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(KANSAS CITY, Miss.) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has commuted the prison sentence for former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid, who was convicted in a 2021 drunk driving crash that injured five people, including one child severely.

Reid, 38, the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, was sentenced to three years in prison in November 2022 after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated in connection with the Kansas City crash.

He had faced up to four years in prison as part of a plea deal. Prior to taking the guilty plea, he faced up to seven years in prison.

Parson’s office announced on Friday that the governor had approved the commutation of Reid’s sentence, along with the sentences of two others.

“Mr. Reid has completed his alcohol abuse treatment program and has served more prison time than most individuals convicted of similar offenses,” Parson’s office said in a statement to ABC News.

Reid will be under house arrest until Oct. 31, 2025, “with strict conditions of probation, including weekly meetings with a parole officer, weekly behavioral counseling attendance, weekly meetings with a peer support sponsor, and stringent community service and employment requirements,” the statement continued. “Additionally, Reid’s probation requires the installation of an ignition interlock system in any motor vehicle he operates.”

Reid’s attorney told ABC News they have no comment on the commutation.

In response to the commutation, Tom Porto, an attorney for the victims of the crash, said in a statement to ABC News: “What’s different between this criminal defendant and every other criminal defendant in the state of Missouri?”

Reid was driving his pickup truck near Arrowhead Stadium on Feb. 4, 2021, when he struck two vehicles that had stopped along the side of the highway. He had a blood alcohol content of 0.113 and was driving 84 mph in a 65 mph zone at the time of the incident, according to court documents.

Ariel Young, who was 5 years old at the time, was severely injured in the crash. She suffered “life-threatening injuries” and a “severe traumatic brain injury, a parietal fracture, brain contusions and subdural hematomas,” according to court documents.

The victims have spoken out against the plea deal at the time and had hoped Reid would receive the maximum sentence. Her mother, Felicia Miller, said in a statement read at his sentencing hearing that he should never have been offered a plea deal and the victims are “offended” he asked for probation.

“Ariel’s life is forever changed because of Britt Reid. Her life will be dealing with the damage that Britt Reid did,” she wrote.

During a plea hearing in September 2022, Reid apologized for his “huge mistake.”

“I really regret what I did,” he said, according to Kansas City ABC affiliate KMBC.

At one point he turned to Ariel’s family and said, “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone that night,” KMBC reported.

Reid was a linebackers coach for the Chiefs at the time of the crash and during the team’s Super Bowl win in February 2020. He was released by the team shortly after the incident.

Reid has previously served prison time over a driving-related incident.

He pleaded guilty to simple assault and flashing a gun at another driver in a road rage incident in 2007, according to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, court records, and served prison time. While in prison, he also pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of a controlled substance from a separate incident, according to court documents.

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(NEW YORK) — A young girl stumbled across a gruesome crime scene in Long Island on Thursday with the discovery of a severed limb, and the resulting investigation has turned up even more body parts.

A left arm was the first to be found on the eastern end of Southards Pond Park in Babylon, New York, by a student walking to school at around 8:40 a.m. Thursday. When she discovered the limb, the student called her father who responded to the scene and called 911, police said.

Suffolk officials announced they have now completed their search of the area after the discovery of severed body parts belonging to a man and a woman.

The Suffolk County Homicide Squad are attempting to identify the two deceased individuals.

The county medical examiner announced Friday that a severed head, right arm, left leg from the knee down, and a right upper leg found by a Suffolk County Police Canine Section dog at the western side of Southards Pond Park on Feb. 29 are believed to be from an adult woman.

One of the legs was discovered in a mound of leaves on the western side of the park.

The remains found on the eastern edge of the park appear to be from a male.

A right arm was found on the eastern side of the park, about 20 feet away from where the girl had stumbled across the left arm, according to police. Both arms, which had tattoos on them, belonged to a man, police said.

There were no tattoos on the female’s arms, police said.

An investigation into the deaths is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

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(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith argued Friday over moving the May 20 trial date in Trump’s federal classified documents case, but the judge in the hearing concluded the proceedings without making an immediate ruling or determination about the when trial will begin.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon heard arguments in a Florida courtroom over the trial date and other issues in the case, during a hearing that was attended by both Trump and Smith.

Jay Bratt of the the special counsel ‘s office told the judge that holding the trial before the November election would not violate Justice Department policy. Bratt pushed for a July start, saying that holding a trial within 60 days of an election would not violate the Justice Department’s typical aversion to bringing politically charged cases so close to an election.

