Likely. Were following the legal and political implications. Plus a warning to Donald Trumps legal team from the judge overseeing the election interference case, saying more inflammatory statements will require a quicker start to the trial. We are live outside the court. And the death toll as they have yet to even start searching the hundred of burned out buildings. Well take you live to maui. Were following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central. Another controversial investigation that could have some pretty big repercussions for 2024 is escalating. Today a Special Counsel was designated in the federal probe of hunter biden. Attorney general Merrick Garland named david weiss to the role. Weiss has been leading this investigation. Yes, he has. Hes been leading the investigation into hunter biden for the past five years, in fact. This week he asked himself to be elevated to that role of Special Counsel. Were following that in realtime. First our correspondent cara scunel is on top of the doj threat and Lauren Fox Up On capitol hill to get the reaction. Tell us first how did this come about today . We got the Surprise Announcement from attorney general Merrick Garland where he said that david weiss, the u. S. Attorney in Delaware Appointed by former President Trump and asked to stay on for this very investigation, Merrick Garland said that weiss had asked him on tuesday to be appointed Special Counsel, to give him Greater Authority in this investigation, and garland was saying it was really in the Public Interest to do this. Take a listen. I have concluded that it is in the Public Interest to appoint him as Special Counsel. This appointment confirms my commitment to provide mr. Weiss all the resources he requests. It also reaffirms that mr. Weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and to continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently based only on the facts and the law. Now, its not clear what led weiss to change his mind and decide he did need Special Counsel status. As youll remember hunter biden had reached a Plea Agreement with weiss office in which he would have pled guilty for two misdemeanors for not paying taxes on time as well as an agreement on a gun possession charge. That fell apart in court last month after a judge asked a number of questions and said she wasnt ready to sign off on it. Hunter bidens team had until today to weigh in private where they were in negotiations on whether they were going to revive this plea deal or not, and Hunter Bidens team had asked until monday to respond, but then we find out theyre appointing a Special Counsel. So the prosecutors in the court filing telling the judge their negotiations have reached an impasse, and they were going to move ahead towards trial. Hunter bidens team was caught offguard by this. His attorney saying thistill expect a fair resolution in this case, and they say its hard to understand how they had reached this Plea Agreement, whether there were any charges they could bring they could successfully win. His team say there arent. They say the judge has given them until monday to weigh in on this, but certainly a lot of questions still here about the designation of the Special Counsel. Lets go to capitol hill now. Lauren, you were up there. Lawmakers on the republican side theyve been calling for a Special Counsel for some time now. Now its here. And their criticisms have only intensified still. Yeah, briana, you point out last year a number were kaling for a Special Counsel to be called in this case. Now theyre saying essentially naming a Special Counsel has changed nothing for them in terms of persowing their own investigations into both lupter biden and his foreign Business Dealings and also how this investigation played out by david weiss. D you hear from House Speaker kevin hy in a tweet just a few moments ago saying, quote, this action by the bidens doj canne used to obstruct congressional investigation or whitewash the biden family corruption. If weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal, he couldnt get approved, how could he be trusted as the Special Counsel . You have other republicans in the senate like Lindsey Graham arguing this is little more than a bad political move. Heres what he said on fox news. What are the political implications for the president and his reelection bid do you believe . This is like the dumbest, dumber than dirt political move. On a friday afternoon and anything bad you want to talk about on a friday afternoon, they make a fourminute announcement were going to turn weiss into Special Counsel to remove any and all doubt. Theres no Ongoing Investigation of hunter biden or joe biden. Why would you accept a plea to have the case if you were going to continue to investigate the guy for other crimes . Nobody ever does that. The only reason were talking about this is the plea deal blew up because of a good judge. Reporter theres also some Practical Implications of what the effect is going to be because david weiss had been in negotiationwise the House Judiciary Committee about potentially coming forward arguing he wanted to clear up some things he said just werent true for allegations that had come from two Whistle Blowers. Now, of