...and make-a-wish. get a new subaru during the share the love event and subaru and our retailers will donate three hundred dollars to charity. >> sandra: fox news alert as "america reports" rolls into a second hour here. looking live at the justice department. 2:00 eastern time, we are expecting a news conference about 15 minutes from now at the justice department. we are told to expect merrick garland to appoint a special counsel who would determine whether the former president, donald trump, would be facing federal charges in connection to a series of investigations, including the probe into whether he unlawfully kept classified information at his mar-a-lago resort in florida. that's a life look there about 14 minutes from now.

we should be going live to the justice department for that announcement. sandra smith in new york. great to be with you on this friday. >> john: and in addition to the documents says, whether or not there was anything illegal heading into january 6th and what happened up on capitol hill. >> sandra: first, fox news alert on the biggest crypto meltdown in history. just moments ago, president biden making remarks on the economy. >> john: the party's second largest donor of the midterm elections faces intense scrutiny over the epic collapse of his crypto company. >> sandra: and concerns victims in the u.s. might never see their money again. according to an emergency court filing, ftx digital assets transferred by the founder of the company to the custody -- to the custody of the government of the bahamas. >> john: and in the spotlight, not just him, but also tom

brady, giselle and other star-studded names. >> sandra: gerry baker is hear to weigh in. >> john: kelly o'grady live in los angeles and she's been following all of the back and for the on this. kelly, what's the latest? >> hey, good to see you, john. i mean, i guess the headline is so many folks involved here and that's what makes this story so stunning. on the celebrity front, build a brand of credibility by partnering with the trusted names. now there's a class action lawsuit claiming 11 billion in damages and you can see some of the names, tom brady, larry david, that they did not disclose nature, scope and compensation related to the partnership. the lead lawyer arguing that they were not only deceitful but also violated the law. >> if you are going to promote cryptocurrency, very clear law.

you must disclose in the same commercial that you are getting money, that you are benefitting from this promotion that you are doing. there's no dispute none of the celebrities said anything of that. >> precedent for celebrities to be held accountable for touting crypto. kim kardashian paid 1.26 million to the sec after promoting a different crypto currency, but calling into ground whether the class action will have legs. sec and the bahamas sharing they did order the former founder to transfer digital assets to their government for safekeeping. something the u.s. ftx arm is calling unauthorized, but setting up a jurisdictional fight where the bankruptcy cases will be tried. whether it be new york or delaware. and sharing that he can fix

things if we can win a jurisdictional battle versus delaware. this is important not only for who will get paid and in who order with what little money remains, but also potentially developing entanglement with the bam ma government over the bombshell transfer. >> john: onion has so many layers and just seeing how deep it goes. sandra. >> sandra: based on the news the top of the hour, await the announcement live at the justice department about ten minutes from now, david, what are we expecting from this? >> sandra, it's two-fold. we know the attorney general will announce a special counsel waiting on merrick garland to announce the name of the special counsel. this special counsel will deal with everything relating to mar-a-lago, the raid at mar-a-lago a few months ago and also aspects of the january 6th investigation. right now the u.s. attorney's

office in washington has been dealing with a lot of this january 6th investigation so the attorney general i'm told by a justice department official will lay out specifically what this special counsel will do and will have to do involving the january 6th investigation. but back to mar-a-lago, that's interesting because former president donald trump announced just days ago he is throwing his hat in the ring once again to become president of the united states. by appointing a special council, merrick garland takes the political heat off of his plate dealing with all things donald trump, whether it be january 6th or whether it be mar-a-lago and the documents roughly 100 classified documents taken from mar-a-lago. it's important to point out that a special counsel will operate with his own office, his own staff, or her own staff, but at the end of the day, the attorney

general would make any final decision that comes before him. it's also important to point out that you know, we have one other special counsel right now, the department of justice is overseeing, and that's john durham. we have covered john durham, he was appointed by then attorney general bill barr back in 2019 to look at the origins of the trump-russia narrative, and john durham is doing his work independently, ultimately his budget is renewed every year by merrick garland. so a few minutes, looking at the clock here, we are going to hear from the attorney general. he will make the announcement. a special counsel to overlook mar-a-lago and the classified documents to take the heat off of merrick garland and the department of justice. he's been under a lot of pressure from both sides of the political -- both sides of the political arm to make a decision and also hear about the

