For more information how you can help victims of Hawaii Wildfires go to cnn. Com impact or text hawaii to 707070 to donate. The lead with jake tapper starts right now. A brand new Special Counsel now focused on hunter biden. The lead starts right now. The Attorney Generals surprise announcement. The prosecutor who was overseeing The Hunter Case is now being elevated to a Special Counsel. What will this mean for the president s son . What will this mean for the president . And donald trump might be told to zip it. The judge in the 2020 Election Fraud case signaling that she is going to be willing to restrict sensitive evidence as she tells trumps attorneys the former president s right to free speech is not absolute. And hawaiis catastrophe sadly getting worse. Historic towns gone, homes burned to the ground, 55 lives confir confirmed lost, and that number is sadly expected to climb. Welcome to the lead im jake tapper. And we start with our Law And Justice lead with a new Special Counsel. The new title gives Attorney General david weiss who had been already been investigating President Bidens son more powers than he had as a federal prosecutor. You might recall a few weeks ago it looked as though this investigation was coming to an end. Hunter biden went to court after his lawyers had supposedly struck a deal with weiss prosecutorial team. But that deal fell apart in court among much skepticism voiced by the judge. The two sides were told try to keep negotiating, but now the Justice Department says it looks as though this case is headed to trial. Prosecutors allege hunter biden failed to pay more than a Million Dollars in taxes on time. He also faced a federal gun charge for lying on his Background Check Form that he was not using drugs at the time. But republicans in congress have also alleged hunter biden was involved in much more serious crimes including money laundering. Whistle blowers have claimed that the case was not treated as it should have been. Speaker Kevin Mccarthy today asked of the now Special Counsel, mr. Weiss, quote if weiss negotiated a Sweetheart Deal that couldnt get approved how could he be trusted as Special Counsel . Lets get to paula reid. This investigation has been going on for five years so why now for a Special Counsel . Its unclear. The Justice Department will only say that on Tuesday Weiss asked to be changed to this designated Special Counsel. He is as you noted the u. S. Attorney who was appointed by former President Trump, and hes been overseeing the investigation into hunter biden for like you said approximately five years. But theres no official explanation for why he wanted to change to a Special Counsel now. But we have seen in Court Filings that it appears that the talks between the u. S. Attorneys office and Hunter Bidens legal team to resolve the issues that the judge identified in that plea deal, that those have fallen apart and it is likely to go to trial. That appears to be the impetus, but its really unclear. One of the big differences now hes Special Counsel is that weiss is going to have to compile a full report detailing what he investigated and his findings and that the Attorney General who has now to make it public. Now, ive also given the white house was not given a heads up about this and neither were Hunter Bidens attorneys. How much more likely does it make it the president s son is definitely going to go on trial . It appears a lot more likely, jake. For a minute there it appeared this was going to be resolved with that plea deal. Even after the judge pushed back, asked for additional briefings, expressed skepticism, i think both sides expressed ultimately it would be approved. If there were any modifications we got signals indeed the Hunter Biden Team was willing to take this to trial. So at this point the fact hes gotten the Special Counsel designation, he can now bring cases in any jurisdiction, it does appear the most likely outcome here is it goes to trial. Paula, stick with us because i also want to bring in arlette saenz. What has been the biden administrations reaction to the news. Reporter jake, the white house has maintained this stay quiet strategy. And im told by white house officials here that white house officials and President Biden received no heads up that Merrick Garland was about to make this appointment of a Special Counsel in the probes investigating the president s son. But this really just marks the latest chapter in the ongoing legal and personal saga surrounding hunter biden, which has really come front and center in President Bidens reelection bid. Just two weeks ago the bidens had felt and hoped they were about to turn the page as hunter biden was expected to plead guilty to those tax charges. But as you mention that tax that plea deal fell apart, and the appointment of the Special Counsel indicates the investigation will continue. But this also comes as it marks a new phase for President Biden. As republicans have repeatedly sustained their criticism and questions about his sons Business Dealings and accusations of the biden family being corrupt. The House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy and republicans have threatened the possibility of an Impeachment Inquiry, something that the white house has pushed back on as describing it as a stunt. But this also is a very personal matter for President Biden. When he has spoken about his son, hunter, its to express his love and support saying that he believes his son has done nothing wrong. It was supposed to be a pretty quiet day for President Biden here at the white house. He had no Public Events on his schedule. He had one phone call to hawaiis governor to talk about the wildfires there. But in an a little less than a hour we are expecting President Biden to depart the white house for rehoboth beach, delaware, where he has a home. Its the first time hes in front of reporters so well see whether he decides to comment in any way regarding the appointment of the Special Counsel as to this now investigation entering a new phase. Arlette saenz, thank you so much. Cnns paula reid is back with me as well as laura coates. Are you surprised theres a Special Counsel five years into this investigation after a plea deal had been almost agreed upon . That plea deal was within the reach of hunter biden. Im sure hes lamenting right now whatever fiasco actually occurred in that courtroom to not have all the is dotted, all the ts crossed to go through. Remember we heard