To a verdict avoiding Government Shutdown . Ken paxton, he just survived his Impeachment Trial and the threat of being removed from office over allegations of corruption. One of the states Impeachment Managers joins me to explain what happened at todays senate vote. Im Simone Sanders townsend, and i have something to say. We begin with seismic developments this week on capitol hill and in highprofile legal investigations. The latest . A filing from Special Counsel john smith in the Election Interference case against former president donald trump. Smith has asked the judge to grant an order narrowly limiting trump from making public statements about the identities and testimonies of witnesses. As well as any disparaging or intimidating statements about any party in the case. Including attorneys or court personnel. Just hours after that filing was unsealed, trump ranted against jack smith on his social media platform. And during his campaign events, calling the Special Counsel, quote unquote, deranged. This is the exact behavior the filing was talking about. But, folks that is not the only legal news this week. Hunter biden was indicted by a grand jury after an investigation by the u. S. Attorney David Weiss In Delaware who has the Special Counsel Status. Now, two counts in the indictment accused hunter biden of lying about his drug usage on a firearms license form. The third count relates to bidens possession of a firearm while using drugs. Here is what bidens attorney abbe lowell had to say in response. This office has never brought a charge like this against anybody. When they are bringing the, charged as either because someone has had the gun in the commission of a crime. They have bought multiple guns, they are struggling caught pressures in it for someone. Elsewhere their felony possession. That, none of that is true about hunter biden. This indictment comes as Republican House members have been desperately trying to link President Joe Biden to Hunter BidensBusiness Dealings. Oversight committee james comer had this to say. That is one of about a dozen crimes that hunter biden has committed. And ironically that is the one crime that he committed that she could not tie joe biden to. To be clear, the House Oversight committees investigation into whether President Biden profited from his sons Business Dealings while serving as Vice President , it has produced zero evidence. At this point, i think you could say that all the committee has done is prove joe biden did nothing. Nada, xuzhe. So the fact is they are basing this inquiry on allegations and assumptions. Yet Republican House speaker Kevin Mccarthy unilaterally authorized an Impeachment Inquiry, despite promising on September 1st that he wouldnt pursue an inquiry without a floor vote. This is the speakers latest cave to the demands of a small but very vocal minority in the house. The socalled Freedom Caucus. But not all republicans are on board, not even all the Freedom Caucus members. Congressman from colorado and Freedom Caucus members can buck, he blasted the inquiry in a recent oped for the washington post. Writing, republicans in the house who are itching for an impeachment are relying on an imagined history. It is hard to imagine that this is where House Republicans priorities are, as our nation speeds towards a Government Shutdown. Only seven working days left for the house to pass a resolution to fund the government beyond the September 30th deadline. Or, you know, passive budget. If a resolution is not passed by September 30th, Hundreds Of Thousands of federal workers will be that means they will be temporarily laid off without pay during the time that they are laid off. During thea vast array of publis that folks rely, on they will come to free screeching halt. Lets not get into that major news of Federal Court in washington d. C. The Special Counsel filed a request to nearly restrict Donald Trumps public attacks, right . Remember, he said that these are false and disparaging speech, and that could prejudice retained a jury pool. Quote, resulting threats or harassment to individuals that he singled out. Trumps legal team has until September 25th to respond to the filing. And the special Counsel Office will then have five days to reply. And then after, that judge chutkan will decide. Within hours of the filing being unsealed, donald trump responded directly. Did you see today that deranged jack smith, he is the prosecutor, he is a deranged person. He wants to take away my rights under the First Amendment, wants to take away my right of speaking freely and openly. Never forget, our enemies want to stop us because we are the only ones that can stop them. They want to take away my freedom because i will never let them take away your freedom. Okay. The freedom conversation, again, it is not. Truly like to point out that this is the kind of comment that the protective order requests sites. Jacksons motion included several of Donald Trumps truth social post as example. Like the one that reads, if you go after me, i am coming after you. Which he published just after his indictment in this very case. And the Special Counsels office added that he has made good on his threat. But defendant has spread disparaging and inflammatory public posts on truth social on a neardaily basis regarding the citizens of the district of columbia. The court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses. For more, i want to welcome former federal prosecutor shan wu. Okay, shannon, thank you for being here. I feel like you are the perfect person to break this down. Can we just talk about this protective order . Not productive order, pardon me, folks are calling it a gag order but i have a very much intent to talk about the judge is going to talk about whether a limit will be placed on what team trump is able to say. Why do you think at this juncture, jack smith and his team felt it was necessary to make this request . Well, they are laying the foundation and its very obvious the kind of tendencies trump wasnt from submitting his defense. And they want to make it clear to trump, and the Data Foundation for that, that he cant attempt to disparage or verbally attack witnesses, because it is dangerous for people, we have seen that already in the country. But there is a challenge here, and the challenges mostly for the judge. Special counsel can make these, points after the restrictions, even possibly bring other charges for what this harassment or intimidation. But its the judge thats gonna have to balance how do i balance the First Amendment right as Somebody Running for president , and anyones right to declare innocence versus this harassment. I actually, think simone, its a pretty easy rule. He can say that isnt as much as he, wants but what you cant do is call people names, you know, call the prosecutor deranged. Call the district of columbia a dirty place. Those kind of things can cause harassment and violence towards people. And tainted jury pool. You know, donald trump obviously sat down for an interview with my colleague, kristen walker, the new moderator of Meet The Press. That will air tomorrow. And in that conversation, also previously, he said this a lot of places as of now. He said he will testify. Now, we dont know where donald trump is saying he is going to testify. He is claiming that it will be under oath. Do you think we will actually ever see donald trump take the stand in