the appointment of mr. weiss reinforces for the american people the department s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. i am confident that mr. weiss will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department. thank you. well, that announcement was, of course, to have daniel weiss, who is the republican-appointed holdover u.s. attorney for delaware, now appointed with a second job basically as special counsel investigating hunter biden. let s bring in our team, nbc news white house correspondent monica alba, nbc news justice reporter ryan riley, we have former u.s. attorneys joyce vance and paul charleston. paul, let me go to you first because this is basically within
having been a u.s. attorney and still be double added as a special counsel? and then his opinion of this, andrew weissman s is weiss already messed up the hunter plea agreement and now this. so do you see a conflict between him continuing as a u.s. attorney in delaware but having the ability to file an indictment in another venue, as now a special counsel. paul? andrew is right, the cfrs, the regulations that control the appointment of a special counsel call for somebody outside of government. i don t expect that that fact, that specific regulation, has escaped merrick garland s attention. somehow they have made this appointment, taking that issue into account, and went forward. i m not quite certain how it is they did so, but we can be certain that very smart people within the department of justice have addressed that issue, that that point hasn t escaped their attention. we will have to see how it is
after the hearing the parties continued negotiating but reached the impasse. a trial is therefore in order. that trial cannot take place in this district, delaware, because as explained venue does not lie here. so that is the filing from the prosecutor. also, paul, i wanted to point out as we were discussing earlier, the two issues, the tax issue and the gun issue had been supposedly agreed to when they went into that hearing, you know, in delaware two weeks ago, but he still was saying as he said at his press release earlier that he was still investigating something and there is what was just referred to as tom winter as the fara issue, not registers as a foreign agent or other business dealings that had been raised at those hearings. that could be what this is all about as well, but here is something that andrew weissman our colleague has put out. a special counsel is supposed to be from outside the government so how is this consistent with the special counsel regulations,
administration, this insulates decision-making about the president s son from political appointees and assures that only the u.s. attorney now the special counsel in delaware and his team will determine whether or not to charge biden and what with. he was initially charged via an information, that was what he was going to plead guilty to. if new charges go forward because there is no longer a plea agreement, that means an indictment. as i understand this announcement, it means that weiss is free to bring these charges in any district where he believes he has venue. he can bring any charges that he decides and he will have to write a report like other special counsels do. so one of the significant inclusions when you appoint a special counsel is that there will be greater public clarity. we heard merrick garland commit to releasing as much of that report as possible. let me pick it up with paul, though. there had been an agreement on
in this nation of 330 billion people, somewherexd out there re is a follower of formert( president trump s who believes that im!ç■ is anññdxd invitatio visit just that kind of violence on ñid.a. bragg. should that happen, it will not only be criminal. it will bet(xd tragic. gabe gutierrez and paul charleston, thank you sot( much. up next, exclusive details about a major deal between the u.s. and mexico aimedt( at fighting drug and gun smuggling you re watching josé border.4/ you re watching josé border.4/ diaz-balart reports on msnbc.çñ ì(lc, (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security.