Bratt told Judge Cannon a trial is permissible because the policy does not apply to already indicted matters.

“We are in full compliance with the Justice Department manual,” said Bratt.

“This case can be tried this summer,” Bratt said, accusing the defense of “trying to wring out of the court” endless hearings that do not need to be held.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that it would be “unfair” to put Trump on trial for mishandling classified documents before the election.

“We very much continue to believe that a trial that takes place before the election is a mistake and should not happen,” Blanche said during the scheduling conference in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Blanche said the trial would take between four and five weeks, not including jury selection, and would be better suited to start after the country votes.

“There’s no reason this trial can’t start until late November,” Blanche said.

Smith, in a filing Thursday, proposed a new trial date of July 8, while Trump’s legal team is continuing to propose a trial date after the 2024 election — but said in their own filing that Aug. 12 could be an alternative if Cannon were to disagree with that proposal.

Trump watched Friday’s proceedings from a seat at the defense table, hunched forward with his hands clasped together on the table

Smith was seated behind two prosecutors from his team, Bratt and David Harbach. It was the first time Smith and Trump were in the same courtroom together since the D.C. Circuit court heard arguments on presidential immunity.

Trump’s co-defendants, longtime aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Oliveira, also attended the hearing.

During the afternoon session, lawyers for the special counsel’s office reiterated their concern about potential witness intimidation in the case, though they acknowledged that no witnesses have come forward reporting intimidation or harassment by the defendants.

Harbach said that harassment and intimidation follow “cases in which Mr. Trump is a defendant.”

In total, Harbach estimated that roughly 40 witnesses would testify at trial and argued that more than half likely require the redaction of their identities ahead of trial.

“This is not some hypothetical concern — it is real concern, and they know it,” he said.

However, when questioned by Judge Cannon, Harbach noted that no witnesses have so far reported acts of intimidation, though some witnesses have raised concerns about the potential of it.

“It shouldn’t take for someone to get threatened,” he said, to which Cannon agreed.

Defense lawyer Emil Bove immediately pushed back on the concern about witness intimidation.

“We are not here to try and harm people or cause harassment to anyone,” Bove said.

Harbach added that the full list of witnesses would eventually become public closer to trial, but warned against releasing the names early and potentially impacting the witnesses.

“There is going to come a time when witness identities are out there, but now is not it,” he said.

Judge Cannon vowed to take the request under advisement given the need for “openness” in criminal trials.

“What is clear is that these issues are complicated,” she said before dismissing the parties.

Trump’s lawyers have argued in court filings that the case should be entirely dismissed based on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity — an argument that the Supreme Court on Wednesday said they would consider in Trump’s federal election interference case.

Trump pleaded not guilty last June to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back. The former president has denied all wrongdoing in the case.

Trump has been attempting to delay the trial for several months, with his attorneys arguing in court filings last year that the extraordinary nature of the case means there should be no reason to expedite the trial. Earlier this month the special counsel’s team said that Trump and his co-defendants “will stop at nothing to stall the adjudication of the charges against them by a fair and impartial jury of citizens.”

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(ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.) — The case has been dismissed against a teen migrant from Guatemala almost a year after he was arrested following the death of a Florida police officer, according to Jose Baez, the teen’s lawyer.

Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, a 19-year-old migrant, was arrested in May 2023 after Sgt. Michael Kunovich, an officer with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in St. Augustine, Florida, approached the teen, according to Phillip Arroyo, another lawyer for the teen. Aguilar Mendez, who does not speak English, attempted to walk away from the officer, but a struggle ensued, according to body camera video and audio of the incident reviewed by ABC News.

Aguilar Mendez was thrown on the ground, put in a chokehold and tased on multiple occasions, according to the footage.

Five minutes after Aguilar Mendez was handcuffed and put into the patrol car, Kunovich suffered a heart attack and died, according to Arroyo.

Kunovich died of natural causes after suffering cardiac dysrhythmia, according to an autopsy report reviewed by ABC News, which may have been a result of the severe heart disease, a prior heart attack or heart and lung deterioration due to smoking.

The teen was charged with aggravated manslaughter on the same day he was arrested, which was later reduced to aggravated homicide of a police officer, which is punishable by life in prison.

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the charges against Aguilar Mendez were dismissed “based on concerns about the intellectual capacity of Vergilio Aguilar Mendez and the recent ruling finding him to be incompetent.”

Aguilar Mendez was recently declared by the court as being mentally incompetent to stand trial due to his lack of understanding of the American criminal justice system, Arroyo told ABC News.

