Now. At least 67 people have died in maui. And that toll is expected to unfortunately rise as more rubble is being searched. The wildfires damaging more than 3,000 home. Cnn is on the ground in maui with the very latest reporting from there. And a moment in American History. 50 years ago today hip hop was born in the bronx. Tonight we celebrate this Trailblazing Art Form that has changed america and the world. We have a whole lot of superstars on this stage tonight but i want yall to know one thing this is my house i wish we could start with run dmc, but we are starting here. The Attorney General has announced a Special Counsel will take over in the hunter biden investigation. Its not someone from outside the system. It is the same trump appointed federal prosecutor whos been overseeing the case for five years now. This is because the settlement, both Hunter Bidens lawyers and the prosecutors had agreed upon in his tax evasion and Gun Charge Case fell apart when the judge rejected it. I want to turn right away to senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz. Shes here with us now. Can you give us a sense what all this means and what happened,icateren . Theres a messy situation the Attorney General and Merrick Garland had to solve somehow. What happened is there was a case two cases actually in Court Against hunter biden, the president s son. And those cases were on the train of having a resolution. There was a decision made from his lawyers and the Justice Department that they had a deal, that they had two Tax Misdemeanors and then a deferred gun charge that could go away, a felony, if he stayed in line. But all of that fell apart whenever that was presented to court because both the judge started asking questions like can you even do that with charges, and his attorneys went back to the Drawing Board after a recent hearing where he was supposed to plead guilty to these but did not. And they reached an impass where they couldnt work it out with maus kurts of the term of the deal, whenever they were asked to revisit it with the judge. And so as that is all going on at that point in time Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland and the u. S. Attorney whos investigating this for some time, david weiss, they came to the resolution on the side of the Justice Department that they needed some sort of extra oomph for the prosecutors behind this case, and that is what delivered the Special Counsel decision today, this announcement david weiss is now the Special Counsel not just a u. S. Attorney bringing this case in the District Court in delaware. And so there is a question still of what happens next. Theres a lot of things that happen in the court still that must be unwound in some way. But here is what abby lowal, a lawyer for hunter biden said, just a couple minutes ago to our lawyer kaitlyn collins. Hes been clear about a mistake he made, and thats all he made a mistake about. So am i concerned . Im only concerned that a force other than facts or law would influence any additional decision. And if this prosecutor now with a new title now continues in doing what hes supposed to do, which is to follow the evidence and follow the law, the conclusion should be the same. So we have a u. S. Attorney whos now spec counsel david weiss. The Third Special counsel who is in existence right now working on an investigation. Hes going to keep investigating and determining what to do with hunter biden. And so we are going to have to watch what happens there. Were going to have to watch what the judge says, what Hunter Bidens lawyers say in court, where this goes. It does create a situation where david weiss has a little bit more power in that he has a little bit of distance from Merrick Garland and the Justice Department to make his own decisions in a way he wasnt particularly situated before. And also theres a mechanism where he has to Tell Congress if theres any issues that arise. And he also has to write a final report that theoretically congress will get to see about what happened with hunter biden and his investigation, all of the issues that the u. S. Attorney looked at. Kaitlan, i know you were juggling a whole bunch of Different Cases here. I want to go to the federal judge overseeing former President Trumps trial and election interference charges. She has issued a protective order today. Tell us about it, and what did we learn about how shes going to approach this case Going Forward . Well, sarah, we learned this judge is not going to have much patience for politics getting injected into this case. Its the january 6th case with donald trump. He and his lawyers have been out there saying that its political interference, that this case is even being brought, that it needs to be put off or put on hold as hes running for president. And this judge, tanya chutkan, in the d. C. District court, Federal Court here in d. C. , she says, no, i dont see any political interference and also were going to move this thing along because when you look at politics versus the Justice System, the Justice System comes first. That is how america works. Thats how democracy works, thats how this government works. And so one of the things she said was