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As Alec Baldwin's gun lie falls apart, the walls close in on him

Alec Baldwin has always said that he didn't pull that trigger, even though all the evidence says otherwise.

Now, the FBI says he did. This finding came out over the weekend, right after the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office said it only needs Baldwin's phone records to finish its investigation and send its file to the DA's office.

Alec, have the walls closed in yet?

This FBI report is something to be happy about. Not since O.J. Simpson have we seen someone so guilty act so angry, entitled, put-upon, and victimized, as if this whole tragedy has affected no one more than Baldwin himself—not Halyna Hutchins' husband, not her little boy, who was so traumatized by her death that he couldn't speak for days, but Alec freaking Baldwin.

Think that's going too far? Let me name a few: Baldwin went on a wild trip through the Hamptons and Vermont just days after the shooting. He shopped at Ralph Lauren and posed for the paparazzi, who he usually hates and fights, so they could get the perfect picture of him holding his head in his hands in a shiny restaurant. The strange roadside press conference with his fake Spanish wife, the Rachel Dolezal of the Hamptons, in which he said that the "Rust" set was run by "a very, very well-oiled crew" that just had the bad luck to go through this "one in a trillion" tragedy.

Alec Baldwin performs emcees the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala at New York Hilton Midtown on Dec. 9, 2021, in New York.
An FBI report found that Alec Baldwin fired the fatal bullet on the “Rust” set.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

In the days that followed, Hilaria and Alec posted a lot of bragging about their family on social media. When Hilaria wasn't playing the victim, she wrote that "parenting through this has been, to say the least, an intense experience."

Know what else will be a rough time? He got in trouble with the law, went to jail, and lost all of his money in civil court. (On Monday, a medical investigator in New Mexico said that the shooting was an accident, but the district attorney hasn't decided yet whether or not to press charges.)

In this image from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Alec Baldwin stands in costume and speaks with investigators following a fatal shooting last year on a movie set in Santa Fe, N.M.
Alec Baldwin stands in his “Rust” costume and speaks with investigators following the October 2021 shooting.
Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP
Alec Baldwin in a scene from Rust.
The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office announced it’s waiting for Baldwin’s phone records before sending its investigative file to the DA’s office.
Santa Fe County Sheriff
A distraught Alec Baldwin lingers in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's offices on Camino Justicia after being questioned on Oct. 20, 2021 .
A distraught Baldwin lingers in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office in Camino Justice after being questioned.
Jim Weber/The New Mexican

Did I mention that the Baldwins thought there was no better time than now to spend $1.75 million on a large, historic farm in Vermont?

That's how crazy these two people are. How sure they are that Alec is above the law and anything that could happen to him.

Last year, I was told by two experts on gun safety on set that guns don't fire themselves. Alec Baldwin killed Halyna Hutchins, even though he cried like a crocodile and made a lot of noise about it.

Steve Wolf, a veteran Hollywood gun expert, told me last December, after Alec's "poor me" softball sit-down with ABC's George Stephanopolous, his good friend from the Hamptons social scene, that he didn't know of any gun that fired itself. Neither of them told me about that little conflict of interest.

Candles are placed next to a photograph of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a vigil in her honor in Albuquerque, N.M. Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021.
Halyna Hutchins’ widower filed a civil suit against Baldwin.
AP/Andres Leighton

“The trigger still must have been pressed,” Wolf said. “It’s really important to discredit anyone who claims that guns fire themselves. If this becomes an acceptable defense, there goes any accountability when it comes to shooting people. We can’t have this kind of ‘Guns shoot themselves’ thing. They don’t.”

Former FBI agent-turned-Hollywood firearms consultant Bobby Chacon told me the same thing.

“The bullet striking and killing that woman came out of the barrel of the gun pointed directly at her,” Chacon said. “Bullets don’t curve. He isn’t in ‘The Matrix.’ The trigger would still have to be pulled.”

Alec, to Stephanopolous: “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.” Also, he was brazen enough to say he felt no guilt.