course, were wondering whether or not david weiss will still appear. The House Judiciary Committee saying they still do expect him to come forward and they havent heard otherwise. Of course we reached out to the department of justice to get more clarity on whether or not weiss still plan tuesday come to capitol hill some time in the next couple of months. Kara, these republicans angry that weiss, that the Special Counsel is not someone new, that simply the u. S. Attorney has been designated. Do they have a point . How unusual is it that the attorney general stuck with weiss and didnt approve someone else for this investigation . I mean it is unusual the requirement under the provisions of the law for a scial counsel is to appoint somee who is impartial and fair. Weiss did stay on. He was a trump appointee, someone that was not appointed by biden. Of course this is his son under investigation. We have seen in other investigations that they have brought in outsiders, people have not been involved. Even in jack smiths case he did keep on a number of the top attorneys who were working on this carb, although it is unusual weiss is staying in this role although he does have five years of knowledge where this investigation has gone already. Kara scunel, lauren fox, all over this breaking news. Thank you both. Lets turn to another Special Counsel case today. This morning was the first hearing in the trump election subversion indictment. It was focused on setting up rules how trump can handle certain evidence in the case, but the judge also sent out some clear warnings of her own regarding what the former president says publicly about the case. Cnns Kaitlan Palanz is outside the courtroom in washington. What happened in that courtroom today . Reporter there was a clear signal from judge Tanya Chutkan that there is justice and there is politics and donald trump as a criminal defendant charged with multiple federal crimes, in her Court Justice is going to have to come first. One of things she said specifically is that the fact is that he, donald trump, is running a Political Campaign currently hato yield to the administration oice. And if that means he, trump, cant say exactly what he wants to say in a political speech, that is just how its going to have to be. Those are the judges words. And the reason shes saying them here, alex, is because she is putting some sort of parameters around what donald trump can do with the evidence hes receiving as his team prepares for trial. The things he will learn specifically about witnesses, searches the Justice Department conducted, things that are very sensitive to this case that have never been shared with him before. And so as he gets that information, judge Tanya Chutkan has found that there is law that allows her to say to him you cant share these things widely if they are under my order, that they must be protected Going Forward to trial. The reason to do that is to make sure that the trial has integrity, that the jury pool isnt tainted, that witnesses arent intimidated, and then on top of that there are other restrictions for donald trump in that hes out on bail. And one of the conditions for him not to be sitting in jail awaiting trial is that he cant talk to witnesses about the details of this case, and he also cant publicly try and intimidate them or obstruct them in a way that would hurt the system of justice that is ing to be put in place he as he heads to tal. Another quote from the judge about a fair trial, it is a Bedrock Principle of the judicial process in this country. Legal trials are not like elections to be won through the use of a meeting call, the radio, and newspaper. This case is no exception. Alex . Kate polantz at the courthouse, thank you very much. Lets bring in a contributor and new york staff writer. Lets start with the hunter biden part of this year. Designation of a Special Counsel today, what is your reaction to that and really how we got to this point . You know, this Justice Department has done a lot of things that, you know, have been unprecedented including most notably what theyve been doing with donald trump. This is also unprecedented. I think we have to observe that, look, ive never seen a federal Criminal Case travel this strange path. Five years, you know, a u. S. Attorney from a prior administration. Theres a Plea Agreement that seemed like it was about to wrap everything up, and now its falling apart in this dramatic fashion. From here its unclear where theyre going next. Related to the tax charges they were supposed to file in delaware, and they now have a right to file more charges than just the ones already part of the Plea Agreement. Evan, also in term of the reaction inside biden world, what do you think the president is feeling today . Do you think they assumed that this was all going to go away with that plea deal . But now its clearly going to drag on into this into this campaign season. How do you expect them and specifically the president to contend with this . Well, alex, you know, theres a very personal element to this and the a political element. The personal element lets call it what it is, very painful. The fact its his son, a close member of the family, in and out of the white house, traveled with