that she is going to put some parameters around trump. He is a criminal defendant she reminded him even if his day job is being a Candidate Running for president. And some of those parameters are going to include things like making sure hes not sharing widely any evidence he sees such as grand jury transcripts or if he listens to recordings of grand jury or witness interviews of people who spoke to investigators. He cant disseminate widely. He cant talk about it publicly, and she has also said that he has a First Amendment right to free speech, but that right is not absolute in a criminal case like this. The defendants free speech is subject to the rules. Thats judge tanya chutkan, and that is how shes going to move forward in this case. Katelyn polantz, youve been doing great reporting. Thank you so much. I want to bring in now a former Senior Investigative counsel for the january 6th committee, and brian jacobs, a former federal prosecutor. Thank you both for being here. The Hunter Biden Case has been going on for five years as mention, a settlement completely falls apart, and now a Special Counsel is appointed though its the same person overseeing the case all these years. Why is it so messy . Well, something went wrong in the negotiations between the government and the defense that led to the mess that were in right now. The big question i think to look out for is whether there are more serious charges down the pipe. It could be the appointment of the Special Counsel is one step in the Negotiation Process so the government can credibly threaten to bring charges in california or washington, which they couldnt before as easily. But it also could be that there are more serious issues out there to watch for. Im curious from you, why do you think that Attorney General garland has gone ahead and put forth this title now, Special Counsel and the same person thats been doing this for several years . I mean has this case been bis handled by the doj in some way . It does appear to be some level of mishandling. After five years it would be surprising to see a change in the facts of the law here. Whatever happened that the doj was conducting a thorough investigation should have uncovered that already. What appears to be happening here is that the Attorney General is probably concerned about Public Perception and thats whats led to his actions here. All right, we just heard from abby lowal which is one of Hunter Bidens attorneys and he basically says, look, the facts are the same as it has been five years, the evidence is the same as it has been all this time. So the changes shouldnt change the outcome of this case. Is he right . I think one thing that is in play is whatever resolution is reach, if a resolution can be reached, and its not clear one can. But if a resolution is reached, what kind of immunity will hunter biden get . That was the issue that led to the deal falling apart, and thats the issue to watch Going Forward because he wants broader immunity than it seems the government is willing to give. I do want you to listen to this because republicans have constantly been this drum beat of accusing President Biden himself of doing wrong here. Theyve not brought any evidence. I want you to listen to what the former attorney has said who is, by the way, a republican. Havent seen evidence and i havent heard of any evidence coming out of the congressional hearing today to the contrary. It appears there is no such evidence. But again this is the world we live in. All right, at this point is there really any jeopardy for President Biden that you see . I think theres been no indication or any evidence that President Biden has done anything wrong here or that the investigation is targeted towards him. And i think what im looking for Going Forward is that is hunter biden being treated like any other defendant . If this were joe smith would we be in the same circumstances . Understanding its not joe smith, but hunter biden like every american should not be facing more severe consequences because he happens to be the president s son. His attorney did talk about that. He said, yes, he is being treated in his view because he is facing more severe punishment than you would see in cases similar to this. And that will all be hashed out im sure in court. I want to talk about whats happening with President Trumps latest case, his indictment, federal indictment. What do you think of the judges decision to put this protective order in place . Does it seem fair what youve seen so far . Its five pages, pretty straightforward. So its a Middle Of The Road order. The judge is saying when the government makes its discovery, when it produces, you know, its Tens Of Thousands or millions of documents, it can mark some of them sensitive, and then there are certain restriction that kick in, and former President Trump cant talk about those sensitive documents. That is a pretty standard order, and the question there, the thing to watch for is how much discovery does jack smith mark sensitive, and does President Trump cross the line and talk about it . I want to ask you just quickly, you know, what weve seen so far from judge chutkan, i mean how is she going to handle the courtroom