring in dana bash. dan naa dana, kind of the big picture. what do you see as the criminal investigation going on five years and the congressional investigations ongoing now in the republican house, just kind of, on that kind of political -- just on the political front for president biden, in the sense that why does this seem such a potent issue for republicans? >> well, why does it seem like such a potent issue for republicans? because they have made it so. they have been focused like a

laser on hunter biden. and the laptop which is not part of this, and all of the accusations that they have made, vis-a-vis, ukraine, and the now president/then vice president and hunter biden, again, i think it's important to underscore, none of that is in this plea deal. it doesn't mean that it's not going to be part of the congressional investigations. as we've heard from our colleagues and just know from our own reporting ing and havin eyes and ears being journalists, not going to go away from the republican house of representatives. having said that, i do think it's important to take a stem back for a second and note that we do have the son of a sitting president pleading guilty to federal charges. they seem to be in the grand scheme of things relatively minor charges. and it does -- i'm sure, we will

see and hear from hunter biden. when we do he will talk about the fact that this was caught up in his addiction. and that is part of why, maybe, he's going to say, that is the reason why he decided to plead guilty to this. nevertheless, it's a historic moment. we have a sitting president whose son is pleading guilty to any federal charges that is something that is going to go down in the history books. >> yeah. i was thinking about that, dana. i can't think of another time when a presidential child has pled guilty to a crime. >> no. >> you have plenty of presidential relatives between ed nixon and jimmie carter and franklin roosevelt with a child who have been involved with scandals but in itself, historic. everyone please stick around. we are trying to get reaction from the white house on this historic plea deal. what do they have to say about

it and also the political ramifications and the legal questions we still have remaining. >> absolutely. we'll be right back after this. and this is ready to go online. any questions? -yeah, i got one. how about the best network imaginable? let's invent that. that's what we do here. quick survey. who wants the internet to work, pretty much everywhere. and it needs to smooth, like super, super, super, super smooth. hey, should you be drinking that? -it's decaf. because we're busy women. we don't have time for lag or buffering. who doesn't want internet that helps a.i. do your homework even faster. come again. -sorry, what was that? introducing the next generation 10g network only from xfinity. the future starts now.

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program for two gun charges, and then that charge will be dropped, but this may be historic in itself, but may not satisfy some critics of the president and supporters who may be looking for more blood. so we will go arlette seanez outside of the white house. what are you learning? >> no reaction from the white house of this news of the federal charges of the president's son. hunter biden. we will see the president on the west coast at the 4:00 hour who may comment on this hour. the first lady will have an event later in the day, and she may comment on this matter. but the family is offering unwavering support for their son even as he faces these charges

from the justice department. but he has supported his son saying that he has not been doing anything wrong and he has kept his son close and he has been present at the family events here at the white house, and his daughter, naomi biden's wedding took place here at the white house. and the last time they were seen together was in may attending a graduation up at the university of pennsylvania, but over the years, the hunter biden has really acted as a soundingboard for his father, and some democrats have privately expressed concerns about having him so closely involved with the president, but ultimately when it comes to president biden and the first lady, it is family ties coming first, and they have repeatedly issued and announced the support and commitment to their son. now, the white house has been very careful. they have refrained from commenting on these investigations from the justice

department, but officials here at the white house and the president's personal attorney have kept close tabs on the case as well. and of course, the family has been navigating having their son hunter in the spotlight as a target for republicans and former president donald trump dating back to the 2020 campaign, so we are waiting to see whether there is any further reaction from the white house today as hunter biden is facing these federal charges. >> all right. arlette, keep us posted with anything that you know, please let us know. >> elie honig is back with us, and part of what we are looking at two of the charges he is pleading guilty to related to the tax misdemeanors and he did pay back taxes related to this, and does that play into the plea deal or that? >> well, legally, it does not get you out of it, and if you repay the taxes and say, no problem, it does not get you out of the charges, but when the prosecutor make the charges and what level, you would absolutely look at something like that in

terms of is this person compliant, and has this person acknowledge what they did wrong, and imagine well, it has been paid back, and if the position is no, i don't owe you anything or paying you anything, i don't see a misdemeanor deal in this case, and i believe it is an important move by hunter biden and if you have the money and you can repay it, then that is good advice to do that. >> again, we are watching this very carefully, elie, and this is going to conclude the federal investigation part, and basically case closed here? >> yes, in all likelihood, and you would not make this deal here if there is another shoe to drop, because it would be bad faith. >> and now, other republicans who are investigating hunter biden, how much more access to the federal investigation? >> great question. so if they subpoena the doj and they we want your whole investigative file on hunter

biden, given the history, they would say, we do not turn over information on pend ing investigations, but if congress did that and then we could end up on a little bit of the standoff here and if they said, doj, give us the entire hunter biden information and the 302s and the reports and the memos and the evidence, and if i had to guess, i would think that the doj would resist that and say, we will testify about what we can that won't risk jeopardizing the investigation or unduly harming the interests of whoever it is under investigation, and that could be the next landscape for battle here between congress and doj. >> we have much more coming in on this breaking news about hunter biden striking a plea deal with the justice department. we will be right back after this. way app. buy one footlong,

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all right. welcome back, everyone. this is cnn "news central," and we are continuing following breaking news this morning. hunter biden, joe biden's son, will plead guilty to two federal charges and two tax misdemeanors and he struck a deal with the prosecutors regarding a gun charge, an agreement that now has been struck with the justice department. this is all coming from court filings coming from the doj and we have a team of reporters covering all of the angles of the breaking news story. >> we are continuing to look down at th