Morning Wire XX
[0] President Trump announces on Truth Social that he anticipates yet another indictment after receiving a target letter from the DOJ.
[1] The House of Representatives needs to take action to defund this special counsel investigation immediately.
[2] They are attacking our democracy and engaging in election interference right now.
[3] What's the former president being charged with now and how will it affect his ability to run for office in 2024?
[4] I'm Georgia Howe and John is a lot of.
[5] on vacation.
[6] It's Wednesday, July 19th, and this is Morning Wire.
[7] Congressional Democrats are calling for new ethics rules for the land's highest court.
[8] Why are they seeking oversight now and how are Republicans responding?
[9] It is not up to Congress to tell the court how they're supposed to function.
[10] And police crack a cold case.
[11] What evidence led to the arrest of the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, more than a decade after the murders.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[13] Stay tuned.
[14] We have the news you need to know.
[15] Former President Trump announced he expects to be indicted yet again, this time in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
[16] Here with more on the story is Daily Wire Managing Editor Greg Wilson.
[17] So, Greg, Trump released a statement on Truth Social on Tuesday.
[18] What are the specifics that we know right now?
[19] Hi, Georgia.
[20] That's right.
[21] Trump broke the news with a post, saying he received a letter Sunday night from special counsel Jack Smith, who he called deranged.
[22] Smith invited Trump to appear before a grand jury in Washington within four days.
[23] That panel's been looking at Trump's conduct between Election Day of 2020 and January 6th of 2021.
[24] The letter also informed the former president he is a criminal target of the grand jury's investigation, and it could mean an indictment and an arrest could be imminent.
[25] Now, do we know what charges Trump is faced?
[26] and or could face?
[27] Not so far.
[28] There's some talk that Smith could seek a seditious conspiracy charge based on Trump's alleged efforts to substitute a different set of electors to replace the ones who ultimately certified President Joe Biden as the winner.
[29] There could also be an obstruction of an official preceding charge, which we've seen used against other January 6 defendants.
[30] Morningwire spoke to journalist Julie Kelly, who's been following this closely, and she says the evidence is far from solid.
[31] The evidence largely relates to communication with other people, text messages, videos that were made, posts on social media.
[32] I mean, this is the sort of flimsy evidence that the DOJ is getting away with not just before a grand jury seeking criminal indictments now against more than a thousand January 6 defendants, but that sort of evidence will also be presented to the same sort of grand jury seeking these same charges against Donald Trump.
[33] Although a lot's been made of Trump's speech at the ellipse just before the riot, Smith is not believed to be pursuing charges based on that.
[34] Trump undeniably riled up the crowd when he told him to march to the Capitol, but he also told attendees to be peaceful, and using his words to hold him responsible for the riot could face high First Amendment hurdles.
[35] It's not known if Trump will choose to appear before the grand jury, which is reportedly already heard from former Vice President Mike Pence, former director of the Office of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, and a handful of others, including White House lawyers.
[36] Now, this is just one of several cases that Trump is facing.
[37] What's the status on the others?
[38] They're all chugging along.
[39] Trump is under indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney in connection with alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
[40] And in Florida, where Smith's office accuses him of mishandling sensitive documents, the ones found at Mar -a -Lago.
[41] Trump's also under a criminal investigation in Georgia for his alleged attempt to overturn Biden's narrow victory there in 2020.
[42] His legal team's trying to push any federal trials off until after the 2024 election, but Smith is resisting those efforts.
[43] Trump can continue to run while under indictment and even potentially from a prison cell.
[44] And if he were to get elected, he hypothetically could pardon himself.
[45] Now, speaking of his presidential campaign, there's been a lot of talk that these indictments are actually hardening Trump's support.
[46] What do the latest polls show?
[47] Right, Georgia.
[48] Trump and many of his supporters think the cases are just a witch hunt aimed at preventing him from returning to the White House.
[49] And according to a morning consult poll published Tuesday, Trump leads the primary field with support from 55 % of likely GOP voters, followed by Florida Governor Ronda Sanis at 20%, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 8 % and Pence at 7%.
[50] Well, it'll be interesting to see if this helps or hurts him.
[51] Greg, thanks for reporting.
[52] You're welcome.
[53] That was Daily Wire Managing Editor, Greg Wilson.
[54] Senate Democrats are now calling for new legislation that would impose strict ethics rules on Supreme Court justices.
[55] The new push comes amid allegations of unethical activity among several justices on the high court.
[56] Here with more is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[57] So, Cabot, what exactly are Democrats calling for?
[58] Yeah, this week, Democrats in the Senate are pushing new, legislation that would enact far stricter ethics rules for the Supreme Court.
[59] Among other things, the law would establish a new code of conduct for justices and lay out clear guidelines for when a justice must recuse themselves from a case and also require justices to explain to the public why they're recusing themselves.
[60] It would also mandate increased transparency about individuals appearing before the court and any ties they might have with justices.
[61] And finally, it would create a first of its kind investigatory board to look into potential violations of that new code of conduct.
[62] So it's pretty substantial.
[63] On Thursday, the measure will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.
[64] Now, this new push comes after allegations of unethical activity among multiple justices.
[65] Can you give us a quick refresher?
[66] Yeah, so justices on both sides of the spectrum have been accused of ethical violations throughout the last year.
[67] For example, we've talked quite a bit on the show about Clarence Thomas, who's been accused by the left of accepting free vacations and trips on private planes from wealthy friends.
[68] The left is also called for Thomas to recuse himself from a number of cases involving his wife, Ginny Thomas, a conservative activist involved in 2020 election efforts.
[69] And then there's Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
[70] An Associated Press Report last week found that her staff had pressured public libraries and other institutions to buy thousands of her books ahead of speaking engagements.
