The Secret Service intervened in an investigation into a 2018 incident involving Hunter Biden and his girlfriend at the time — his former sister-in-law, Hallie — in which she took his gun and tossed it into the trash, thinking he was going to kill himself with it, according to a report.
When she returned to retrieve the gun, it was gone, Politico reported on Thursday.
Police in Delaware launched an investigation in case the gun, left in a trash can across from a high school, had been used in a crime, the report said.
But Secret Service agents contacted the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork recording the sale, Politico reported.
The owner, Ron Palmieri, at first balked at the request, suspecting they were attempting to hide Hunter’s ownership of the gun, but ultimately complied and turned over the documents to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the government agency that oversees federal gun laws.
The Secret Service said it has no record of agents investigating the incident and said President Biden was not under protection at the time.
Then, several days later, the gun was returned by a man who searches trash cans for recyclables.
There were no charges filed or arrests in the incident.
The role of the Secret Service remains unclear.
But Politico got a copy of the transaction and a receipt from the Oct. 12 purchase.
Hunter answered “no” to the question on the transaction asking, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”
Hunter had been discharged from the Navy Reserve five years earlier after testing positive for cocaine and he and Biden family members have been open about his history of drug abuse, the report said.
Lying on the form is a felony.
At the time, Hunter was divorced from his first wife, Kathleen, and was involved in a romantic relationship with Hallie, the widow of his brother Beau, who died of cancer in 2015.
Hunter, when asked by police whether he had been doing drugs or drinking, replied: “Listen, it isn’t like that. I think she believes I was gonna kill myself,” according to the report.
Questioned about whether he had called his father, Hunter said: “I have never called my dad for anything,” according to the police report.
Hallie Biden, George Mesires, a lawyer for Hunter, did not respond to requests for comment by Politico.
The Secret Service said it had no record of its involvement.
“U.S. Secret Service records confirm that the agency did not provide protection to any member of the Biden family in 2018, and that the Secret Service had no involvement in this alleged incident.”
The White House also said the president was not aware of the Secret Service’s involvement.
“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,” a spokesperson said.
A Delaware State Police spokesman was asked whether the Secret Service asked for its assistance to provide security for Biden when not under Secret Service protection.
“I have reached out to our sergeant who oversees the Executive Protection Unit with the Delaware State Police. He is unaware of any such requests or services provided,” the spokesman said.
The report cited a law enforcement source to say at the time of the incident some individual Secret Service agents in Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia remained informally connected to the former vice president’s security.
Biden received Secret Service protection when he was vice president from 2009 to 2017.
It resumed in March 2020 when he became the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
The Secret Service’s involvement either by its own initiative or at the behest of a Biden family member would be inappropriate because it was already under investigation by the Delaware State Police, the report said.
Hunter Biden is under investigation by federal authorities into his “tax affairs” stemming from his overseas business dealings.
The probe also involves a laptop belonging to Hunter that contains communications and documents surrounding his business dealings in China and Ukraine, The Post revealed in a series of reports last October.
Documents retrieved from the laptop also linked his father to those deals.
Republican senators in September released a report on Hunter’s business affairs concluding that he “and his family were involved in a vast financial network that connected them to foreign nationals and foreign governments across the globe.”
The report also said the administration of former President Barack Obama ignored “warning signs” when then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son joined the board of Burisma, a natural gas firm in Ukraine that had been under investigation and was notorious for corruption.
The company paid Hunter Biden as much as $50,000 per month, as his dad was involved in US policy on Ukraine, the report said.
After finding the gun, Hallie took it to a nearby grocery store, Janssen’s Market, wrapped it in a shopping bag and threw it into a trash bin.
When she told Hunter, he told her to return to the store and get it.
But when she discovered it was missing, she told the store, which in turn reported it to police.
When Delaware State Police officers arrived, they were concerned because the trash container was across the street from a high school.
FBI agents, who were already monitoring Hunter because of the tax probe, also showed up.
The FBI declined comment.
State Police officers questioned Hallie and called Hunter to the scene where he told them that he used the gun for target practice, Politico reported, referencing the police report.
The police described Hunter as “agitated” when an officer asked him if the gun had been used in a crime.
The officer said Hunter asked “if I was intentionally trying to make him mad.”
During the questioning, two of the store’s employees described in the police report as “Mexican males” walked past, and Hunter told the officer that the store had suspicious people working there.
Asked if he was referring to those two staffers, Hunter responded, “Yea, prolly illegal,” the report said.
