The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit challenging a law that makes it a crime to ‘encourage or induce’ illegal immigration — dismissing a claim that the section was overbroad and unconstitutional.

The case, U.S. v Hansen, involved California-based Helaman Hansen, who promised hundreds of noncitizens entry and a path to citizenship via ‘adult adoption.’ However, no such pathway exists in U.S. law, yet he earned nearly $2 million out of the scam from over 450 foreign nationals.

The opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, noted how people used savings accumulated over decades to pay for the scheme. 

Hansen was convicted for fraud and encouraging people to come to the U.S. illegally, but challenged the conviction on the basis that the law is overly broad. A district court ruled against him, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, finding that the law on encouragement is overbroad and violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

Barrett dismissed the logic behind Hansen’s appeal, saying that a challenger must demonstrate that a statute prohibits a substantial amount of protected speech outside its legitimate coverage — and that the unconstitutional application must be disproportionate to its legitimate sweep.

Hansen did not meet these criteria, the 7-2 opinion found.

‘Hansen asks us to throw out too much of the good based on a speculative shot at the bad,’ she said.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, with Jackson pointing to supporting documents, ‘including briefs from lawyers, immigration advocacy organizations, religious and other charitable organizations, journalists, local governments, and nonprofit policy institutions from across the ideological spectrum’ who argue that the law’s breadth ‘might well prove to be a significant obstacle for those on the ground who operate daily in the shadow of the law.’

The case was the second immigration ruling handed down by the court on Friday. It also ruled 8-1 to throw out a Republican-state challenge to the Biden administration’s narrowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities. 

The states had argued that the narrowing led to fewer arrests and deportations, leading to greater costs for states who are dealing with additional illegal immigrants. But the majority found that the states did not have standing to challenge the priorities.

‘In sum, the States have brought an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit. They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this,’ the opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was booed at a conference in Washington, D.C., after criticizing the leadership of former President Donald Trump.

‘I’m running because he’s let us down,’ Christie said to a crowd at the Faith & Freedom Coalition event on Friday, referencing Trump. ‘He has let us down because he’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made and any of the faults that he has and any of the things he’s done, and that is not leadership everybody. That is a failure of leadership.’

At that point, several people in the largely pro-Trump crowd booed the former New Jersey governor. 

‘You can boo all you want,’ the Republican presidential candidate responded. ‘But here’s the thing. Our faith teaches us that people have to take responsibility for what they do. People have to stand up and take accountability for what they do.’

Several members of the crowd applauded in response to that line.

Christie then began to name the ‘great list of Americans’ who worked in the Trump administration but have publicly soured on the president, including former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. 

‘We love Trump,’ someone in the crowd shouted as he listed the names.

‘You can love him all you want,’ Christie responded. ‘But I will tell you that doing those kinds of things makes our country smaller.’

Christie addressed the boos after the event to reporters outside and said that ‘we can’t pretend that Donald Trump is a man of character.’

Christie has vowed to be the alternative to Donald Trump on the campaign trail and told Fox News Digital in an interview in New Hampshire on Thursday that his game plan for pumping up his favorable ratings is to ‘come up here, and you campaign.’

‘Remember this,’ Christie said. ‘Eight years ago, when I came up here, my unfavorables were upside down 25 points in the first poll. And on primary night, my favorables were up plus 30, so a 55-point swing. You know, look, people get to know me, I usually do pretty well.’

Federal investigators knew in December 2019 that Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘not manipulated in any way’ and contained ‘reliable evidence,’ but were ‘obstructed’ from seeing all available information, according to an IRS whistleblower involved in the probe—nearly a year before former intelligence officials and Joe Biden himself, declared it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that ‘at every stage’ of the Hunter Biden probe, decisions were made that ‘had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.’

Shapley testified that the investigation, codenamed ‘Sportsman,’ was opened in November 2018 as an ‘offshoot’ of an IRS investigation into a ‘foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.’ Testimony released by the committee didn’t include any further explanation of how the pornography outlet and Biden were linked.

The investigation had previously been believed to have been predicated, in part, by suspicious foreign transactions.

Nearly a year later, in October 2019, Shapely said the ‘FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime.’

‘The FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID,’ Shapely said. ‘When the FBI took possession of the device in December 2019, they notified the IRS that it likely contained evidence of tax crimes.’

The laptop repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, was subpoenaed to testify before the U.S. District Court in Delaware in December 2019.

The FBI’s property receipt for the laptop, first obtained by Fox News Digital in 2020, had a ‘Case ID’ section, which was filled in with a handwritten number: 272D-BA-3065729.