january 6th aspects of what this special counsel will handle. so the bottom line, john and sandra, this special counsel, whoever this person is, has a lot on their plate to deal with both of those high profile issues. >> john: yeah, no question about that. the work of this person is going to be under a microscope, given the pedigree of this person we cannot announce the name for a little while yet, should be well equipped to handle a high profile investigation like this. but when the special counsel starts the investigation, david, did they basically take over from where the justice department left off or start from scratch? >> i'm told they take over where the justice department left off. they can look at the files, interview transcripts, everything they need will be turned over from the justice department to the special counsel and it really just depends on the special counsel and how they want to handle the investigation.

they will have, as i mentioned, an entirely separate staff. the mar-a-lago case is interesting because out of 11,000 documents, officials say were taken from mar-a-lago, about 100 were classified. those classified documents remain in the custody of the department of justice which now means those documents will go into the custody of the special counsel. i don't want to confuse people too much, we have talked about a special master which is this judge raymond dearie up in new york. he's dealing with the documents that are not classified, roughly 10,000 plus documents that do not have potentially classified information in them. so it's not clear if those will go to the special counsel, but the special counsel, when that person is announced in just a few moments by the attorney general, will get ahold of those documents and make a decision if the perform president, now candidate for president of the

united states, should face any charges. >> sandra: i was just going to make the point of timing here this. is happening on a friday just three days after the former president announced his 2024 candidacy. just noting the timing of all this. david, this news conference and announcement was just announced a short time ago to expect this at 2:15 eastern time. do we know if there will be questions taken? >> i hope so. they say the attorney general is going to make a statement, we are always going to try to get questions in. we are told this was signed today, this special counsel order was signed today and it's not surprising knowing attorney general garland. he's come under pressure from the right for not doing enough to investigate the president's son, hunter biden. that's being run by the u.s. attorney in delaware, david weiss, and the left has said that merrick garland has not done enough, quite frankly, on the post january 6th prosecution and the mar-a-lago prosecution.

so merrick garland may be breathing some sort of a sigh of relief, he's now dumping this major, major job on to somebody else, but ultimately as i said, a special counsel still does fall under the department of justice but the attorney general and those close to him, they say, he's doing this to be careful, to show that doj is not politicized and sandra, you mentioned timing. can't help but notice. only a few days after former president trump announced he's going to run again, less than two months until republicans take the house. we saw congressman comer, congressman jordan just yesterday saying that they are going to be looking into the fbi, looking into the department of justice, and potential politics and how those play into the equation. this is all coming together and it's not a coincidence, this timing. >> john: david, we'll let you get back to business there at the doj. we'll cut you loose for the time being but bring you back.

now bring in shannon bream, anchor of fox news sunday, highly reminiscent of when jeff sessions said it's too hot potato for me, i'm going to turn the russia investigation over to robert mueller. merrick garland took a look and said too hot a political potato, turning it over to special counsel. >> and don't want to be too repetitive what he had to say, but under the purview of the attorney general, merrick garland. no matter who he names as the person here and whatever ball they pick up. whether or not there will be charges against former president trump, a first in this country to indict a former president, that ultimately will rest with garland and his office. >> john: not like the old independent counsel statute. >> still has to feed through there, just like mueller would have answered to sessions, this is how this works for this as well. so remember with mar-a-lago, if we looked at the search warrant there, there were a number of

criminal statutes that were used to justify to go in for the search warrant. so, actual jail time can the statutes. a serious matter. and looking at january 6th potentially, this person will have a heavy, very, you know, intensive and very scrutinized job no matter who gets the name. somebody we are now going to know. we say mueller, durham, we will know this person's name a long time. >> sandra: shannon, thank you for jumping in and joining us as we await the breaking news a couple minutes from now. this was a bit of a surprise. we were talking about the timing of this announcement, three days after the former president announced he's running for 2024 for the presidency. we just found out about this to take our viewers through this where we are expected to hear a name. do we know if there is a short list here of people to expect, shannon? >> i don't know at this moment. but i would have to think it's going to be somebody that this attorney general knows will be