Aguilar Mendez is from a small Indigenous community in Guatemala and primarily speaks the ancient indigenous language Mam, according to Arroyo.

Though the state charges were dismissed, the sheriff’s office said Aguilar Mendez will remain in federal custody pending deportation proceedings.

“There have been attempts by some to portray Aguilar Mendez as a victim and vilify Sergeant Kunovich. I continue to stand behind Sergeant Kunovich’s actions on the night of May 19, 2023,” St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick said in a statement. “The danger associated with law enforcement is a risk we assume when we enter this profession. Sergeant Kunovich died a hero protecting the citizens of St. Johns County and there is nothing more noble than that. Please continue to hold our agency and Sergeant Kunovich’s family in your thoughts and prayers.”

Police have argued Aguilar Mendez “armed himself with a folding pocket knife, which he retrieved from his shorts pockets,” according to police records obtained by ABC News.

Body camera video reviewed by ABC News does not clearly show Aguilar Mendez allegedly grabbing the knife from his pocket, but officers can be heard telling him to drop the knife. The teen can be heard telling officers he needs the knife to cut up watermelon.

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

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(SANTA FE, N.M.) — “Rust” director Joel Souza recalled the “chaotic” scene and confusion after he and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins were shot on the set of “Rust” during the involuntary manslaughter trial of armorer Hannah Gutierrez.

“There was an incredibly loud bang that was not like the half and quarter loads you hear on the set,” Souza said while testifying in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Friday. “This was deafening.”

Actor Alec Baldwin was practicing a cross-draw in a church on the set of the Western movie in October 2021 when the gun fired a live round, striking Hutchins and Souza, who was standing behind her.

Souza told the court it felt like somebody had hit his shoulder with a baseball bat.

“I still didn’t quite know what had happened. Nothing made sense,” he said.

He recalled seeing crew members helping Hutchins and didn’t realize she had been wounded at first.

“I remember initially thinking she had been startled by it,” he said. “Then I saw the blood on her back.”

Souza described the scene as “very chaotic” and that there was “a lot of panic.” He recalled Gutierrez looking “distraught” and apologizing to him after the shooting. He was transported to a hospital, where he was informed he was likely struck by a live round. He said he was in disbelief.

“I kept insisting, it’s just not possible it’s a live round. It just can’t,” he said.

Hutchins, 42, was transported via helicopter to a hospital in critical condition and died that day.

Souza spoke admirably of Hutchins and told the court he first took note of the cinematographer’s work in the trailer for the film “Archenemy.”

“I was impressed visually,” he said. “It fit my style.”

He said he considered several cinematographers for “Rust” but told producers he wanted to hire Hutchins for the film.

“She was very keen to do a Western, which I think all filmmakers are, because it’s just really interesting visually,” he said.

Souza’s testimony comes a day after David Halls, the film’s safety coordinator, took the stand for the state. Halls had conducted the safety check on the Colt .45 revolver and testified that he did not see all the rounds in the gun before it was handed to Baldwin.

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Halls was charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon and sentenced in March 2023 to six months of unsupervised probation as part of a plea deal.

Asked by prosecutors on Thursday why he accepted that plea deal, he responded, “I was negligent in checking the gun properly.”

Gutierrez had shown Halls the revolver during the safety check but was not in the church at the time of the shooting. During an interview with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office hours afterward, she said she was outside the church due to COVID-19 restrictions. Halls testified Thursday that he was unaware at the time that she was not inside the church and did not tell her to leave.

Souza testified Friday that he did not know of any COVID-19 protocol on set that would have required her to leave the church.

Gutierrez, 26, was charged with involuntary manslaughter last year in Hutchins’ death following a lengthy investigation. She was subsequently charged with tampering with evidence. Prosecutors allege she handed off a small bag of cocaine after her interview with law enforcement following the shooting.

She has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Prosecutors have claimed that the armorer did not always adhere to “essential” safety procedures on set and unwittingly brought several live bullets onto the set, including the one that struck Hutchins.

Defense attorney Jason Bowles said during opening statements last week that the production and state have made Gutierrez a “scapegoat” in the tragic shooting.

He has denied that she brought the live bullets on set and has argued that the production created a “chaotic scene” by giving Gutierrez props duties that took away from her job as lead armorer.

The defense has also argued there is no proof that cocaine was in the bag and that she was charged with the offense “in an effort to cause unfair prejudice” to the defendant during the trial.