from david weiss about what the process was like. He had said i have the authority to do so. Now this raised a lot of questions, and whatever happened on tuesday now does make me feel surprised about why now . What is happening here . Remember hes still the u. S. Attorney in delaware, but now the Special Counsel allows him to go beyond his jurisdiction. You can look at other areas as well. Its the reason why you have jack smith and go beyond that, you have things in florida and washington, d. C. It now goes beyond that, but at its kier i wonder what the decision really came down to. The Special Counsel statute says you can have this. Does a matter actually warrant an investigation . Is it warranted . He had concluded it did if you were garland. Was there a Conflict Of Interest at play here . The Talking Point you see on the right and left suggest Talking Points around this very notion there is a conflict of being able to have the president appoint the Attorney General who would oversee an investigation. Into his own son. But finally its the idea of what are you going to do about it now, and is there a way you can structure an investigation that is in the interest of the public to have the information . Garland says all three criteria are met, and so whatever took place between the clear agreement and now is anyones guess. Paula, help me out here. David weiss, the u. S. Attorney, now Special Counsel had previously said in writing that he had all the power he needed. He didnt need anymore authority. If he wanted today do charges in d. C. , he could reach out to the u. S. Attorney in d. C. If he wanted to do charges in l. A. , he could reach out. Now he has Special Counsel powers that give him that authority in writing in between we should note there were Whistle Blowers saying Behind The Scenes david weiss was complaining i dont have the authority to charge in this city or that state. And the Justice Department saying, no, no, no these Whistle Blowers are wrong. It looks as though maybe the Whistle Blowers are right. Its messy. It appears as if here theyre trying to insulate at the Justice Department and the Attorney General from what appears to be a case headed to a likely trial of the president s son. And i think theyre hoping that this Special Counsel designation will also insulate them from potential congressional testimony. There were calls for weiss to go on the hill, but now they can say, well, the Special Counsel durham, Special Counsel mueller, they testified after they submitted their report. And theres a lot of emphasis today at the Justice Department on this report and how that will offer some transparency here and that maybe fair in some respects, but that is not going to satisfy republicans who have a lot of questions about the investigation if that report and Special Counsel designation are now going to be used to prevent him from going to the hill. Its not just republicans who have questions. I have questions. So many questions. And im not getting all my answers. Heres another one for now. Im david weiss, appointed Special Counsel. Just a few weeks ago i was reds tee a say a diversion, a slap on the wrist, a misdemeanor. Really it was not a big punishment, and now i want special Counsel Authority to investigate something that just a few weeks ago i was basically saying this is the most i can prove in a court of law . That doesnt make sense to me either. By the way, im fully willing to believe theres a lot more to investigate and a lot more to charge him with, but that wasnt his position a few weeks ago. And remember go back to that courtroom where the judge had that same question where she talk about have you contemplated this is actually going to be the 360, everything is solved now and assume Hunter Bidens team had either negotiated that, were well aware if this could actually be a fully resolved issue, and that was part of her consideration of, well, hold on a second, you dont know if theres other investigations . Its a problem, ding, ding, ding. But it also lends credence now to not only the point made by Whistle Blowers which, by the way part of their point those Investigate Akin to a Police Officer arresting someone and says to the prosecutor heres what i arrest the person on, how dare you diverge on that. Well, the prosecutor has the power to decide what to bring. Just because you wanted Something Different doesnt mean it was a justifiable prosecution. What else was a part of it . Why did david weiss i think it was twice in writing already said, no, i actually did have the power. It seems what he meant was i have the power in delaware and now i want the power in other places, maybe d. C. , maybe california as well part of it. So it raises a lot of questions. Again, it goes back to the point where, you know, it was in his hand, the burden hand. Now youve got two jurisdictions in the bush because the Plea Agreement fell through. And lastly, there were a couple reasons why the judge was pushing at this Plea Agreement. One of them was she didnt think the Gun Charge Thing was legitimate and she didnt want to have to supervise all that. The question is they were on the same page whether or not hunter biden could be charged in the future. That was key to them. They made it clear if you pull back and say this was not the end of it, were going to trial. And not only are they willing to go to trial, theyre confident theyre going to win. But what im saying is if im hunter biden youve been david weiss, youve been hunter biden. Youre jake tapper. I have to put on lots of different hats. If i say wait a second, this is going to get much, much worse for me if they had the opportunity if they wanted to bring future charges, now its even worse. None of it was good for hunter biden. Sure, but isnt this worse . It depends on what the eventual outcome is. If his benefactor and attorney pays for that and hes ultimately acquitted and that is stressful and an awful thing to go through, but maybe that is better in the long run. Its unclear. Its a disaster for everyone. Did the Attorney General need to appoint a Special Counsel . Im going to talk to someone who used to do his job. Plus why todays announcement rattled republicans who have been leaning towards an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden. Plus this just in a judges order in the 2020 election interference case. And the tragic scenes in hawaii. Heart breaking, really. 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