under enormous scrutiny. so i would think it's something they think will have bipartisan buy-in, a statesman, or a record of doing this kind of thing. durham named, people on both sides of the aisle said we trust this guy, very intelligent, a good actor and trust where it goes with him. that's the same kind of buy-in you need. the attorney general knows that beyond a shadow of a doubt, the person has to meet the same standard. it has to be somebody to get support across the aisle. >> john: look at independent or special counsel investigations, they tend to go on much longer than a lot of people would either like them to or think they would. going back to the ken starr, when he was an independent counsel, he was under the old statute. he pulled at so many strings and unravelled balls of yarn went on for a lifetime. even mueller went on for a long, long time and durham as well. when we talk about there being

this narrow window between the president, former president announcing his candidacy and the 2024 election, could we expect this would be wrapped up by 2024 or could it go on beyond that? >> it could be. all of those you named were years in the making. election cycle is already in full swing. less than two years until the next time we elect a president. now former president trump is going to have this over his head with every leak there is, and unfortunately we have seen leaks with the investigations in the past, there will be something that will be dogging him on the campaign trail that will always be over his shoulder. he's got a number of other issues, you know, criminal investigations in new york, the georgia post election allegations of potential tampering there, there are multiple things on the trump front and with his family and business he's going to have to think about. this one is the most personal and with the potential jail time probably the most dangerous for him and i think it's going to

continue to trickle out during the campaign. >> sandra: shannon, if you could stand by on the breaking news, we will bring in jonathan turley, constitutional law expert and fox news contributor. ok, jonathan, thank you for joining us ahead of the breaking news. what would you like to tell us as we await this live news conference from the justice department? >> well, we have been hearing rumors the last couple weeks the department of justice has been batting this around with the appointment of a special counsel. announcement of donald trump for the 2024 election may have sped that calendar up a bit. the things we are going to be looking for besides obviously who will be the special counsel will be whether there is any tipping of the hand as to the scope of the investigation. the january 6th controversy is going to be a difficult, you know, area for this special counsel because the speech

itself and the view of many of us that trump gave was protected speech, and the january 6th committee really did not come up with any direct evidence that we could see of a crime yet. it's really mar-a-lago that i would be most worried about if i were on the trump team and that team may have to change. once a special counsel is in the field, it could complicate matters because everyone on that team who has overlap with these controversies, whether it's the riot or mar-a-lago, are going to be potential witnesses. so it will complicate things as well on the trump side, not just the garland side. one of the things we will be looking for is whether the attorney general gives any sense of the time frame that he's looking at. my guess is that he won't. this should move more quickly than the mueller investigation. if it's mar-a-lago, this is a very finite set of crimes,

finite amount of evidence, and finite number of witnesses. it should not take an exhaustive type of investigation. there are real risks here for the former president. statements made to the fbi about the presence of classified evidence at mar-a-lago. this was a self-inflicted wound and it could be potentially charged and so i think that's where most of us will be looking in terms of the special counsel but garland may give us a better idea of the scope of this investigation. >> john: so as always, any time something like this happens we rush to the white house for a response, jonathan. according to a white house official, the doj makes decisions about criminal investigations independently, we are not involved. i would refer you to doj for any questions on this. that coming from rich edson.

and when you think about a special counsel, obviously gives political insulation to merrick garland who will make all the decisions regarding this as the information is handed up to him, but also the appointment of a special counsel adds another level of sort of political intrigue about everything because it's not just the doj that's investigating now, it's a special counsel, and we remember through mueller and obviously other special counsels that there seems to be a greater focus of attention on the part of the media when a special counsel is involved. >> yeah, like the battle of coral sea. torpedos and shells flying every direction. the house is ramping up on investigation and garland is at the epicenter of that. they have a lot of questions,