Baldwin, who starred in and was a producer of the film, has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. He has pleaded not guilty.

His trial is scheduled to start in July.

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(NEW YORK) — A young girl stumbled across a gruesome crime scene in Long Island on Thursday with the discovery of a severed limb, and the resulting investigation has turned up even more body parts.

Severed body parts belonging to two people were found in a park in Babylon, New York, on Thursday and Friday, including a head, leg and multiple arms belonging to a man and woman, according to Suffolk County police.

A left arm was the first to be found on the eastern end of Southards Pond Park by a student walking to school at around 8:40 a.m. Thursday. When she discovered the limb, the student called her father who responded to the scene and called 911, police said.

A right arm was also later found on the eastern side of the park, about 20 feet away from where the girl had stumbled across the left arm, according to police. Both arms, which had tattoos on them, belonged to a man, police said.

On the western side of the park, a woman’s leg was then found by a cadaver dog in a mound of leaves while homicide detectives investigated the scene.

On Friday morning, police found an arm and a head belonging to a female victim on the western side of the park as well.

There were no tattoos on the female’s arms, police said.

Police believe the respective body parts all belong to just two individuals — a man and a woman.

An investigation into the deaths is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

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(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — A Greenville, South Carolina, man pleaded guilty on Friday for sending a threatening letter to a federal judge that read, in part, “I have watched you leave the courthouse numerous times and plotted to get my revenge.”

Authorities say the handwritten letter goes on to say, “you best to make sure they lock me away for good cause I’m going to kill you or blow that courthouse up.”

That man, Alvin Parks, was already being held at the Greenville County Detention Center on other charges.

Judge Laura Beyer, who sits on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Charlotte, North Carolina, told ABC News that the case, while not involving a bankruptcy judge, is a reminder that “these threats are real.”

“I think we all feel pretty protected at the courthouses when we are here, but it’s the unknown threat, when we are away from the federal courthouse,” she said.

The incident, just one of the skyrocketing number of threats to federal judges, underscores just how dangerous the judicial profession has gotten.

The cases before federal bankruptcy court judges, in particular, deal with very personal issues, from divorce proceedings to someone’s business and that could raise someone’s temperature, according to two judges who spoke to ABC News.

“The bottom line is whoever is in front of a federal bankruptcy judge is in a very stressful situation,” said Judge Mitchell Herren, whose bankruptcy court is in Wichita, Kansas. “Their businesses, their homes, their cars, their financial independence, those things are all often at stake.”

The people who appear before bankruptcy judges can range from wealthy lawyers to people who might not have a lawyer at all.

“The process of bankruptcy is very complicated and tedious,” Herren said. “And the folks that don’t have lawyers, often, there’s no one to shepherd them through that process. That, right there, can create a unique kind of security concern because people are very stressed. They’re oftentimes at threat of losing something very near and dear to them be it their home or their car or their business or their retirement account if they thought someone’s payment of a debt to them was going to be their retirement.”

Herren said it is “very easy,” under these circumstances, “for emotions to run very high.”

“When people have trouble understanding that process, sometimes distress kind of overwhelms them and it just becomes easier to call it all a conspiracy theory. And the judge who might have made a decision against them can often become the bad person in the mix in their eyes,” Herren said of what can happen in bankruptcy court. “And so that’s one of the ways to describe the security threat that occurs in bankruptcy courts and we live in a day and age where people seem at times increasingly willing to lash out emotionally instead of trying to handle their frustrations in other ways.”

Threats to federal judges and prosecutors saw a triple-digit increase in 2023, according to statistics released by the U.S. Marshals Service in February. In 2023, there were 457 federal judges targeted with threats and 155 federal prosecutors, the agency said.

Judge Beyer told ABC News security for federal judges starts with engaging with the U.S. Marshals whose responsibility it is to protect judges.

She cited the widely publicized case of a county judge in Nevada who, when handing down a sentence, was seen on video being attacked by a defendant who lunged over the bench.

“We really have to react and not just an active shooter type situation, but a situation like happened in Nevada, or what if there’s a medical emergency in the courtroom, or what if there is a fire while we have a court room full of people, but I’ve been on the bench since 2011 I don’t remember talking about these things so much in the past, and just seems to be front of mind these day,” Beyer said.

Both judges say they don’t believe threats to federal judges are going to hinder the quality of candidates wanting to be federal bankruptcy judges.