The number ‘272’ is the FBI’s classification for money laundering, while ‘272D’ refers to ‘Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity]—White Collar Crime Program,’ according to FBI documents. One government official described ‘272D’ as ‘transnational or blanket.’

Shapely said the FBI verified the authenticity of the laptop, even though many Biden allies said it was Russian disinformation.

It was in October 2020 that Shapley said he emailed Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, saying: ‘We need to talk about the computer.’ 

Shapley said the FBI appeared to have been making ‘certain representations about the device, and the only reason we know what is on the device is because of the IRS CI affiant search warrant that allowed access to the documents.’

‘My management has to be looped into whatever the FBI is doing with the laptop,’ Shapley said he wrote in an Oct. 19, 2020 email to Wolf. ‘It is IRS CI’s responsibility to know what is happening. Let me know when I can be briefed on this issue.’

Shapley said his email led to ‘a special meeting’ on Oct. 22, 2020 with the prosecution team and the FBI’s computer analysis team to discuss Hunter Biden’s laptop.

‘We once again objected that we still had not been given access to the laptop,’ Shapley said, noting that Wolf admitted that she did not see the laptop because ‘prosecutors decided to keep it from the investigators.’

‘This decision is unprecedented in my experience,’ Shapley said. ‘Investigators assigned to this investigation were obstructed from seeing all the available evidence.’

Shapley further testified that it is ‘unknown if all the evidence in the laptop was reviewed by agents or by prosecutors.’

Shapley had testified that Wolf had worked to ‘limit’ questioning related to Joe Biden—referring to him as ‘dad’ or ‘the big guy.’

With regard to the laptop, Shapley said that ‘based on guidance provided by the prosecutors on a recurring basis to not look into anything related to President Biden, there is no way of knowing if evidence of other criminal activity existed concerning Hunter Biden or President Biden.’

As for the contents of the laptop, Shapley said Wolf ‘acknowledged that there was no reason to believe that any data was manipulated on devices by any third party.’

‘She further supported this belief by mentioning that they corroborated the data with other sources of information received,’ Shapley testified.

But despite corroboration, just weeks before the 2020 election, 51 former national security officials wrote a public letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’ It was signed by former President Obama CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, among others.

Fox News Digital reported last month that former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell worked to write the letter and to get support from ex-intelligence officials. Morell sent a draft of the statement to the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) before making it public.

Morell sent the draft in an email to the PCRB, and  wrote on Oct. 19, 2020, ‘This is a rush job as it needs to get out as soon as possible.’

Morell told the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees that the PCRB ‘approved’ the letter ‘as written’ the same day.

Morell also said it was the Biden campaign that orchestrated the letter to discredit stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop–specifically, now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

Three days after the letter was made public, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden used it as a talking point in the final 2020 presidential debate to rebut criticisms made by then-President Donald Trump.

‘There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, he’s accusing me of, is a Russian plan,’ Biden said during the debate.

At the time, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Hunter Biden’s laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The FBI concurred.

These revelations come just days after the Justice Department announced that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of a deal that is expected to keep him out of prison. The president’s son also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

In response to the whistleblower allegations, the Justice Department said in a statement: ‘As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware.’

There is ‘no way of knowing’ if evidence of ‘other criminal activity’ existed concerning President Joe Biden or Hunter Biden due to prosecutorial guidance to ‘limit’ or block questioning related to the president, an IRS whistleblower alleged. 

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that ‘at every stage’ of the Hunter Biden probe, decisions were made that ‘had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.’

Shapley testified that the investigation, which had the codename of ‘Sportsman,’ was opened in November 2018 as an ‘offshoot’ of an IRS investigation into a ‘foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.’ Testimony released by the committee didn’t include any further explanation of how the pornography outlet and Hunter Biden were linked.

Nearly a year later, in October 2019, Shapley said the FBI became aware of the laptop, and by December 2019, the FBI took possession of it and ‘notified the IRS that it likely contained evidence of tax crimes.’

Shapley testified that he, in October 2020, complained that he still had ‘not been given access to the laptop.’

Shapley noted that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf admitted that she did not see the laptop because ‘prosecutors decided to keep it from the investigators.’

‘This decision is unprecedented in my experience,’ Shapley said. ‘Investigators assigned to this investigation were obstructed from seeing all the available evidence.’

Shapley further testified that it is ‘unknown if all the evidence in the laptop was reviewed by agents or by prosecutors.’

Shapley also testified that Wolf had worked to ‘limit’ questioning related to Joe Biden — referring to him as ‘dad’ or ‘the big guy.’