and i think legitimate questions about hunter biden and garland's steadfast refusal to appointment a special counsel. and so i think that he's going to be busy himself in the coming weeks but this is going to clear his desk a bit. but there are going to be critics that say look, you're investigating the hunter biden matter and the president is all over that record in terms of percentages of deals, etc. it's not that we question the appointment of special counsel here, but why not a special counsel there, and so those questions are going to arise. but i think he'll get a lot of support for saying, particularly after trump announced, this is a time he needs to step back a bit and appoint a special counsel. note one more thing, john, you would not have appointment of special counsel unless they felt that there was a there there. they -- garland clearly believes that there's a potential for criminal charges, that's why

most of us are looking at mar-a-lago as the focus here. that is not good news for donald trump or the trump team. they can't count on this thing going beyond 2024. this is a much, as i said, more narrow and concrete set of facts than what mueller was dealing with in the russian collusion investigation. am>> sandra: so jonathan turley, if you could stand by for a second, gerry baker from the wall street journal is here. we are awaiting the fate of these investigations by the doj, waiting the appointment of a special counsel, it's happened, we are expecting the naming of that any moment now. gerry baker, your thoughts real quick. >> i defer to jonathan obviously for the legal commentary but politically this is explosive. this is a pretty well unprecedented we are going to have a special counsel investigating not only the former president, but the man who has just announced he's

running again for president. and jonathan again has laid out the questions there, both with regard to the mar-a-lago issue and also seeing from the special counsel, january 6th. but it is, you know, it's politically, and i think as jonathan says, the right thing to do certainly in terms of appointing a special counsel, not -- not to have it done by the biden justice department, which is how it would be seen, and yet it is politically explosive. >> sandra: live to the justice department now. >> announce the appointment of a special counsel in connection with two ongoing criminal investigations that have received significant public attention. the first as described in court filings in the district of columbia is the investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the electoral college vote held on or about january 6, 2021.

the second is the ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation referenced and described in court filings in a pending matter in the southern district of florida. i'm joined today by deputy attorney general, u.s. attorney for the district of columbia matthew graves, and assistant attorney general for the criminal division. assistant attorney general for national security could not be here. he is currently in germany representing the department at the g7 home affairs and security ministerial. u.s. attorney graves has been leading the investigation into the events leading up to and on january 6th. he and dozens of assistant u.s. attorneys and other prosecutors have taken on the monumental task of conducting over 900 prosecutions in defense of our democratic institutions.

criminal division prosecutors under the able leadership of assistant attorney general have played a significant role in those prosecutions. assistant attorney general olson has been leading the team for the matter, classified documents and other presidential records. as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation. all of the career prosecutors assigned to these matters are conducting their work in the best traditions of the department of justice. i also want to recognize the efforts of the many fbi agents and other law enforcement personnel who are assigned to these matters. they are working courageously and steadfastly and are serving our nation honorably. i am grateful to them, we all are. department of justice has long recognized in certain cases it's in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to

independently manage a prosecution. based on developments, the sitting president stated intention to be a candidate as well, and the former president, i have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. such an appointment underscores the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. also allows prosecutors and agents to continue their work and make decisions guided only by the facts and the law. special counsel will conduct parts of the first investigation i just mentioned. the investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or with the certification of electoral college vote held on or about

january 6th. this does not include prosecutions that are currently pending in the district of columbia or future investigations or prosecutions of individuals for offenses committed while they were physically present on the capital grounds on january 6th. those investigations and prosecutions will remain under the authority of the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia. the special counsel will also conduct the investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation. today i signed an order appointing jack smith to serve as special counsel. the order authorizes him to continue the ongoing investigation into both of the matters that i have just described and to prosecute any federal crimes that may arise from those investigations. mr. smith is a veteran career prosecutor. he began his career in 1994 as

an assistant district attorney with the new york county d.a.'s office. in 1999 he became assistant u.s. attorney for the eastern district of new york, where over the course of nine years he prosecuted matters ranging from gang murders of police officers to civil rights violations. from 2008 to 2010, he served with the international criminal court where he supervised war crimes investigations. in 2010, mr. smith returned to the justice department to serve as chief of the public integrity section where he led a team of more than 30 prosecutors who handled public corruption and election crimes cases across the united states. in 2015 he agreed to serve as the first assistant u.s. attorney for the middle district of tennessee, later becoming the acting united states attorney. most recently mr. smith served as a chief prosecutor for the special court in the hague charged with investigating war

