The Secret Service is doubling down on its denials its agents tried to take paperwork from a Wilmington, Delaware, gun store where Hunter Biden bought a gun that his late brother's widow Hallie Biden, with whom he was having an affair, threw in the garbage.
"There is no change in our statement," Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, told the New York Post on Tuesday when asked about a filing from special counsel David Weiss showing the FBI had interviewed Ron Palimere, the owner of StarQuest Shooter.
In the filings, Palimere said Secret Service agents and the Delaware State Police were at his business Oct. 24, 2018, the day after Biden's .38-caliber revolver became missing.
The Secret Service denied in 2021 that its records showed that agents had "no involvement" in the incident and the Biden family at that time was not being protected by the Secret Service.
"We were aware of the claims made at that time but could not find any information to independently corroborate them," Guglielmi said about Palimere's statement.
Palimere, who was interviewed by the FBI last week, told federal agents that Biden came into the store on the evening of Oct. 12, 2018, with employees recognizing him as a "celebrity-type customer."
He said he knew that Biden's father, now-President Joe Biden was not a "gun supporter" and told the FBI he wanted to get the sale finished and get Hunter Biden out of his store quickly because he thought having him seen there would be bad for the shop's business.
Palimere told the FBI that 12 days later, the Delaware State Police and the Secret Service came to StarQuest in separate visits to ask about the paperwork Biden had filled out by buying the gun, which was "involved in a case of some kind and they wanted to expedite the trace process and get access to the Form 4473."
He added both agencies asked the same questions and it did not appear they were aware of the separate investigations.
Palimere said the Secret Service's alleged request did not seem right to him, so he called ATF special agent Jason Reisch for advice.
"Reisch advised Palimere not to turn the original Form 4473 over to anyone and to turn over a copy only if Palimere felt Palimere had to," the document filed by the FBI said.
But Guglielmi told the Post the Secret Service could not corroborate what the gun shop owner claimed, and said the statement was made by "gun shop personnel and documented in filings," not by federal agents.
Palimere eventually turned over the paperwork to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The gun purchase was described in a text message found on Hunter Biden's laptop. In the message, he also said that the Secret Service had responded after Hallie Biden took his gun from his trunk lock box and threw it in a garbage can at a Wilmington grocery store.
"When the police, the FBI, [and] the Secret Service came on the scene she said she took it from me because she was scared I would harm myself due to my drug and alcohol problem and our volatile relationship and that she was afraid for the kids," Biden added in the text.
Biden is facing three counts related to lying about his addiction to crack cocaine when he bought the revolver. He has pleaded not guilty and is to go on trial on June 3.
According to court paperwork filed Monday night, prosecutors in the case are planning to call three of Biden's exes to testify: his former wife, Kathleen Buhle; Hallie Biden; and Lunden Roberts, an Arkansas woman and mother of one of his children.