“I do not think that it has served as a hindrance or as something that has prevented otherwise qualified candidates from applying,” Beyer said, citing her conversations and reviewing applications from an open position on her bench. “And frankly, if someone called me and asked me, should that be something that keeps them from applying for the position, I would say, no , I mean, am I sort of conscious and aware of my surroundings and do I try to be vigilant at all times? Yes, but do I feel uncomfortable? I don’t.”

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(NEW YORK) — Brown University professor Tricia Rose has spent decades studying race, gender, and class in America.

Her new book “Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives – and How We Break Free,” which will be released next week, provides an account of American inequality and what people can do to change it.

Rose spoke with ABC News’ Linsey Davis about her book and her research.

ABC NEWS LIVE: So in plain language, for us to explain what metaracism is.

TRICIA ROSE: Metaracism is the outcome of systems that produce effects that are greater than the sum of their parts. So if you are thinking about health care and how access to health care might have an impact on jobs and jobs might have an impact on schools and schools might have an impact on housing, those interactions and interconnections produce effects that are more powerful than if you had any one of these alone.

And so instead of just adding them, you have to think these are compounding effects. And that’s one of the things that my research has been able to reveal is that we can’t think as if these moments of discrimination in each individual place is, in fact, to be understood separately. When you see them together, that’s when you get the devastation.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And you’ve been doing this research now for more than a decade. Why did you decide now is the time that you were going to write a book about it?

ROSE: Well, I had been really looking for ways to think about how systems can produce consistent kinds of outcomes. And when I realized that no matter what the policies were, and I looked at over 100 of them in the last 25 or 30 years, and I wanted to see how they interacted and how they impacted Black people in particular. And I realized that across the board, almost 100% of them created containment, extracted resources and punished Black people disproportionately.

So it wasn’t just containment. It was containment and punishment. It wasn’t just punishment. It’d be punishment and extraction. And you start looking at these combinations, and that’s where the meta effects become clearer.

ABC NEWS LIVE: You picked several people in particular, like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, in order to be able to tell a very specific story, to explain the larger problem. How did you go about choosing the individuals?

ROSE: Yeah, that’s a great question. Systemic thinking, once you get the hang of it, it’s really quite intuitive. But it takes a minute because we tell stories in this country that talk about individual responsibility for racism, and we talk about individual people who want to harm or have, say something problematic. And we don’t have much energy and focus around the bigger picture.

So I’m going to retell these stories for you, and I’m going to say, let’s raise up the conversation from the intention of [George] Zimmerman or the “what was in Zimmerman’s heart,” or was he afraid to say, well, let’s look at the policing in the schools that Trayvon was in.

So, for example, in his high school, he should have never been suspended for the infractions that he was suspended for. When you look at the continuous form of containment, punishment and extraction that goes on where he left, at his mom’s house in my Miami Gardens, you see that the incident was not just about Trayvon when he got to Sanford, Florida, but was, in fact, about a system that puts many Trayvons in that kind of situation.

ABC NEWS LIVE: As you’re well aware, over the weekend, former President Trump made some comments that were deemed controversial. I want to get your take on it after we take a listen.

From Feb. 23, 2024, DONALD TRUMP:- And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing. But it possibly, I don’t know, maybe there’s something there, you know, who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population, it’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mugshot, you know, they do shirts.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I interviewed a panel of Black conservatives after this. None of them said that those comments were racist. Your thoughts?

ROSE: I think when you trade in racial stereotyping that results from racist policy, right, mass incarceration was a policy of hyper-incarceration with lengthy sentences, with limited resources for poor people to defend themselves in court, that targeted African-Americans and other poor people as well…it absolutely disproportionately had a profound effect on Black people.

It began in the 1980s largely as a massive expansion of incarceration. So to make jokes about the affinity of people who’ve been subjected to that kind of system is really to reinforce the illusion that it’s like a cultural practice rather than the origin being society’s discrimination.

Who [Trump] is, whether he’s a racist, that’s not my business. That’s for him to worry about.

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(PHILADELPHIA. Penn) — A double homicide investigation is underway after two people were both found fatally shot in the head in Philadelphia, authorities said.

It appears both victims were shot “execution-style” near the historic Mount Pleasant Mansion in the Fairmount Park neighborhood, Philadelphia police chief inspector Scott Small said, according to Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.

The 49-year-old man and 38-year-old woman were both pronounced dead at the scene at 11:12 p.m. Thursday, Philadelphia police said.

The victims were found lying next to each other, Small said.