crimes in kosovo. he will begin immediately and will be returning to the united states from the hague. throughout his career jack smith has built a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor who leads teams with energy and focus to follow the facts wherever they lead. as special counsel, independent judgment to decide whether charges should be brought. not subject to the day-to-day supervision of the department, he must comply with regulations, procedures and policies of the department. i will ensure that the special counsel receives the resources to conduct this work quickly and completely. given the work to date and mr. smith's prosecution experience, i'm confident this appointment will not slow the completion of these investigations. the men and women who are

pursuing these investigations are conducting themselves in accordance with the highest standards of professionalism. i could not be prouder of them. i strongly believe the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. and i also believe that appointing a special counsel at this time is the right thing to do. the extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. mr. smith is the right choice to complete these matters in an even handed and urgent manner. thank you all. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> sandra: there you go, jack smith named special counsel in both of these trump probes ongoing by the justice department. john, obviously that is the news that we were expecting, no questions are being taken at the doj at this time. but widespread implications for what was just announced. >> john: yeah, no question about

that. jack smith, quite a well-known prosecutor, handled a lot of high profile political cases, working at the international criminal court at the hague as merrick garland alluded to there, and he'll be coming back from the netherlands soon to assume his responsibilities here. shannon bream, anchor of fox news sunday, so we have your chief legal correspondent hat on with all of this. the point has been made that this investigation will not just be about the documents at mar-a-lago, this is about january 6th. people could face charges as a result of this special prosecution, including the former president, including some republican lawmakers, potentially, and if that were to happen, in a narrow majority in the house, could this investigation potentially change the balance of power in congress? >> it could have very broad tentacles. somebody obstructing the ability

to hold a joint session of congress, that would come up with the january 6th investigation but very interesting that what the attorney general said was this will be done quickly. now, our definition of quickly and what the rest of the world thinks of as quickly when it comes to these kinds of investigations may be very different. but he noted a lot of work has been done. jack smith will pick up where that has been and add to it. continue the investigation from there, but he noted we were in such a unique situation. not only do you have the former president announcing his candidacy, that pushed this, and the current president intends to be a candidate too, he felt in his judgment a special counsel. >> sandra: great to get your immediate reaction, and jonathan turley and gerry baker. >> smith is a solid appointment, i don't think you will find many critics. a great deal of experience across the board from public integrity to international

cases. it is interesting. the attorney general referred to obstruction a couple of times. that's really where the greatest concern probably will lie for the trump team. i mean, the scope of this is going to contain both the january 6th riot and the election as well as mar-a-lago. as i said earlier, we still have not seen a very strong basis for any criminal charges linked to the january 6th riot. mar-a-lago, the past cases, even the most agregious cases, have resulted in relatively light criminal charges. that is for possessing or removing classified evidence. that is not the case with obstruction. so when we talk about obstruction, that is something that can come and has historically come with significant penalties. so i think that the scope of this investigation is going to be a serious concern, obviously, any time a special counsel is

appointed, it concentrates the mind of every attorney involved. but i think most of us are really looking still at mar-a-lago as where those torpedos in the water are probably most menacing. >> john: let me just get back if i could, jonathan, the question i asked shannon, potentially political implications of any kind of prosecution of january 6th. you said you don't see a lot of evidence for bringing criminal charges but with the special counsel investigations you never know what rabbit holes they are going to go down. again, with this narrow majority we are expecting in the house, if charges were to be brought against lawmakers that could potentially change the balance of power in the house, that throws this into an entirely different political realm. >> it certainly can. the january 6th committee was a fight in the political arena and it came with all of the questions as to the authority and jurisdiction and history of

