The Daily Signal - Hunter Biden Obstruction, Trump Trial Date Set, Joe the Plumber Dies | Aug. 28

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha Sherris. And this is the Daily's Little Top News for Monday, August 28th. Here are today's headlines. A judge has set the court date for former President Donald Trump's election interference case. The trial will take place on March 4th, the day before the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5th. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin is the judge handling the case, and she announced the March 4th trial earlier today. Remember that the Justice Department has indicted Trump for his alleged interference in the last presidential election,

Starting point is 00:00:50 which prosecutors argue led to the storming of the Capitol on January 6th. The indictment accuses Trump of conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. The trial date can be seen as a compromise for both parties, but it is much closer to the date prosecutors requested. Trump's lawyers asked for the trial to be held in April 26, citing the amount of documents they have to review before the trial. But Special Counsel Jack Smith asked for the trial to start in January.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Judge Chukin said neither of the proposed times were acceptable. When Chitken made her ruling on the start of the trial, one of Trump's lawyers objected on the record, saying that Trump's defense won't have adequate time, to prepare for the trial. According to NBC News, Chuckkin noted the objection and then moved on. The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit has discovered that it appears Delaware U.S. attorney David Weiss colluded with the Department of Justice to respond to congressional inquiries related to the Hunter Biden investigation.

Starting point is 00:02:08 Here with us to explain more is director of the Heritage Foundation's oversight project. Mike Halp. Mike, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. All right. So let's go to the beginning first. Give us a refresher. Who is David Weiss? So David Weiss is the U.S. attorney for Delaware, which means he's a DOJ appointee who was in charge of the Hunter Biden investigation for what, the last five years. Recently, he's been changed entitled to special counsel, which, you know, supposedly gives him more flexibility. But the cat's already out of the bag on David Weiss. he cooked up the plea deal that we blew up in federal court on Hunter Biden. He's, you know, playing for the other team pretty squarely on this. Okay, so you discover this new information that's

Starting point is 00:02:49 come out through a lawsuit. You filed Freedom of Information Act request. You file a lawsuit. You've just gotten new information about the relationship that White has had with the DOJ correspondence between them related to Hunter Biden. What have you learned? What's this new information? So forgive me if I'm not exact on my dates, but about five months ago, I would say Jim Jordan sent a letter to Garland asking for all the communications between Garland, DOJ headquarters, and the supposedly independent, you know, guy Weiss. They got stiff-armed. They've gotten zero documents out of DOJ.

Starting point is 00:03:22 What we did is we asked for the same things under a different, you know, Avenue, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act. They gave us nothing, so we sued. So we're in federal court. DOJ has been fighting every step of the way, you know, litigating things that don't need to be litigated, basically trying to gum up what should be an administrative process. And then we arrive at this point up to late last Friday night when finally a judge had ordered DOJ to comply and start producing some of the documents. So we got 27 pages of documents in total on Friday night.

Starting point is 00:03:53 And guess what they showed? They showed that Weiss when, you know, Senator Grassley in particular was writing to Weiss. It wasn't Weiss. I was necessarily the one with the pen in the response. It was DOJ. And so how can you have this independent investigation? And keep in mind, Merrick Garland told Senator Grassley that, you know, Weiss is basically super independent. He's got more independence that even a special counsel would have.

Starting point is 00:04:17 He's doing his own thing. He can bring charges. DOJ and the politicals have nothing to do with it. Well, that's a bold-faced lie because you have basically the lobbyist, the political appointee lobbyist at DOJ, what's known as their Office of Legislative Affairs, are the ones controlling the responses to Congress. So to put it simply, you know, Senator Grassley thinks he's writing to David Weiss, but the responses he gets back and the information he's allowed to get back, go through DOJ. And so it just destroys this whole narrative of supposed independence, which has already has been in tatters, but now we're just,

Starting point is 00:04:48 you know, dancing on the grave with it. So then did Weiss and the DOJ lie to Congress? Well, I think if Garland is, you know, to be impeached, that would be the central claim because he led Congress to believe, and, you know, openly stated that Weiss actually had independence to bring charges wherever he wanted on whatever he wanted. Now, things get complicated because even, even even if if Weiss had the independence, I don't think he would have brought some severe charges. I mean, what Weiss did is he, you know, had this plea deal with Hunter Biden to let him off the hook for absolutely everything. So Weiss is, you know, and the bad actor call him on this one as well. But, you know, the show they were trying to put on for the public that Weiss was this, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:25 white hat in his own space, his own freedom, free from political controls. That was not true at all. And so, yeah, it's completely within the realm of Congress. If they deem it to be a lie to them, That's a felony. The problem is guess it would have to prosecute that, Merrick Garland. So good luck. You'd have to wait for another DOJ. So what are the next steps for the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project? So they identified 2,500 pages of documents that are responsive to our request.