because this could be a Pretty Wild Case of a lot of people show up, which we expect they will. I think what weve seen is that she in control of her courtroom, and he may be former President Trump outside the courtroom, but hes mr. Trump inside the courtroom. I think shes set a tone that shes not going to allow the circus that is often around President Trump to it infiltrate the courtroom. I think the evidence shows shes in control and shes going to keep that throughout the proceedings. Thank you both for coming on. Thank you. I want to bring in cnn contributor john dean now, the former Nixon White House counsel. No one knows better than you that the Special Prosecutor Investigations can lead anywhere. In the case of watergate, of course, it led to the resignation of president nixon. For you in looking at this from your Vantage Point could this mean in your mind hunter biden might be in worse potential legal peril now . It could well mean that because i know from watching the history of Special Counsel and independent counsel, they can become very protracted. This investigation has already gone on for five years. The longest one i found on record is 11 years. Actually one of my classmates at law school was the Special Counsel who went on endlessly during the clinton years. So they can become dragged out. They can become abusive. So it was not a good day for hunter biden today. Counselor, im going to ask you a political question because i know you can answer it. When you look at this, how damaging is it potentially to President Biden . We are in the middle of an election year. Potentially it could have its certainly going to play well in the republican base. Although the republicans on capitol hill and the house are saying, oh, its a fix, its a coverup. Thats nonsense. Theyre trying to goad this onto make it more aggressive than it might otherwise be. I think they sense theres some political play here in the decision by the Attorney General to appoint the Special Counsel, so theyre going to push it as far as they can by saying its not enough or its misbehavior in itself. But it can, indeed, color the campaign. Theyre trying to get some false equivalency between joe biden and his purported activities for which they have never provided any evidence of his connection of any misdeeds with his son and donald trump who has serious misbehavior on his platter. I do want to ask you about the time that were in right now. Weve got three Special Counsels at the Justice Department. We have multiple cases against a former president who is the leading gop candidate in the president ial election so far. I mean have you ever seen anything like this in American History . Sarah, there was an era that was nothing but one scandal after another scandal after another scandal. After post immediately after watergate we had an era where even jimmy carter, maybe the most moral man to ever sit in the oval office, was accused of misbehavior. His aides were under Special Counsel and a special investigation. So, yes, i have seen this. There was an era when there was an independent counsel statute that was appointed by a panel of judges. They let that lapse. Bill clinton was the last president under it. And when the Sunset Provisions became applicable, they let it die. Both parties had been gored badly by it. So weve been here before, and its never terribly productive. And that is why we bring you on. You have a history of all this and the seriousness of this. Thank you so much, john dean. Appreciate you coming on this late. Up next battleground iowa. The gop candidates in the 2024 race are campaigning this weekend at the all important Iowa State Fair including donald trump. Is anyone poised to break through the pac and challenge his current lead . And one of my next guests has the new theory about the voters who could change the game this time around. Lets hear all about it next. Im currently out of the office. Focusing on a little bluesky thinking. Ill be taking meetings. With family and friends. And checking voioicemail. As my activities permit. Ill connect with you. After reconnecting with me. Get 1. 9 apr for 36 months plus 1,500 Purchase Allowance on a 2024 xt5 and xt6 when you finance through cadillac financial. The day you get your clearchoice dental implants makes every day. A lets dig in day. Mm. A chow down day. A take a big bite day. A perfectly delicious day. Mm. [ chuckles ]. A love my new teeth day. Because your clearchoice day is the day everything is back on the menu. A clearchoice day changes every day. Schedule a free consultation. When you smell the amazing scent of gain flings. Time stops. And you realize youre in love. Steve . With a laundry detergent. Gain flings. Seriously good scent. In tomorrows news tonight former President Donald Trump heading to iowas state fair. Hes set to go tow toe to toe with Florida Governor ron desantis as they both seek to gain support among iowa voters. In a dig against the governor trump says he plans to attend the fair with Florida Republicans who have endorsed him over desanctus. Talked with governor kim reynolds wasnt where trump and other candidates currently stand among iowans. Its so early. People are paying so muc