any of these cases . Whether we are talking washington d. C. Or georgia or manhattan, anywhere . It would be a mistake for him to testify. Most criminal defendants dont do themselves any favors when they testify. Here is the random factor with him. His lawyers have to really listen to him. They seem to be very much guarded by him and dont seem to be able to talk any sense into him or keep him restrained. So if he pushes them hard enough, they may let him do it. Now, whether he actually wants to do it versus he is just bolstering this lane. Because while it is fine for him to want to talk on the stand, it is probably not fine for him to get crossexamined, he wont like that very much. I highly doubt it. Before i let you go on this, i do want to ask you about hunter biden, okay . Three charges that the u. S. Attorney in delaware who has Special Counsel Status is bringing two of these charges about a four firearm, a form, he apoxsee check on this form for a firearm and he checked the box that noted that he was not under the influence of any drugs or wasnt using narcotics. And then in the third count is for having a being in possession of a firearm while using narcotics. M whwhat happens next in this c . Ive heard some people suggest that a Plea Agreement could be back on the table. But the u. S. Attorney has charged hunter biden, so wouldnt that suggest a Plea Agreement is out of the question . While at this point it is certainly off the table. I, mean they tried to put him in the diversion program, the whole thing broke down and went down and crashed and burned. So they have charges. But lots of cases do still play out even after an indictment. Sometimes they play out in the middle of the trial. So going, forward i dont think they should. I think this is like star treks fiveyear mission. They have had this long to explore new charges the could come up with. They should have been resolved a while back. And they should resolve it now. They should resolve it now. I want to bring in melissa to the conversation, melissa, former Fulton County prosecutor, melissa, so glad you can be with us. Before we talk about what is happening in georgia, i want to get your thoughts on some of the my colleague, kristen walker, Meet The Press, moderator tomorrow, shes got this interview with donald trump. I want to play, one donald trump was asked about the Security Camera footage that he is accused of being requested to be deleted. I want to play this for you. I want to ask you about the case related to maralago. A new charge suggests you asked a staffer to delete Security Camera footage so it wouldnt get into the hands of investigators. Thats false. Its false . When you testified to that under oath . I will testify. If you will testify that under, okay. Its a fake charge by this Deranged Lunatic Prosecutor who lost in the Supreme Court 19 nothing any tried to destroy a lot of lives. He is a lunatic. So its a picture. But more importantly, the tapes werent deleted, in other words, there is nothing them to them. And they were my tapes. I could have fought them, i didnt even have to give the tapes, i dont think. I would have won in court. When they asked for the tapes, i said, sure there might. Tapes i could have fought. Them i didnt have to give. Them just so you understand the, we didnt delete anything, nothing was deleted. So that is false. The people who testified number, one the flame is false, much more importantly, when the tapes come and everyone says, this they were deleted. Given 100 . You can see more of this interview tomorrow on Meet The Press. I will note, kristen also extended an invitation to President Biden to be interviewed. Okay, melissa, i have to imagine that fani willis is going to be watching Meet The Press tomorrow. And everyone in her office with their pen and pad, to see what donald trump has to say. Because that is how he is talking about the florida, case i can only imagine that he is going to Say Something about georgia. Your thoughts . There is no way he is going to be able to avoid talking about the case. I want to mention all of them. I am sure to his attorneys to spare, you really dont criminal documents talking about the facts of any of them under any circumstances. Everything he said is public knowledge. It can be used against him if he says anything incriminating, anything different from how he could possibly testify in the future. He is locking himself into a version of this event or story or theory of a defense. And you just dont want that prior to going to trial in any case. I think you are right, i think i anticipate that if he is and then some. So in the latest in Fulton County, cheeseborough and have officially severed their cases from the other 16 codefendants and president trump, former president trump. So what happens now to donald trump and the 16 codefendants. Because on october 23rd, chesebro and pow, they are going to court. What about Everyone Else . Everybody else has to determine where they want to be. So we have a few that are still calling petitions to remove their case to Federal Court. Each of those cases has have to be heard. And i mentioned judge jones will have a separate hearing for each individual. There may be appeals determining depending on how he rules on those cases. As we have seen in the metals case. He has given a deadline, i believe around September 29th for those individuals who have not yet weighed their right to a speedy trial. To do so, anyone who does ask for a speedy trial will immediately join october 23rd. I cant imagine anybody would want to do that on such a short time period, and the amount of information that is exchanged in discovery. So i imagine they will be on a separate track yet to be determined. All right, melissa redmon, shan wu, thank you both very, very much. Up next, folks, House Republicans, they are apparently too busy bickering about impeaching President Biden with no evidence of wrongdoing, by the way, to work out a way to find the government before time runs out. Thats most important, ive got congresswoman Melanie Stansbury who sits on the Oversight Committee to join me. And she is going to talk about what is that, stake whether democrats can use the republican infighting to their advantage. And are we gonna fund the government . But first, our bestie is here, my colleague richard lui with todays other top news stories. Richard, what you got . A, simon, a very good day to you. Libyas top prosecutor saying he opened investigation into the collapse of two dams and intensified deadly flooding in the coastal city of derna. One dam for instance released Tens Of Millions of cubic meters in just more than 11,000 deaths, more than 10,000 people still missing. The floods are estimated to kill as much as one fifth of that citys population. And it is day two of the United Auto Workers strike, the uaw president saying Union Leaders would continue negotiating with the Big Three Automakers today. The two sides appeared to make some progress this week on a new deal. They remain far apart on issues like Salary Increases and benefits. The uaw members will join later this hour to talk more about where things stand on this saturday. More symone for you right after this break. This break mom bringing in a new roommate to save money is that the plan . dad well we gotta find some way to save. So say hi to glen. From work. glen hey. 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