With regard to the laptop, Shapley said that ‘based on guidance provided by the prosecutors on a recurring basis to not look into anything related to President Biden, there is no way of knowing if evidence of other criminal activity existed concerning Hunter Biden or President Biden.’

With regard to limiting questioning related to Joe Biden, Shapley pointed to text messages and emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, which Fox News Digital first reported before the 2020 presidential election and before it was known that Hunter Biden was under federal investigation.

Ahead of an interview with Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker in December 2020, Shapley said investigators ‘wanted to question Walker about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy.’’

The ‘Ten held by H for the big guy’ message is an email from May 13, 2017, which included a discussion of ‘remuneration packages’ for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as ‘Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,’ in an apparent reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The email includes a note that ‘Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.’ A proposed equity split references ’20’ for ‘H’ and ’10 held by H for the big guy?’ with no further details.

‘We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden,’ Shapley testified.

But Shapley said Wolf ‘interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad.’’

It has been reported that Joe Biden is referred to as ‘the big guy.’

‘When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning,’ Shapley said. ‘This upset the FBI, too.’

Shapley said that ‘basically everyone in the room except for the prosecutors had a big problem with’ not asking questions about President Biden.

Shapley said IRS and FBI agents conducting the Walker interview ‘tried to skirt AUSA Wolf’s direction’ to avoid questions on ‘dad’ and ‘the big guy.’

‘And they were like, ‘How can we not ask?’ Like, that was wrong. We got to ask. We got to ask,’ Shapley said. ‘And so they basically decided that they would ask the question without saying the words ‘big guy,’ and that then they would somehow be doing what they were asked to do.’

Meanwhile, Shapley also pointed to a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Chinese energy company CEFC executive Henry Zhao, where he wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.’ 

The text further stated: ‘I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’ 

‘Communications like these made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time,’ Shapley said. 

Shapley said that on Oct. 22, 2020, the team and Wolf stated that U.S. Attorney David Weiss had ‘reviewed the affidavit for search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause had been achieved.’

‘Even though the legal requirements were met, and the investigative team knew evidence would be in these locations, AUSA Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden,’ Shapley said.

Shapley said Wolf determined there was ‘enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.’ 

‘She continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant,’ Shapley said. ‘She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.’

Meanwhile, Shapley repeatedly testified that there were ‘multiple times where Lesley Wolf said that she didn’t want to ask questions about ‘dad.’’

‘And ‘dad’ was kind of how we referred to him,’ Shapley said. ‘We referred to Hunter Biden’s father, you know, as dad.’

Shapley said Joe Biden was referred to in that way ‘so that we could speak more openly without yelling, ‘President Biden.’’

The White House has repeatedly said President Biden has never been involved in his son’s business dealings. They also maintain the president never discussed them with him.

In response to the whistleblower allegations, the Justice Department said in a statement: ‘As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware.’

A bank account linked to President Biden’s son Hunter Biden received more than $5 million in August 2017, shortly after his threatening messages — in which he said he was ‘sitting here’ with his father — to a Chinese associate revealed this week by an IRS whistleblower, according to documents released by congressional investigators.  

On Aug. 4, 2017, Chinese firm CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s law firm Owasco, according to a 2020 report published by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Then, days later on Aug. 8, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a firm Hunter Biden opened with Chinese associates.

The two transactions totaling $5.1 million came within 10 days of messages uncovered Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee. In the messages — shared to the panel via IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley Jr., who oversaw the agency’s probe into Hunter Biden — Hunter Biden blasted business partner Henry Zhao for not fulfilling his ‘commitment’ and said his father was with him.

‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,’ Hunter Biden wrote in a WhatsApp message to Zhao, the CEO of Beijing-based asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, on July 30, 2017, according to documents released by House Republicans.  

‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction,’ Hunter Biden added in his messages to Zhao. ‘I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’

In addition, the 2020 Senate report revealed that, beginning on Aug. 14, 2017, Hunter Biden initiated a string of 20 wire transactions from Owasco to Lion Hall Group, a consulting firm linked to President Biden’s brother James Biden and his wife Sara. The transactions continued through Aug. 3, 2018, and totaled $1.4 million.

The federal probe into Hunter Biden’s ‘tax affairs’ began in 2018, amid the discovery of suspicious activity reports regarding funds from ‘China and other foreign nations.’

The investigation — codenamed ‘Sportsman’ — was opened as an ‘offshoot’ of an IRS investigation into a ‘foreign-based amateur online pornography platform,’ Shapley testified to the House committee.

Shapley claimed in his testimony that decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

‘Whatever the motivations, at every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation,’ Shapley said.

