On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Special counsel named in Hunter Biden investigation

A special counsel has been named in the Hunter Biden probe. Plus, a judge warns former President Donald Trump against threatening witnesses in his election case, USA TODAY Washington Watchdog Fellow Savannah Kuchar talks about campaign merch, Sam Bankman-Fried is going to jail after his bail was revoked, and USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise looks at what this week's vote in San Francisco means for self-driving taxis.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Saturday, the 12th of August 2023. Today, a special counsel has been appointed in the investigation of Hunter Biden. Plus, we look at campaign merchandise, and driverless taxis are here.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel in the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden. The move signals a wider probe of President Joe Biden's son ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Garland announced yesterday that he's elevating David Weiss to special counsel status. The U.S. attorney in Delaware has led the Hunter Biden investigation already for five years. The move marks a significant turn in the Justice Department's ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden, whose plea deal with prosecutors to resolve tax evasion and gun charges unraveled in court last month. Shortly after the special counsel appointment, prosecutors filed a motion stating that the two sides are at an impasse and that the government expects the matter to go to trial.

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A federal judge yesterday warned former President Donald Trump against threatening witnesses in his 2020 election case. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said as much as part of a limited protective order that restricts Trump's public comments about the case. He's being accused of trying to steal the 2020 election. Still, Chutkan said during a pretrial hearing that prosecutors did not justify their request to subject all of the information in the case to a protective order. Protective orders restricting public comments are routine in complex cases. What's unusual in this particular case is that the defendant is a former President seeking the White House again, and one who has aggressively attacked prosecutors and witnesses as being politically motivated.

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Whether it's Dark Brandon or Trump's mugshot, 2024 presidential candidates are trying to turn criticism into campaign profit. I spoke with USA TODAY Washington Watchdog Fellow Savannah Kuchar for more. Thanks for hopping on 5 Things, Savannah.

Savannah Kuchar:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So, I want to get into some examples of witty campaign merchandise that we're seeing from 2024 candidates, starting with the current President, Joe Biden.

Savannah Kuchar:

Biden's campaign has this merch featuring Dark Brandon. So it's mugs, T-shirts with this sort of edgier alter ego of the President. It's been a bestseller for Biden so. Dark Brandon is a play on some names or criticism from Biden's opposition, and so what began as a combination of some dark MAGA imagery and also a play off the chant, "Let's go, Brandon," which is a polite alternative for insulting Joe Biden. It's driven a lot of traffic to his campaign site and been almost half the sales and total revenue of the campaign store.

Taylor Wilson:

And what are we seeing from former President Donald Trump when it comes to merch? Obviously the iconic hats we've seen for years. What's his campaign doing this time around?

Savannah Kuchar:

Yeah, so one of the things on Donald Trump's campaign store website is a line of merch featuring a photoshopped mugshot of the former President. Trump has been indicted now three times. We're expecting a fourth to come any day now. So, Trump's campaign created this photoshopped mugshot. It actually shows him a few inches taller than he is in real life, and he's also holding this name plate that refers to him as the 45th and 47th President, as if he won 2024. So they're getting ahead of any real mugshot, which so far hasn't happened in any of the three indictments.

Taylor Wilson:

And what are some other examples of kind of witty campaign merch that we're seeing from 2024 candidates?

Savannah Kuchar:

Yeah, so some other examples are Nikki Haley's campaign has one that refers to a criticism or remark about her that was made by former CNN anchor Don Lemon. He said back in February, right after she announced her presidential bid, that Haley was past her prime, which sparked a lot of backlash. And so now Haley's campaign has some merchandise that says, "Past my prime?" And in response, "Hold my beer." Or some stickers that say, "In my prime." So, very much responding to that remark.

And then we also see some merch from the Pence campaign, which says, "Too honest." It's a reference to this latest indictment of Trump. In the document, it retold the story of a conversation between Pence and Trump, where after Trump asked Pence to reject some electoral counts during the certification of results and Pence said he didn't believe there was a constitutional basis for doing that, Trump said, "You're too honest." So, Pence turned that remark into some hats and T-shirts, some merchandise for his campaign.

The other example I can give you is Doug Burgum. His campaign has shirts that say, "Doug who?" A reference to the fact that the North Dakota governor has a lot less name recognition than some of the other candidates, but his campaign has said that his Washington outsider status is an advantage to him. So, these shirts are kind of a play on that. It's a really good tactic for getting your name, slogan out there and sticking in voters' minds.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Savannah Kuchar, thanks so much.

