MSNBC reporter says 'perfectly legal' for Hunter Biden to take money from foreign governments, with caveat

One MSNBC journalist argued Hunter Biden didn't break the law by simply receiving money from foreign governments, during a report on "Morning Joe" Friday.

News broke Thursday that federal agents had gathered enough evidence to charge the president's son with tax crimes and for lying on a gun application. 

FEDS WEIGH CHARGES AGAINST HUNTER BIDEN, OUTCOME OF YEARSLONG CASE COULD BE ‘IMMINENT’: SOURCE

Biden's business dealings have been under scrutiny for years, but host Joe Scarborough pointed out that proving corruption there would be more difficult for federal agents than the "open and shut case" of tax crimes.

Justice Correspondent Ken Dilanian argued this was because it was "perfectly legal" for the president's son to take money from foreign governments.

"In terms of like corruption, conflict of interest, we’ve never heard a hint that there were potential criminal charges there because Hunter Biden wasn’t an officeholder. It was perfectly legal for him to take money from foreign governments, as long as he wasn't inappropriately giving them information from his family or something. There's no hint of that," he remarked.

"As bad as it looks, we should all acknowledge, it looks terrible," the reporter added.

TONY BOBULINSKI TELLS TUCKER CARLSON JOE BIDEN WAS ‘CHAIRMAN’ OF HUNTER BIDEN'S OVERSEAS BUSINESS DEALINGS

The federal investigation into Biden's business dealings began in 2018 under President Trump. 

President Biden denied knowing about any conflict of interest with his son's business dealings in an interview with CBS in September. But Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, claimed there are "hundreds of data points" showing Joe Biden was acting as the "chairman" of his son's overseas business dealings. 

A former senior Justice Department official told Fox News that an outcome to the investigation was "imminent."

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