‘These decisions included slow-walking investigative steps, not allowing enforcement actions to be executed, limiting investigators’ line of questioning for witnesses, misleading investigators on charging authority, delaying any and all actions months before elections to ensure the investigation did not go overt well before policy memorandum mandated the pause. These are just only a few examples,’ he added.

On Friday, the White House refused to answer reporters’ questions about Shapley’s allegations and repeatedly directed further concerns to the White House Counsel’s Office.

‘As it relates to anything related to Hunter Biden, I am just not going to respond to it from here,’ White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, attacked the whistleblower allegations in a statement released Friday evening. 

‘Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,’ Clark said. ‘The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.’ 

Clark also said that ‘[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.’

‘An extensive, five-year long investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded this week, which resulted in my client taking responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments, as well as a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement. As his attorney through this entire matter, I can say that any suggestion the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or cut my client any slack, is preposterous and deeply irresponsible,’ he added.

Clark didn’t immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the millions of dollars Hunter Biden received in August 2017. 

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar, Cameron Cawthorne, Brooke Singman and Adam Sabes contributed to this report. 

IRS whistleblowers told Congress that a Justice Department official dissuaded investigators from talking to President Biden’s grandchildren as part of the federal probe into Hunter Biden to avoid getting into ‘hot water.’ 

On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee released transcripts of interviews with two IRS whistleblowers who claim decisions made during the probe by DOJ, FBI and IRS officials seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

Testimony of IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley Jr., who oversaw the investigation, and an unnamed IRS special agent who claims to have opened the initial probe alleges investigators were told not to interview President Biden’s grandchildren. 

Investigators said interviewing the grandchildren would have been customary under normal circumstances because some of the payments Hunter Biden made that they were investigating involved his children, including a $30,000 tuition payment to Columbia University. 

According to the whistleblowers, Hunter Biden was fraudulently claiming such amounts as business write-offs on his tax returns, thus they wanted to speak to the grandchildren involved as part of their probe. 

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf told the investigators in a meeting it would ‘get us into a lot of hot water if we interview the President’s grandchildren.’ 

‘I don’t remember what ultimately happened with the grandchildren. I know I have never interviewed them, and we have not interviewed them,’ he said.

The unnamed whistleblower said that his supervisor suggested documenting meetings between IRS and officials in U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ office, who were running point on the probe.

‘My supervisor felt it necessary when some of the inappropriate comments that were being made — to start documenting them,’ the whistleblower said. 

‘There were a lot of times to where they would discuss the election or discuss politics, and I had to say, on multiple occasions, that I felt that it was inappropriate that they were saying it,’ he said. 

The whistleblower described other investigators referencing individuals surrounding the matter as to how they were related to President Biden — for example, Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden. 

‘James Biden, we would call him the uncle. So that’s how we referred to him, as the uncle,’ the whistleblower stated. 

At another point, the whistleblower said Venmo transactions were paid to ‘family and friends’ of Hunter Biden that were deducted on his returns. 

‘So I continually asked, ‘Can I go and interview them? And can we understand what these payments were for? If they made other payments?’ And those were always met with no. And I think one of them was Valerie Owens that we talked about that I wasn’t allowed to go and do that interview. I believe that Valerie is a relative of Joe Biden. It might be his sister. I don’t — all I know is she’s a relative of his,’ the whistleblower said. 

During a press conference on Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland denied the whistleblower allegations of DOJ interference into the Hunter Biden probe. 

‘As I said at the outset, Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump as the U.S. attorney in Delaware and assigned this matter during the previous administration, would be permitted to continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to. Mr. Weiss has since sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee confirming that he had that authority,’ Garland told reporters.

The unnamed whistleblower claimed in his testimony that ‘while the impression was that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware has essentially the powers of special counsel in this case, free rein to do as needed, as is clearly shown, this was not the case.’

‘The U.S. Attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other U.S. Attorneys. I view that a special counsel for this case would have cut through the toughest problems that continues to make problems for this case,’ he said. 

The whistleblower interview was recorded on June 1, and released publicly on Thursday. 

On Tuesday, Weiss announced that the DOJ and Hunter Biden struck a plea deal in which the president’s son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax.

Hunter Biden also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

Weiss said the investigation remains ‘ongoing.’

Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, claimed in a statement to Fox News Digital on Friday that the whistleblower claims are misleading. 

‘Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,’ Clark said. ‘The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.’ 

Clark also said that ‘[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.’

‘An extensive, five-year long investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded this week, which resulted in my client taking responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments, as well as a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement. As his attorney through this entire matter, I can say that any suggestion the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or cut my client any slack, is preposterous and deeply irresponsible,’ he added.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Adam Sabes contributed to this report