the president on foreign trips recently. And this process which seem to be kind of winding down is now flaring up una way that could drag on for a long time. Which for a personal matter is a painful thing for any family. As a political fact, yes, this now establishes this as a piece of the conversations. But i think one of the things you hear clearly from the people in the white house and specifically around the president is theres been a fiveyear investigation of this matter as we know by a u. S. Attorney appointed by donald trump. And it has yet to find a simple example of a case in which Hunter Bidens efforts to enrich himself. He was trying to take advantage of his connections in politics, that the president actually did anything that would benefit him or the president did anything to change policy. That fact hasnt change, and now what were waiting to see is where does this investigation go . Anytime you get a Special Counsel. At the moment the facts on the ground remain the same. There is no evidence joe biden benefitted. Evan, he mentioned the political side of this. You mention how unprecedent asked how bizarre this whole thing seems to you. How much do you see the political here impacting the legal . I think that theyre intertwined, right, unfortunately for the Justice Department you cant take the politics out of the law in this situation. Its a variation the problem they have with the trump prosecutions, too. They want to have a clear delineation between law and politics, but these are political figures, the most prominent political figures in the country. To some extent i would imagine this is aimed at Ploicating Republicans On Capitol Hill who insist on having this designation. Let me ask you about that because they are thoroughly unhappy about this. They say theres a two tier justice system, they wanted a Special Counsel, but then the Whistle Blowers came and they insisted david weiss said he wanted to be Special Counsel but couldnt, but even no david weiss said in a letter thats not what happened. Now theyre saying no, they and dont really like him. What do you make of that . Because this certainly doesnt seem like Something Good for President Biden and democrats candidly. Personally i think they want this to go on as long as possible through the 2024 election. Weiss has all the institutional knowledge, right. If you brought in someone else to take it over theyd have to get entirely up to speed, theyd have to relearn everything. They might need to revisit, and thats time, resources, and i think, you know, what weve seen on capitol hill this year surrounding hunter biden suggests that republicans really like this to be front and center on the news. Evan, you did touch on the personal side of this and how President Biden would be seeing this. Do you think that theres any regret on the president s part for running not just the first time but now running for reelection because it does put such a heavy spotlight on his sons troubles. Well, this has been a fact of his life for a long time. You know, the rallies joe bidens been in politics for decades as you know. He knows when you run, its not just yourself, but your family run. He would not have run for president in 2020 or indeed 2024 were it indeed not something hunter biden and Hunter Bidens kids were willing to go through. This is Family Affair when it comes to the biden family, and i think they knew what they were getting into it. Biden talked about it explicitly before. I think the thing to keep in mind theres going to be a sustained effort to try to generate what is in effect a counter scandal to balance out what is happening around trump, who is after all the republican candidate here. Hunter biden is not running for president , so for the moment this is a painful matter for the president painful and has political implications, but this is a different fact than having a republican candidate whos in fact facing his own Special Counsel. It is different, of course, but certainly as voters see it, i dont know, it creates sort of something or allows an opportunity to try to create the idea there isnt, and i think thats what were going to see republicans do. Thank you so much to both of you for coming in. We appreciate it. And ahead this hour on cnn news central, were going to take you live to maui where people are desperately trying to leave the island including one man who says he lost everything. Plus, worrying new signs americans are struggling to pay the bills. And salacious new allegations against Phil Mickelson including claims he lost close to 100 million betting. Thats my boy. Stay off the freeways only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. A man, his family, and his tractor, penny. These are the upshaws. And this is their playound. Theres a story in every piece of land, run with us On A Hn Deere Tractor and start telling yours. Young lady who was, mid 30s, couple of kids, recently went through a divorce. She had a lot of questions when she came in. I watched my mother go through being a single mom. At the end of the day, my mom raised three children, including myself. And so once the client knew that she was heard. We were able to help her move forward. 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