Attorne Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing he will give david weiss Special Counsel status to investigate the president s son. Hello and welcome everyone, im sandra smith. Gillian, great to have you back. Gillian this is America Reports. Garland says weiss told him he wanted to be given Special Counsel status to continue his probe into hunter biden. This after insisting for months that step was not necessary. Sandra the timing of this announcement is certainly being highlighted at this hour, and raising Big Questions about how the probe will intersect with a separate congressional investigation. And a Draft Plea Deal between hunters attorneys and weiss thats currently being reworked. Gillian Lindsey Graham as well as house ways and Means Committee chair jason smith are both here to react. Sandra mark meredith, live at the Justice Department at this hour for us. Why did the attorney yes decide to do this and decide to do this now, mark . Sandra, good afternoon to you. The u. S.
Kind of a preview of how shell run her court and this case. And in deciding whether to grant Special Counsel jack smiths request for protective order limiting what the disgraced expresident can and cannot say publicly about the case, judge chutkan cuts through Talking Points like a hot knife through butter. On the First Amendment protections, they are so fond of citing, mr. Trump, like every american, has a First Amendment right to free speech. But that right is not absolute. Adding that without a protective order, the disclosure of discovery materials could lead to witnesses being harassed or otherwise interfering with a fair trial. What about the fact that trump is running for president. And chutkan did not mince words on that eithe saying, this is a criminal trial and i will not take into consideration the impact will have for have for a political came on either side. He will have all of the rights hesen tieptled to. The existence is not going to have any bearing on my decision. I i
Investigation goes from here. Hi, david. Hi, gillian and sandra. Safe bet this investigation is now prolonged for at least the next several months now that david weiss is Special Counsel. All that talk about whether or not david weiss requested Special Counsel Status from Attorney General garland, talk about the plea deal in delaware, throw all of that out the window now that he is Special Counsel. And saying david weiss asked for the status, the trumpappointed u. S. Attorney investigating the president s son for several years will continue. Attorney general Merrick Garland decided to give him special County Status after Plea Deal Negotiations fell through. In a new Court Filing Shows during the july 26, 2023, hearing, the defendant pled not guilty. Since that time they have engaged in further negotiations but are at impasse. The government believes it will not resolve short of a trial. I am committed to making as much of his report public as possible, consistent with legal requirement
an autocrat facing dozens of ny charges with an ax to grind against the government he seeks to lead. that s a question that republican candidates are either unable to answer or unwilling to answer at this moment. there s now just one major challenger to ex-president trump after florida governor ron desantis dropped out and endorsed donald trump. it s hard to remember but for a time, ron desantis was seen as the much vaunted trump slayer, the one candidate who could break the hold on trump that he had on the voters in the republican party. appeal to those alienated by trump and ultimately beat joe biden. back in 2022, the new yorker asked, can ron desantis displace donald trump as the combatant in chief? the new york times asked, quote, is ron desantis the future of the republican party? but a las as it turned out, voters didn t want a trump alternative, they wanted trump. that became clear as his legal troubles mounted with every indictment the trump got stronger in the pol
House. Surprised to learn there were any government records taken there to that office. He sees it serious very seriously when it comes to taking classified documents and information. Im not going to go beyond what the president laid out. He does not know whats in them. I would refer you to the white house counsels office. We want to respect the process and so thats what im going to do, im going to refer you to the Department Of Justice. And welcome back as America Reports rolls into hour two on this friday afternoon, im sandra smith. John im john roberts. Seems to be a contradiction between what the president said and did, that he takes classified documents seriously, but they were in a garage next to his corvette. Reporters are more frustrated as the Press Secretary Dodges Question after question after question, you get it, on the matter. Sandra and we heard it over again, the Press Secretary defers all the questions to the Department Of Justice but we are not getting much from the d