Good evening, im laura coates. Thank you for joining me this friday evening. Tonight, donald trump is on some thin ice. In the first hearing with the judge in his third indictment, the one over Election Interference, she warned the former president about his rhetoric and his agreement, by the way, not to intimidate witnesses in order to stay a free man. But she also favored some of the arguments by his attorneys, for example, on whether evidence can be discussed publicly. More on that whole dramatic Courtroom Scene in just a moment. First, hunter biden. Hes likely going to trial. Attorney general Merrick Garland effectively appointed a Special Counsel in the guns and taxes investigation of the president s son. Youll recall there was a plea deal, and it also recently broke down. And weve talked about the questions surrounding how that could have happened. Even a judge that questioned the terms of the agreement with the doj. Before we get to all of that analysis, youre probably thinking,
analysis, you re probably thinking, wait a second, laura, another special counsel? yep. this would be the third all at once for the first time in history. i want to remind everyone for a second what the threshold is to get to a special counsel. it s not ruft mill, it s not an every day or every administration thing. among the grounds, number one, is it wid is it warranted? is the investigation itself worthy enough to have something so deliberate and extreme? is there a conflict of interest, the second point of inquiry? also, does the public have a special interest in knowing, or something more? when those three criteria are all on a collision course, then meet, then you have the special counsel. but the real question that everyone s asking is, why exactly did merrick garland decide to do this now? and maybe more importantly, since he was involved in the questionable plea agreement and