one party hammering another. this is a special counsel. he is entitled to pursue the evidence wherever it may lead and that is going to complicate things in congress. what we have not seen in january 6th is something that really moved significantly the allegations of a crime linked to president trump. much of the discussion was the speech that i gave that day. some of us criticized the speech while it was being given but i believe the speech is constitutionally protected and i don't believe a special counsel can base a charge on it. the question is whether they can find charges related to interfering with the election and the aftermath of the riot. merrick garland referred to both. he referred to the scope as including efforts to subvert the election. that potentially includes states like georgia which have their

own criminal investigation and you could now have a dual investigation looking into some of those questions. >> sandra: based on what jonathan just said, gerry baker from the wall street journal. you and i have copies of the order appointing smith as special counsel, line b, highlighted what jonathan turley just highlighted, the special counsel is authorized to conduct the ongoing investigation to whether any person or entity violated the law we have efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the electoral college vote held on or about january 6, 2021. huge legal implications. and considering the players involved, gerry, potentially huge political implications as well. >> yeah, i think -- that was the language i was struck by, too. not just about january 6th, you

know, the president's speech and as jonathan turley has said, pretty hard to find a criminal case and free speech is protected in that way. this is much broader than that. this is about the whole effort to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 election. so you know, that goes -- for everything from potentially all those meetings that we heard about that trump was having at the white house, advisers and schemes to try to overturn the results, goes to issues like georgia, the attempts to interfere in georgia, the count there. seems to me potentially very, very broad. mar-a-lago investigation is pretty narrow and clear, the extent to which the former president did or didn't essentially comply with the presidential records act. and some other matters relating to that. a pretty discreet set of evidence and witnesses. this broad investigation into efforts to interfere with the lawful transition of -- transfer

of power is quite broad and again, i did hear the attorney general say they want to do this qui quickly but a lot of people involved, a lot of events, meetings, documents related to that that i think yeah, and also politically very, very significant. i mean, the interesting question here, the president, jonathan turley says everybody will approve of jack smith's appointment, well the former president certainly will and how he chooses to use this to his own political opportunity will be an issue in the next few weeks. >> sandra: reading from the letter from the justice department detailing the background of special counsel jack smith, last line of it, his work as special counsel begins immediately. >> john: and shannon, i want to drill down in this idea of merrick garland saying he wants this to happen quickly. i don't remember a special counsel investigation that happened on schedule that even resembled the word quickly. >> i think they are aware of the

public perception this is going to go on through a presidential election which is frankly underway. always the discussion about they don't do things 60 days out from election because they don't want to interfere with the election but it's already on. people are running and people have said they are running, they are in the middle of a political cycle. as we talked about quickly can be different things to different people, but this special prosecutor, jack smith, has a running start. he's going to pick going to pick up on have been well underway. so it's not as if he is starting from scratch. there is a running start for him, essentially. >> sandra: jonathan, in your view knowing we did not know it was going to happen before it did, appointing a special counsel at this time, is that what you expected, is this the right thing to do? >> i did expect it and i think it is the right thing to do. i also think the right thing to have been done was appointment of a special counsel on hunter

biden. the attorney general mentioned two people said they are running for president. one of them is joe biden. and his name keeps on coming up as part of that investigation. and so i think that as i've said before it is -- the case for special counsel in that matter, in my view is also unassailable. but risks on all sides here. if this moves quickly as clearly garland wants it to, you could have the president being cleared of criminal conduct with regard to january 6th but potentially face charges on mar-a-lago. so you could have a mixed bag. but any charge of a person running currently for office is going to be devastating for most voters. and so i think garland is signalling that he's -- he understands this race has started but that he -- i think

he said he wants to see a result before 2024. and maybe they'll just look at that 60-day period before the actual election as the thing that's going to motivate their compliance with that guideline. so i picked up from my own view, no basis for assuming this, that garland wants to see this thing wrapped up if possible before then. but he does not have an inkling, i expect, what the special counsel will uncover. regardless of what expectations or hopes may be, there is only one person now that will dictate that schedule and his name is jack smith. >> john: and he probably has no clue at this point, jonathan, how many pieces of wool he's going to pull on. and shannon with the legal hat on, let's put the political hat on, fox news sunday hat, special counsel investigation and when republicans take over congress at the beginning of january we

