The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Hunter Biden Not Going to Jail, Pixar Movie with ‘Non-Binary’ Character Flops, Date Set for Trump Trial | June 20

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Brittany Allen. I'm Samantha Sherris. And this is the daily single top news for Tuesday, June 20th. Here are today's headlines. After about a five-year investigation, it appears that Hunter Biden is not going to jail. Hunter Biden was under investigation for two tax matters and one gun crime. The younger Biden reportedly didn't pay income taxes in 2017 or 2018 and has an outstanding tax bill of 1.2 million. He also reportedly purchased a gun during a time when he was regularly using drugs, which is illegal. But now, Hunter Biden has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. And under the plea agreement, the president's son will not be going to jail. Instead, Hunter Biden would be placed on probation for two years. This proposed plea deal still has to be approved by a federal judge.

Starting point is 00:01:09 House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer was quick to critic the plea deal on Tuesday, tweeting, Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Biden's engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked by reporters his reaction to the news of the plea deal. This is what he had to say via the RNC research. My first reaction is it continues to show the two-tier system in America. If you are the president's leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail

Starting point is 00:01:50 and give you prison time. If you are the president's son, you get a sweet heart deal. Now, this does nothing to our investigation. It actually should enhance our investigations because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now, saying that because of pending investments. they should be able to provide Chairman Comber with any information that he requires. Of course, McCarthy was referring to the enjoined investigations into the Biden family and a bribery scheme with a Ukraine executive. Congress is intensifying its investigations

Starting point is 00:02:23 of the Biden family's financial dealings. Of particular interest to Republican lawmakers right now is an FBI informant who alleged that an executive with the Ukraine Energy Company Burisma paid a $5 million bribe to Joe Biden and another $5 million to Hunter Biden. The bribe was allegedly paid while Biden was vice president. Former President Donald Trump also responded to the news of Hunter Biden's plea deal. He wrote on Truth Social, wow, the corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere traffic ticket. Our system is broken. President Biden is not discussing the issue publicly. The white House has been a way House spokesman Ian Sams said the President and First Lady love their son and support him as he

Starting point is 00:03:12 continues to rebuild his life. The Daily Signals, Fred Lucas, is following this situation closely. We will leave a link in today's show notes with Fred's reporting. August 14th, that is the date of Florida judge is set for the initial trial date for the case involving President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents. The Justice Department has brought the case against the former president. Trump was in court and indicted last week. He appeared before a court in Miami where he pled not guilty to the charges against him. Trump and his legal team, they are expected to file motions that will likely delay the trial

Starting point is 00:03:52 so that August 14th date may end up getting pushed. Here with us to explain more is Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow, John Malcolm. John, thanks for being with us. Oh, it's my pleasure, Virginia. Good to be with you. So explain what exactly is supposed to happen during this trial on August 14th, and how likely is it that it's actually going to happen on August 14th? Oh, I think it's highly likely that it's going to be pushed for a variety of reasons.

Starting point is 00:04:18 I mean, this not only involves classified information. By the way, it's specifically classified information related to national defense information, and some of it is very highly classified, so much so that even the classification, which will have some kind of a code name has been redacted because the acronym is itself classified. So in addition to the fact that all of former President Trump's attorneys are going to have to get the requisite clearances so that they can see this material. And then whatever other pretrial motions, the former president chooses to file, all of which will toll the clock for purposes of the Speedy Trial Act. if he files something saying selective prosecution because Hillary Clinton wasn't charged and he was, or that he somehow the case should be dismissed because he had a right to retain these documents under the Presidential Records Act,

Starting point is 00:05:17 whatever motions he's going to file, that will toll the clock. In addition to that, there is a law called the Classified Information Procedures Act, known by its acronym, SEPA, in which the judge will enter a protective order that will limit access to these documents to only secured individuals. The former president may or may not so retain his clearances. He will probably be exempted from that, but all of his attorneys are going to have to get the requisite clearances. So all those documents are going to be held in a secure facility with limited access. The government is going to come in. under SEPA and will say here are summaries we are going to prepare summaries that will

Starting point is 00:06:08 give the jury and presumably the public at some point enough details about what is in these documents to be able to one allow the defendant to prepare a defense an adequate defense to rebut anything that's in these documents. And also to give the jury enough information so that the government can sustain its burden of proving that he willfully unlawfully retained classified information relating to national defense. So they will have to give some idea about what's in these documents, but without disclosing the documents themselves. The judge will then assess this in-camera and ex parte, meaning the government to lawyers will be the only one in the room with the judge, and it will be in camera.

Starting point is 00:07:03 It will take place in her chambers, probably in a secure compartmented information facility, a skip where one can look at classified information. It will not be done in open court. And if the judge says, nope, not good enough, I'm not satisfied with these summaries, or I don't think that the, the defendant can adequately prepare a defense based on these summaries, that is immediately appealable. So if that happens, the whole procedures will shut down and they will race up to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the Federal Court of Appeals that covers Florida. That whole process sounds like it could take months to get those clearances, to review the documents, to consolidate them, to get them in a state, the summaries in a state where a jury can look

Starting point is 00:07:49 over them. That's a long process, isn't it? Yeah, it certainly could be. Now, I'm quite sure that before these charges were filed, Jack Smith and his team fought long and hard about which documents he was going to allege in the indictment. So after the search warrant was executed, they had a summary that says they seized. I forget how many dozens of classified documents or documents with classified markings. They've charged 31 of those documents. Perhaps they had an eye towards how many witnesses would be needed to talk about the. these documents, would it be easier to prepare summaries for these documents? Would there be less

Starting point is 00:08:27 damage if somehow some of the information these documents got disclosed in open court? So maybe some of that work has been done by the government already, but of course they can't do the work of getting the requisite clearances for Donald Trump's lawyers, and Donald Trump's lawyers will have an opportunity to contest whatever summaries the government provides in addition to all the other panoply of motions that they will file. Well, we're going to keep following the situation closely. And for all of our listeners, if you want to follow John Malcolm's reporting his research, you can find it both at the Daily Signal and Heritage.org.

Starting point is 00:09:03 John, thanks so much for being with us today. Thanks for having me on, Virginia. And in other news, Pixar just had its worst opening weekend ever. The new Pixar Children's Movie Elemental features Pixar's first non-binary character The movie flopped during its opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo Elemental earned 29.6 million. For comparison, Pixar's Moana earned over 55 million when it opened in 2016, and Pixar's Coco earned 49 million during its opening weekend in 2017. Variety reports that the movie fell short of already low expectations. The movie's non-binary character was named Lake and is a blue animated character that appears to be wearing earrings, a necklace, and a plaid collar pullover of some sort.

Starting point is 00:09:56 Since it is summer and parents are likely looking for some fun, family-friendly entertainment options for their kids, we encourage parents to check out the Tuttle Twins and the Wing Feather Saga. Both shows are available at Angel Studios, the streaming platform. And with that, that's going to do it for today's episode of The Daily Signal's top news. 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. Tyler O'Neill is going to be sitting down with Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Starting point is 00:10:32 And 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 all of your feedback. Thanks again for joining us today. We hope you all have a great evening. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko.

Starting point is 00:10:59 Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Hunter Biden Not Going to Jail, Pixar Movie with ‘Non-Binary’ Character Flops, Date Set for Trump Trial | June 20

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