[71] Republicans say it's a blatant example of a pay -for -play scheme that helped Sotomayor earn nearly $4 million in book sales.
[72] While members of Congress and the executive branch are barred by law from, using their taxpayer -funded staff to help them sell books or secure speaking engagements, the Supreme Court has no such laws on the books.
[73] So in these cases, the justices weren't actually breaking any rules.
[74] Right.
[75] So supporters of the justices point out that even if all these reports are true, they don't constitute illegal activity.
[76] The reality is there are no laws requiring justices to disclose every vacation they take with friends.
[77] No matter how wealthy those friends are, there's no law against the justice selling their home.
[78] And there's nothing on the books requiring justices to explain in writing why they have or haven't recused themselves from a case.
[79] The argument from Democrats is that all of these activities should be regulated by law.
[80] Right.
[81] So tell us what are Democrats saying about this?
[82] Well, the main argument from Democrats and others in support of the Ethics Code is that local and federal judges, as well as members of the executive and legislative branch, must abide by a straight ethics code, requires them to disclose gifts and relationships with private citizens.
[83] And they say that those sitting on the Supreme Court should be held to the same or higher standards.
[84] Here's Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, sponsor of this legislation on MSNBC.
[85] The legislative branch of government has processes and transparent proceedings involving other individuals that the Supreme Court has avoided for itself, but that all other federal judges actually have to adhere to.
[86] How likely is this measure to pass?
[87] Well, as it currently stands, it doesn't look likely.
[88] Democrats would need 60 votes in the Senate for passage.
[89] And right now, the only Republican who appears on board is a, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski.
[90] In the coming days and weeks, though, expect to see a full court press from Senate Democrats in the media, looking to put pressure on vulnerable Republicans to cross party lines and support the measure.
[91] At the moment, Republicans in opposition to the law say that it's another attempt by the left to undermine and, even more importantly, intimidate the court.
[92] They say Democrats are looking for retribution against the court for recent rulings in support of conservative causes and point out that under current law, the Senate does not have the power to dictate how the Supreme Court operates.
[93] So even though, even if the measure were to pass, there are significant legal questions as to whether it would actually be blinding.
[94] All right.
[95] Well, Cabot, thanks so much for reporting.
[96] Any time.
[97] A suspected serial killer has been arrested for a string of unsolved murders that occurred on Gilgo Beach in Long Island, New York, between 2007 and 2010.
[98] Almost a dozen bodies were found in the dunes of Gilgo Beach in 2011, confounding police for more than a decade.
[99] The suspect has been identified as a 59 -year -old architect consultant in Midtown Manhattan.
[100] Here to explain how police found the suspect after more than a decade is Daily Wire Senior Editor, Ash Short.
[101] Now, Ash, I understand the suspect, who we won't be naming per Daily Wire policy, wasn't even on police's radar until last year, correct?
[102] Correct.
[103] The case went cold shortly after the bodies were discovered in late 2011, but the case was reopened in January 2022 with the creation of a task force.
[104] The victims included mostly adults.
[105] women, but at least one adult male and one toddler were among the deceased.
[106] Within two months, the task force came up with a suspect in four of the 11 total murders.
[107] And how did his name come up?
[108] A witness remembered his car.
[109] Someone who was in the Gilgo Beach area at the time one of the women disappeared reported seeing a first generation Chevrolet avalanche in the area.
[110] Police ran a search for people who owned that particular vehicle and came up with the suspect's name.
[111] It's unclear how many people in the area owned one of those vehicles in the same color as the suspects.
[112] Once police focused on him, they were able to link him to burner cell phones that were used to speak to the women shortly before they disappeared.
[113] Cell phone records also showed that he used the phones of two of the victims after they disappeared.
[114] A particularly chilling detail, the suspect allegedly used at least one victim's phone to call the victim's family members on multiple occasions to harass them.
[115] So what was the nail in the coffin that made police pretty sure they'd found their guy?
[116] So the Suffolk County Crime Lab found several female hairs on the bodies of some of the victims, hairs that didn't belong to the victims.
[117] Initially, there wasn't enough for DNA.
[118] But when the case was reopened, the crime lab sent the samples to a forensic lab that uses advanced DNA techniques.
[119] That lab was able to determine that the hairs belonged to the same woman.
[120] Police collected some discarded bottles from the suspect's trash and found that the DNA from the hairs would exclude 99 .98 % of the North American population, but not the suspect's wife.
[121] It's important to note, though, that the wife is not suspected of participating in the murders and was out of the country when the women disappeared.
[122] And they were eventually able to link to the suspect himself?
[123] Yes, the forensics lap used the same techniques on male hair found on the victims and determined that 99 .96 % of of the population was excluded from being the source of the hair.
[124] The suspect, however, cannot be excluded.
[125] Police collected a discarded pizza box from the suspect's trash to connect the DNA on the hairs to the suspect.
[126] Now, the suspect has been officially charged with at least three murders, but there were more bodies found.
[127] Is he a suspect in those additional murders as well?
[128] Yes.
[129] So the suspect has been charged in the murders of three out of four of the women known as the Gilgo Four, and is the prime suspect in the fourth.
[130] But shortly after these four bodies were found, seven more were found in the area for a total of 11.
[131] Police are currently looking into whether the suspect was responsible for those murders as well.
[132] Now, the suspect is, of course, innocent until proven guilty, but if convicted, what kind of time does he face?
[133] Oh, multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole, since New York doesn't have the death penalty.
[134] All right.
[135] Well, definitely a case we're going to be following.
[136] Ash, thanks for reporting.
[137] You're welcome.
[138] That was Daily Wire Senior Editor, Ash Short.
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