it certainly isn t, and as the house republicans continue to investigate hunter biden, the justice department s investigation, including bringing the iris whistleblowers, investigating that, it s going to be a continuing thorn in the side of joe biden as he pursues reelection. tell me more about special counsel david weiss and what he might do with these new special counwers? he was appointed byr president donald trump in 2017 and confirmed unanimously by e senate, so he was something that the biden administration decided to keep on because he was already independent, not somebody that biden put into place, now with the special counsel powers it means you have additional resources, a budget to bring in additional staff if you want also remove him from the day-to-d oversight of the justice will be able to continue to u invee this as they have been, and also allowed to look into charging any potential crimes in other jurisdictions, he doesn t have to stick in delaware, wher
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 general s 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 trump s attorneys the former president s right to free speech is not absolute. and hawaii s 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 i m jake tapper. and we start with our law and justice lead
likely. we re following the legal and political implications. plus a warning to donald trump s legal team from the judge overseeing the election interference case, saying more inflammatory statements will require a quicker start to the trial. we are live outside the court. and the death toll as they have yet to even start searching the hundred of burned out buildings. we ll take you live to maui. we re following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central. another controversial investigation that could have some pretty big repercussions for 2024 is escalating. today a special counsel was designated in the federal probe of hunter biden. attorney general merrick garland named david weiss to the role. weiss has been leading this investigation. yes, he has. he s been leading the investigation into hunter biden for the past five years, in fact. this week he asked himself to be elevated to that role of special counsel. we re f
soon. as you point out, the symbolism of just announcing the nuclear state in their constitution, those things matter. will ripley, thank you very much. and thank you all very much for being with us as well. it s time now for ac 360 of it s time now for ac 360 of course with anderson. captions by vitac www.vitac.com tonight on 360, a setback on top of a body blow. a federal judge tells the former president she s not going anywhere, she s not recusing herself. and we ve learned more about another judge s ruling that legal experts are calling a possible dental health penalty for trump s business. mrs. menendez, partners in crime, how they came to be a couple and how they pleaded to bribery charges today. the manhunt for a convicted predator and alleged murderer, a man one top official claimed will kill and do anything he can to cause harm. we begin with breaking news. the end of what would already be a difficult day, even for someone whose business empir
quote, federal prosecutors secretly argued that if donald trump learned of their efforts to access his twitter account, his public attorneys working for special counsel jack smith worried trump would publicly announce like he announced on truth social when his mar-a-lago estate was searched. a surge in threats against federal law enforcement culminating in the fatal shooting of a man who had attempted to breach the fbi building in cincinnati. if this showdown between special counsel jack smith and the social media giant twitter now known as x is ringing any bells for you, that s because we ve reported on it here before, an how twitter dragged its feet only to ultimately and begrudgingly hand over a heap of data about donald trump s twitter account. tweets location data, direct messages. now thanks to his newly unsealed filing, we know exactly how many direct messages from trump s account were turned over. just 32. what jack smith describes as a, quote, minuscule amount. b