are going to have an investigation of joe biden, we are going to have an investigation of the origins of covid, afghanistan, a number of other things as well. democrats are going to be, i'm sure, hammering on the special counsel investigation every opportunity they can to try to cast dispersions on president trump and republicans will do investigations not reflect favorably i'm sure on the democrats. we have a recipe here for a lot of political heat in washington, d.c., at least in the next year, i would think. >> yeah, if you like c-span and hearings, and you are going to have a ton of them you'll be able to watch on both sides of the aisle, probably. republicans in the house have said they can walk and chew gum at the same time. pressure on them like don't do "crazy investigations," be about passing bills that help americans. they are going to say only so much we can do on that front, can't get things through the senate too much and the president talks about his veto pen so they are going to do

these investigations. the question to me is whether president trump actually takes this and leverages it to his advantage. he's been very good about talking about the elites and the deep state going after him, that motivates his base. so this is just another iron in that fire for him to say look, yet another investigation of me. they are coming after you through me, they are trying to stop me, you got to vote for me. i think he can play it both ways politically but very, very busy time for lawyers. there are abundance of them, no shortage here in washington, d.c. and a lot of work the next couple years. >> sandra: busy time for all. gerry baker, we heard from the white house right before the actual announcement happened, the white house putting out a statement via an official doj makes decisions about its criminal investigations independently and we are not involved, so i would refer you to the doj for any questions on this. the doj did not take any questions, certainly there will be many, though, as we move into this. >> there will, yeah, and of

course you would expect the white house to say that and trying to insulate themselves from accusations this is a politically motivated investigation, and of course again, if crimes were -- if crimes were committed, then they do, they need to be investigated. i do agree. i agree with shannon there will -- the president will exploit this for his own advantage, say look, i'm being persecuted, and in his very announcement, declaration he presented himself as a victim and use it as another example of that. and the fact is many, many people will believe that. this is the unfortunate situation we are in. wherever the rights and wrongs, whatever we find out from this investigation, many people will believe it's yet another attempt by donald trump's enemies to use the law to pursue him, to pursue what a political cause, whether or not that's right, that's how a large number of people will

see it. >> john: gerry, have you been reading my twitter feed? that's what people are saying. we are going to take a quick break. gerry, jonathan and shannon, good to see you. shannon, by the way, has tom cotton among other people on her fine program this coming sunday. make sure you tune in as well. >> sandra: amazing team to break down the breaking news with us. great to have them all here. >> john: we'll be right back after this. stay with us. it's nice to unwind after a long week of telling people how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. showtime. whoo! i'm on fire tonight. (limu squawks) yes! limu, you're a natural. we're not counting that. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

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well, we fell in love through gaming. but now the internet lags and it throws the whole thing off. when did you first discover this lag? i signed us up for t-mobile home internet. ugh! but, we found other interests. i guess we have. [both] finch! let's go! oh yeah! it's not the same. what could you do to solve the problem? we could get xfinity? that's actually super adult of you to suggest. i can't wait to squad up. i love it when you talk nerdy to me. guy, guys, guys, we're still in session. and i don't know what the heck you're talking about.

>> sandra: university of idaho campus remains on edge with police still searching for the campus killer who viciously stabbed four students earlier this week. former fbi investigator bill daly told us last hour he believes the murders were likely personal. >> initial investigative steps, who was in the individuals or maybe one individuals' orbit. was there some confrontation, something personal, we discussed maybe in past cases that when someone is stabbed it's really a very personal, typically, typically very personal type of a crime. >> sandra: dan springer in idaho on the scene for us. are investigators still combing through the crime scene? you said earlier it was the most combed through crime scene you have ever seen.

