Crooked Media - What A Day: Hunter blatherers

The Justice Department has appointed another special counsel, but we think all of our federal prosecutors are special in their own way!
 

• Attorney General Merrick Garland redesignated U.S. Attorney David Weiss—the federal prosecutor in Delaware who has been handling the Hunter BIden case—as a special counsel on Friday morning. This new designation will give Weiss an additional layer of independence from DOJ’s political appointees, though Weiss has testified that he’s experienced no interference from the department leadership. A chorus of deranged Republicans has demanded an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, whom they baselessly claim benefited from his son’s business ventures, and this seems like a move meant to appease them, even though nothing will appease them. Interesting that they don’t seem to care about a certain Supreme Court Justice using his public office for millions of dollars in private gain over decades, or Donald Trump appointing his children to senior administration jobs so they could solicit billion dollar bribes from foreign countries!
   

• The official reason for naming Weiss special counsel is that Hunter plans to fight the charges against him. Back in June, the younger Biden struck a plea deal which would have required him to plead guilty to two charges of failing to pay taxes. Additionally, under a pretrial “diversion agreement” he would have admitted to unlawful gun possession and agreed to conditions such as not purchasing a firearm in the future, and not using drugs—in order to avoid actual charges of unlawful possession of a firearm. In July, the federal judge overseeing the case raised questions about the legality and nature of the agreement and refused to accept the deal, ordering the parties to resume negotiations. This week, those negotiations reached an impasse. 
   

• With the plea deal upended, Hunter Biden pled not guilty to charges of failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, and did not enter a plea in the separate felony firearms charge. The son of a sitting president facing criminal charges while his father campaigns for re-election, and the likely 2024 GOP nominee also facing a mountain of criminal charges is going to be…really something!

Speaking of disgraced former president Donald Trump…
 

• As Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wraps up her investigation of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, there are indications that he may face felony charges in Georgia that are very different from the 78 (!!!) already filed against him. Specifically, Willis could charge Trump with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The RICO Act is commonly known as a tool to fight organized crime, but it’s not difficult to see why it would also be applicable to a coordinated scheme to steal an election.
   

• Presiding over her first hearing for the federal January 6 case against Trump, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a limited protective order, prohibiting Trump from discussing most of the evidence in the case,, as is routine in criminal cases. But she also  warned Trump’s lawyers, “Your client’s defense is supposed to happen in this courtroom, not on the internet.” She added “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of the case,” and that if Trump keeps making “inflammatory” online statements, she will feel impelled to move the case to trial even more expeditiously, to limit witness intimidation or undue influence of the jury pool. 

Republicans love to respond to any mention of Donald Trump’s innumerable crimes with “Well what about Hunter Biden?” Hunter Biden has never held or sought public office, and even if a jury convicts him, Republicans have looked high and low and found no evidence that President Biden had anything to do with it. They openly admit their “impeachment inquiry” is meant to create the appearance of impropriety, settle scores for Trump’s impeachment, and leave the public confused as to which candidate is the more corrupt. Democrats should engage in that fight, because they hold the high ground of ethics, but the Republican plan to muddy the waters is working.

Have you ever worn a Black Lives Matter shirt to work? And what are the rules around bringing up Alabama Boat Brawl in your work Slack channel? In Work Appropriate’s most recent episode, host Anne Helen Peterson and guest Garrett Bucks answer questions from white listeners struggling to find the best ways to exert allyship around social justice issues at work. Listen to this interesting conversation, and more every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.

The death toll from a wildfire on Hawaii’s Maui Island has reached 55 and is expected to rise as search teams begin to assess the wreckage. 

A federal judge revoked disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail over alleged witness tampering. Bankman-Fried—who has been out on $250 million bail since December—will be remanded to custody directly from his Friday court hearing. 

Trustees at the New College of Florida (led by Ron DeSantis ally Christopher Ruffo) voted 7-3 on Friday to abolish the college’s gender-studies program, which has been around for almost 30 years. Cool state! Love what the GOP has done with the place! Let us know how banning Romeo and Juliet goes for you, too! 

The Supreme Court temporarily blocked a bankruptcy deal for Purdue Pharma on Thursday that would have shielded members of the evil billionaire Sackler family from additional lawsuits over the opioid epidemic and limited the family’s personal liability to $6 billion. The delay was in response to a Justice Department objection to the deal, which the government said allowed the Sackler family to exploit legal protections meant for debtors in “financial distress,” not billionaires. 

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, accused of killing his wife, admitted to it over texts to his court clerk and bailiff immediately after the fact. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the heads of all of the country’s regional military-recruitment centers on Friday after a report detailed corruption in the recruitment system. 

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Russian billionaires behind the prominent financial services firm Alfa Group on Friday.

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The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Friday that it will spend $1.2 billion on the nation’s first two major carbon-capture facilities. 

The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously rejected a lawsuit filed by several Republicans to eliminate the question on enshrining abortion access into the state constitution from the November ballot, after the anti-abortion effort to raise the voter threshold for ballot measures failed. Kick rocks, anti-choice freaks!!