Savannah Kuchar:

Yeah, thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been sent to jail. A judge revoked his bail yesterday after concluding that he tried to influence witnesses against him. The failed cryptocurrency mogul has been out on a $250 million bail package. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole billions in customer deposits through his FTX crypto exchange. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan now says that there was probable cause Bankman-Fried tried to tamper with witnesses at least twice since his December arrest, and that he most recently did so by showing a journalist the private writings of a former girlfriend and witness against him. Defense lawyers have filed an appeal, but the judge will not suspend incarceration to wait for that process to play out. Bankman-Fried has been under house arrest since his December extradition from The Bahamas. Trial is set for October.

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You hop in a taxi and there's no driver. It still might seem like a futuristic episode of The Jetsons to some, but that future is here in parts of the country. And after a vote this week, San Francisco became the first city in the world where two separate self-driving taxi companies can begin offering paid rides. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise to learn more. Hello, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Beth, when it comes to self-driving taxis, what did this vote decide specifically?

Elizabeth Weise:

So, in San Francisco we have two self-driving taxi companies operating. Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet; and Cruise, which is a subsidiary of General Motors. And up until now, you see their cars everywhere, I see their cars everywhere, but they couldn't offer 24/7 taxi rides for money. So, in a lot of cases you could get a ride in one of these if you had been allowed onto their app, and I haven't been yet, a lot of people haven't been yet. But they couldn't charge you for it because it was still in the test phase. Now with this Public Utilities Commission meeting, they can be just like Uber and Lyft, except when it pulls up in front of your house, there's no one in the car.

Taylor Wilson:

And Beth, you wrote that this vote was contentious. What were the arguments on either side here?

Elizabeth Weise:

Seven hours of arguments. Seven hours. You hear things from every side. The self-driving car companies say that they are safer than human drivers, and actually their data supports that. I mean, neither of them have had any fatal accidents ever in the time. There's been one in Arizona, but it wasn't either of these companies. So, ostensibly they are much safer than human drivers who, as we all know, make a lot of mistakes. There are disabled groups which say they like the idea of these cars because they say often taxis and Ubers don't want to deal with someone with disabilities and it's hard for them to get rides.

The City of San Francisco is not thrilled by it, because the problem with these cars is they can get confused by things that wouldn't confuse a human being. I mean, there's incidents all the time where they pull up behind a firetruck for example, and people are trying to wave them around, but they don't know what somebody waving their hand means and so they just stop. There's this kind of very activist-y kind of group that was going around and putting one of those orange traffic cones on the hood of these cars. And they're designed to stop when they see an orange cone, so if you put a traffic cone on their hood, they just stop. So the city's not real thrilled with it, but this is all governed at the state level.

Taylor Wilson:

And Beth, have we seen this technology in other places? I know you mentioned Arizona.

Elizabeth Weise:

It's actually in a fair number of cities. Waymo is in Phoenix and Chandler, Arizona, though it doesn't go on the freeways, and it's planning to begin offering rides in Austin and eventually Los Angeles. Cruise is already in Austin and Phoenix, and it plans to expand into Houston and Dallas.

Taylor Wilson:

So Beth, there are lots of human drivers who make their living driving taxis or Uber or Lyft. What does this future mean for them?

Elizabeth Weise:

These companies want their jobs to go away. There's a reason that it actually pulled out of self-driving cars, but Uber for a long time had a self-driving car subsection because humans are expensive and want decent pay and maybe benefits, things like that. So, they definitely want to take humans out of this equation. And the other piece that they're really coming for in this, because I mean Uber and Lyft drivers aren't unionized, the piece of this that's going to get really contentious is when it gets to trucks, because truckers, then they start running into various trucking unions.

Taylor Wilson:

And I'm wondering, Beth, you touched on the safety of these. I think there is still maybe a barrier of entry for consumers who can't get past the idea of these cars not being driven by anyone. Do consumers seem ready for this?

Elizabeth Weise:

Some do, some don't. I've ridden in one and it was actually kind of fascinating. It did not freak me out as much as I expected it to. They actually go through my neighborhood a lot, so I probably see three or four a day, and they go slowly, they don't go on freeways. So the whole time I was thinking, "Well, if we did run into something, I mean, nothing would happen, because we're going 20 miles an hour," and often not even that. I think some people kind of embrace it and think it's cool and fun and some people are like, "Yeah, there is just no way that is going to happen." I mean, it is a bit science fiction-y. It's weird. I sat in the front seat and you're in this car and it comes to a turn and the steering wheel just starts moving, but there are no hands on it.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, the future is here. Elizabeth Weise, thanks as always.

Elizabeth Weise:

You're so welcome.

Taylor Wilson:

And before we go, did you know that 5 Things is now on YouTube? A limited number of our specials and Sunday episodes will now be available as vodcasts. We have a link in today's show notes.

And thanks for listening to 5 Things. Dana Taylor is in for the Sunday episode tomorrow, and I'll see you on Monday with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

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