This aerial photo shows the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021.
The shooting happened inside the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, NM.
AP/Jae C. Hong
Halyna on set before the shooting.
Seven crew members walked off the set over safety concerns after Hutchins’ death.
Facebook
Alec Baldwin is seen in stills from a police video interview following the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of western movie Rust last October.
Baldwin claimed the “Rust” set was run by “a very, very well-oiled crew.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff/MEGA

This was the same interview where Baldwin said Hutchins told him to point the gun at her. "She is in charge of everything," he said. "I'm holding the gun right below her armpit, which is where she told me to hold it."

So, Alec, which is it? You'd never point a gun at anyone, or did Hutchins tell you to point the gun at her? And if it's the second one, what should we think? That Hutchins was to blame because you pulled the trigger and killed her?

As a producer on "Rust," Baldwin may also share some of the blame for the rookie mistakes and cost-cutting that led to this tragedy. Don't forget that seven crew members left the set the morning Hutchins was killed because they were worried about safety.

At least one of them had gotten the attention of the unit production manager, texting at one point, "We've had three accidental discharges. This is very dangerous."

It's easy to see how basic safety rules could have been disregarded and how dire warnings could have been brushed off. As the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down, and Baldwin, as we've all seen over the past year, lives in a world he created: his wife, Hillary Thomas, who was born in Boston, is now Spanish thanks to some bronzer and make-believe. People just don't get Woody Allen, who is a great friend of his.

And of course, it's perfectly fine to brag about your happy family life all the time on Instagram while ignoring the fact that you helped break up another young family.

Baldwin's crazy view of the world says that anyone who thinks he killed a beautiful young mother and wife with her whole life and career ahead of her must be angry or greedy. Even the single man.

Alec Baldwin in Rust
Baldwin recently bought a historic Vermont farmhouse for $1.75 million.
Instagram
Alec Baldwin, left, and Hilaria Baldwin appear at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 17, 2017.
Hilaria Baldwin has defended her husband following the accident.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Hucthins being attended by medics.
Hutchins died the day of the shooting.
Santa Fe County Sheriff

“What you have is a certain group of people, litigants and whatever” — ! — “on whatever side, who, their attitude is, ‘Well, the people who likely seem negligent have no money, and the people who have money are not negligent.’ ”

This was Baldwin in March, a few weeks after Hutchins' widower sued Baldwin in civil court and went on the "Today" show to calmly talk about how upset he was with Baldwin's interview with Stephanopolous.

"When I heard him blame Halyna in the interview and put the blame on other people, and when I saw him cry about it, I just thought, Mr. Baldwin, are we really supposed to feel bad for you?

Hutchins then said something obvious, but Baldwin still doesn't get it. Baldwin is proud of being smarter than the average Hollywood duck, what with his one-time NPR show, best-selling memoir, coverage in The New Yorker, and telling the New York Times that he was qualified to be governor of New York. Oh, and he proved he was a liberal by making fun of Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live." He has more in common with Trump than he would ever admit.

The gun Baldwin used.
Baldwin has said he never pulled the gun’s trigger.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Departme

Lest there remain any doubt as to who Alec Baldwin really is, consider these text messages between Baldwin and Matt Hutchins — whom Baldwin was so quick to befriend in the hours after the shooting.

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, after Hutchins reaches out to Baldwin:

AB: I am with my kids.

!!!!!!!

AB: Your attorney told me not to contact you. So . . . what’s up?

A woman displays a sign calling for workplace safety at a vigil for cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died after being shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of his movie "Rust", in Albuquerque.
A woman displays a sign calling for workplace safety at a vigil for Hutchins.
REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

What’s up? That says it all. That’s Baldwin saying: Why are you bothering me, what could you possibly have to say, can’t we just do this through lawyers, what are you, sad or something?

AB: Make sure you tell your lawyer that you reached out to me and not vice versa.

MH: Of course. You can always text me if you have something on your mind.

AB: Your lawyer sent a variant of a cease and desist to me. Told me not to contact you. So, there’s that.

How callous. How heartless — especially for someone who has spent the past 10 months begging for sympathy and understanding.

Karma isn’t a big enough concept to describe what Alec Baldwin has coming. Fortunately for decent people everywhere, sloppy emotional ploys and disgusting attempts to blame the victim do not apply to the criminal justice system, the FBI, or the laws of physics.

So, you know, there’s that.

By Maureen Callahan

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