Starting point is 00:05:53 We've got 27. So it's going to be a slog through federal court. But people should understand just how insane it is, that we have to spend our time fighting for access to information that already belongs to the American people. When the freedom of information laws are set up, I think, in the 70s, it was this administrative process. You'd basically say, hey, government, I want that document, government sends you the document. Now we're in 2023 where you have like chat GPT, massive computing power. This stuff should be done in minutes.

Starting point is 00:06:20 And so what this, you know, corrupt Department of Justice has done is they turn that administrative process, which should be available to, you know, all citizens, into a judicial process where if you want to get documents out, you need to do what we did at Heritage, start an oversight project, hire lawyers, Sue, stay up all night, writing briefs, responding to DOJ's dilatory tactics. And so that's the fight we're in. It's a slog. But more documents to come. And this is only one of, you know, 30 plus lawsuits we have with dreams for many, many more.

Starting point is 00:06:51 Mike, Kyle, director of the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, Mike, we're going to be following all of your work continually at the Oversight Project. Appreciate your time today. Thanks for having me. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign has taken a backseat in the past several days after a gunman killed three people at a Florida Dollar General on Saturday, and a potentially devastating hurricane is headed towards the state. In what appears to have been a racially motivated act of violence, a 21-year-old white man gunned downed three black people at a Dollar General store in the Newtown neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. The Associated Press

Starting point is 00:07:29 reported that the shooter used a weapon bearing swastikas. The shooter left a suicide note and racist writings for his father. DeSantis condemned the shooter as a major league scumbag, condemning as totally unacceptable the targeting of people based on their race. DeSantis attended a community prayer vigil after the shooting and reportedly was booed by summon the crowd. But this is not the only challenge DeSantis is facing on the home front. Florida is currently bracing for Tropical Storm Adalia. Adelia is expected to be a Category 3 hurricane, and already there have been evacuation orders for Florida's West Coast. The hurricane is expected to make landfall later this week.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Fox News reports that DeSantis spoke to President Biden today, and Biden has ordered federal assistance to support Florida. DeSantis told the press this morning that the hurricane could potentially cost somebody their life. It could cost them their livelihood. And we have a responsibility as Americans to come together and do what we can, to mitigate any damage and to protect people. Ukraine reports to have made new progress in its counteroffensive against Russia. Reuters reports that Ukrainian troops have liberated the southeastern settlement of Robotony.

Starting point is 00:08:51 Ukraine troops are now reportedly working to push further south. Last week, a Ukrainian commander told Reuters that he believes their forces have broken through the most difficult lines of Russian defenses and that troops would be able to move much more quickly now. In a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, Ukraine soldiers raised the flag and the reclaimed settlement and declared Mr. President, Commander-in-Chief, the village of Robotany in the Zaparitia region has been liberated. The soldiers added that the blue and yellow flag will be raised in every Ukrainian village. Political activist Joe the Plummer has died at the age of 49. Joe the Plummer's real name is

Starting point is 00:09:35 Samuel Joseph Werselbacher. He first gained notoriety in 2008 during then-candidate Barack Obama's run for president. He met with Obama in 2008 and asked how his tax plan would impact a plumbing business he was thinking of starting. The on-camera question gained him notoriety and the identity of Joe the plumber, which he turned into a brand that he ran with, even earning a book deal in running for Congress in 2012. He was defeated by Ohio Democrat Marcy Captor. Joe the Plummer is reported to have died of cancer and left behind his wife,

Starting point is 00:10:11 their three children, and an adult son from a previous relationship. Today, we are ending the show by remembering the speech that changed America forever. On this day, 60 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. stood in Washington, D.C., and declared to a crowd, I have a dream.

Starting point is 00:10:30 On August 28, 1963, Dr. King led the march on Washington, and the words that echoed across the National Mall that day continue to echo today. I have a dream that one day this nation will ride its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created each. Will they be a state heat of injustice? Swelltering with the heat of oppression will be trans from injustice. Well, that's a great place to leave it on this Monday. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal's top news.

Starting point is 00:12:21 If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed, where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal's Mary Margaret O'Aulahan is going to be sitting down with the Attorney General of Missouri to discuss the state's defense of children and specifically the week in court defending banning child mutilation. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read and appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks again for joining us today. wonderful night. We'll be right back with you tomorrow morning for a conversation with the Attorney General of Missouri. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million

Starting point is 00:13:14 members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Hunter Biden Obstruction, Trump Trial Date Set, Joe the Plumber Dies | Aug. 28

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