>> yeah, it's unbelievable the time inside the house, they are back inside, still there. some fresh video shot of investigators actually looking inside the kitchen, they have flashlights, they are combing through whatever evidence they can find inside that kitchen. we have seen them go room to room, tight lipped about evidence or leads they are finding. most of the new information is from the coroner, and a sister said there was only two ways, use the key pad on the side or the sliding door on the back side that goes into the kitchen. apparently many people had access to the code. the county coroner has reportedly said each victim was stabbed more than once and the wounds were deep, suggesting a long blade. she said the bodies were found in beds and it appeared they were attacked while sleeping.

also called the slayings personal. two people, two roommates of the female victims were in the house during the murders. they were unhurt, apparently unaware of the vicious attack that was happening in that home. the daily mail has identified them as dylan mortenson and bethany funk. we have not confirmed that but a police source would not deny it. they are not considered suspects but are talked to by police, and trying to interview as many people as they can to get to the bottom of the crime. back to you in the studio, sa sandra. >> sandra: keep us posted, john. >> john: the attorney general announced a special counsel to investigate president trump and january 6th. what are the political implications and the gop not wasting any time announcing they'll be using house committees they will soon chair to investigate the biden family's business dealings. a lot of investigating going on. karl rove weighs in on all of it coming up next.

>> all right. let's bring in karl rove, a fox news contributor. lots to go over, karl. where to start? i guess with the appointment of special counsel, jack smith, intending to investigate prognosis that may result independently, in the best traditions of the d. justice, the pace of the investigations will not pause or flag. under my watch, i will exercise independent judgment and moving the investigations expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever facts the law dictate. what political implications do you see here? >> an extraordinary moment we're talking about an investigation of a former president of the united states. the country would be best served if everyone let this process go forward and let the prosecutor do his work, special prosecutor do his work, outside of, you know, sort of screaming headlines. i doubt that's what's going to happen. president trump sort of laid the predicate for his response to

this the other night when he talked about being a victim. i suspect we'll hear loud voices on his behalf. this is really an extraordinary moment. the country is going to face dangerous times ahead. >> yesterday we had members, republican members of the house oversight committee, now in the minority, will soon be chairing that committee, saying we're going to launch investigations, first and foremost among them of joe biden, whether or not he knew about hunter biden's overseas business dealings. some thoughts, is that where the represenrepublicans want to sta? they may want to steamroll ahead with those investigations, at least as a political counterweight to what's happening at the doj. >> regardless, if this hadn't happened, the republicans were likely to start off with two sets of investigations. the white house oversight

committee, james comber of kentucky chairing it, would be looking at hunter biden, and we would have the judiciary committee chair, looking into the weaponization of the doj and the fbi, in the so-called russian collusion hoax. so we'll already have that. the question is whether the rest of the committees, the ways and means committee, armed services, foreign relations, intel, etc., are doing things unconnected to these investigations that the american people can look to and say the republicans are trying to do things that will make our country better. the republicans better be focused on the latter, that is to say legislating, proposing ideas that make it out of the house of representatives, snowing that the senate is likely to block them, if they make it through the senate, the president would vote them, but at least it would be a clear idea what republicans want to do if they're given a chance in

2024 to be in charge. they can't make it investigations. >> that sounds like a recipe for gridlock for the next two years. >> well, i'm a little bit more optimistic than that. remember, we had a couple bills last year, one on guns between cornyn and murphy, a bill on infrastructure. we had a freshman senator, a republican from indiana, todd young, and a senior democrat from virginia, mark warner, let's do something about semiconductors, the threat that china represents. these happened without the president's involvement. i think there are a lot more members of congress who want to do that kind of thing, that is to say actually legislate. >> it would be great if something got done in the next two areas. no question, we have a lot to keep track of over that period of time. thanks for joining us. have a great weekend. >> you too. >> sandra, another big friday. >> sandra: another big week, rolling into the holiday week,

john, thanksgiving week next week. can't believe it. john: for all the folks coming down from upstate new york to visit grandma, through the woods, over the hill, good luck getting through the snow. >> sandra: great to be with you, john. that does it for us. thanks thank you so much for watching. i'm sandra smith. john: i'm john roberts. see you next week. "the story with martha maccallum" starts right now. >> martha: good afternoon, everybody. breaking now, attorney general merrick garland appointing a special counsel moments ago to determine if criminal charges should be filed against former president donald trump in connection with documents that were found during an fbi raid at mar-a-lago as well as the events. january 6th. he has appointed the attorney general jack smith has appointed him. he's a former assistant district attorney, a former war crimes prosecutor, or currently doing that, and he will be