Both were shot in the head, and the woman appeared to be “shot in the head and chest, and the spent shell casings — the three of them — are all just a few feet away,” Small said, according to WPVI. “So we know at least three shots were fired from a semi-automatic handgun or handguns.”

No motive is known and no arrests have been made, police said.

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(WASHINGTON) — A measured and defiant Hunter Biden provided context for a litany of allegations he faced during six hours with Republican lawmakers Wednesday, according to a transcript released Thursday of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees’ closed-door proceeding as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden.

The deposition appeared to include no major bombshells as Hunter Biden repeatedly invoked his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction — telling the committee he was “embarrassed” by some of his conduct at the time — while not once invoking his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

The GOP-led committees have yet to present firm evidence linking President Biden to his family’s business arrangements.

In explaining his putting his father on speakerphone in the presence of business associates, Hunter Biden said that he always answers the phone when his dad calls — which he said is often — citing the multiple family tragedies that the Bidens have endured over the years.

“My dad calls me like I’m sure a lot of your parents do, or a lot of you do with your children, and if I’m with people that are friends of mine, I’ll have him say hi,” Hunter Biden said. “It is nothing nefarious, literally.”

Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s who is another witness in the probe, said earlier that he witnessed Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone 20 times during their 10-year relationship.

“So that means, over the course of 10 years, twice a year, my dad would call me,” Hunter Biden said, “and I would be in the middle of a dinner, and I always answer his call. I always answer his call, based upon my life’s experience.”

“You understand my relationship with my family,” he said. “When my dad was 29 years old, he woke up one day, went to work, and got a phone call and lost his wife and his daughter. And, in that same accident, he also lost almost my brother and myself. And then, when I was 46 years old, my 47-year-old brother died.”

“And in our family, when you have a call from — I call him or he calls me or I call one of my — his grandkids or one of my children, you always pick up the phone. It’s something that we always do,” he said.

Other topics that Hunter Biden addressed included:

The ‘big guy’ email

When asked about a 2017 email from one of his business associates proposing that Joe Biden accept a share of profits from a prospective deal with a Chinese energy firm — the infamous “10 held by H for the big guy” email — Hunter Biden said the person who sent it, James Gilliar, had no basis for the suggestion.

“I truly don’t know what the hell that James was talking about,” Hunter Biden said.

The college recommendation

Asked about a college recommendation letter his father penned for the son of his Chinese business associate, Jonathan Li, Hunter Biden acknowledged that it happened — but explained that “there was a rule in my family.”

“My dad was often asked to write recommendations for hundreds of people that — I’m sure over the course of the last 50 years,” he said. “But the rule was that, if you were going to ask, that they had to be close friends; you had to know them well.”

“And I knew both Jonathan, and I knew his son, who was applying to universities here in the United States,” Hunter Biden said.

Jared Kushner

Hunter Biden at one point brought up former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, regarding Kushner’s own foreign business dealings in an attempt to draw a contrast with the scrutiny he’s received from the committee.

“Unlike Jared Kushner, I’ve never received money from a foreign government,” he said.
Money for his father

Hunter Biden also reiterated that none of his money went to his father. He said he only sent money to his uncle James Biden and Hallie Biden — but not his dad.

“But it’s all my money, and it’s none to my dad,” he said. “But I am telling you this: is that if you can show me where any money that I’ve ever had went to my father, other than, for instance, the repayment of the $1,300 for a loan for a truck — OK?” he said.

The Beijing meeting

Asked about a 2014 trip he took on Air Force Two to Beijing — during which he reportedly introduced his father to Li — Hunter Biden claimed it was not a meeting, but a rope-line event.

“When we returned from an event to the hotel, there was a rope line, and Jonathan Li was in the lobby of the hotel where I was going to meet him for coffee. In that line I introduced my dad to Jonathan Li and a friend of his, and they shook hands and I believe probably took a photograph,” Hunter Biden said.

“And then my father went up to his room, and I went to have coffee with Jonathan Li,” he said.

On Wednesday, during the early stages of Hunter Biden’s closed-door interview, GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz made an appearance before the press and said it is “a mirage to believe” the younger Biden was engaged in legitimate business overseas.

In a statement released Thursday following the release of the transcript, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Oversight Committee’s ranking Democrat, said, “Hunter Biden’s testimony debunked and demolished — once more — all the false claims and conspiracy theories that make up this hopeless impeachment inquiry.”

“It’s time to fold up the circus tent and send all the jugglers, clowns, and elephants home,” Raskin said.

ABC News’ Will Steakin and Christopher Boccia contributed to this report.

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