Judicial Watch said Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for Secret Service records related to the investigation surrounding Hunter Biden’s infamous gun.

What's the background?

Two years ago, TheBlaze was the first to report that Hallie Biden — widow of President Joe Biden's son Beau — in October 2018 took Hunter Biden's handgun from his vehicle without his knowledge and placed it in a garbage can outside a Delaware supermarket, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

But after a subsequent search, the gun couldn't be found, the source said. And after law enforcement was contacted and both Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden were questioned, the source said no arrests were made and no charges were filed.

Delaware State Police told TheBlaze the case was referred for a decision on prosecution to the Delaware Department of Justice, which didn't immediately return TheBlaze's request for comment on this case.

In addition, the source also said agents from the Secret Service as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives visited the shop where Hunter Biden purchased the gun prior to any report being filed.

What are the details about the Judicial Watch suit?

Judicial Watch said its lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Secret Service failed to respond adequately to a March 25, 2021, FOIA request for records or communications about the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of Biden's gun.

The conservative outfit said it's investigating whether and how the Secret Service intervened for Hunter Biden.

What else happened during the Hunter Biden gun incident?

The source added to TheBlaze that after she disposed of the gun, Hallie Biden — who was in a relationship with Hunter Biden at the the time — contacted Hunter Biden and told him what she did, and Hunter Biden told her to go back and get the gun. But upon attempting that, she couldn't find the gun, the source told TheBlaze.

When Hunter Biden arrived at the supermarket, he told law enforcement the gun was purchased earlier in October, he used it for target practice, and he kept it in his vehicle instead of Hallie Biden's house so it was not near her children, the source with knowledge said.

The source added to TheBlaze that when Hunter Biden was asked by law enforcement whether he had contacted anyone about this incident, he asked if that meant his father, Joe Biden, and then said, "I have never called my dad for anything" and that he always handled his own affairs.

The source also said the ATF during its visit to the shop asked the owner for the file on Hunter Biden's gun purchase and that a copy was provided. In addition, the source said Secret Service agents also visited the shop prior to any report being filed and that they needed to find the gun.

It was not immediately clear why the Secret Service would properly have been involved in the investigation since Hunter Biden's last day of Secret Service protection was July 8, 2014.

Politico corroborated TheBlaze's report in a March 2021 article noting that two people — one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other of whom was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact — said Secret Service agents asked the store owner for paperwork involving Hunter Biden's gun sale, but the owner refused, saying the matter was under the ATF's jurisdiction.

A man who regularly rummaged through the grocery store's trash found the gun and returned to authorities days later, Politico reported.

What else did Judicial Watch say?

“The Secret Service and the Biden administration apparently are in cover-up mode for Hunter Biden. Whether its Hunter Biden’s laptop, his business practices and travel, or these documents related to the careless disposal of a gun in a dumpster near a high school, this administration continues to put up unlawful roadblocks to any effort to investigate the activities of the Biden family, particularly Hunter,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

A different lawsuit is rejected

TheBlaze on Monday reported that a federal judge rejected a lawsuit seeking records from the ATF related to its investigation into how Hunter Biden may have committed gun felonies.

U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, last week ruled that while the public interest in whether the ATF failed to enforce the law against Hunter Biden is "significant," it did not outweigh Biden's "substantial" privacy interest in the matter.

"Hunter Biden has a substantial privacy interest, and the public interest is also significant," Contreras wrote in a 24-page opinion shared by AmmoLand. "But the balance is not deadlocked."