Morning Wire XX
[0] Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will face no charges.
[1] This is a terrible decision.
[2] Andrew Cuomo is clearly guilty.
[3] Prosecutors announced this week that the former governor will not be charged either for sexual harassment or for misleading the public about the number of COVID -19 deaths tied to nursing homes in New York.
[4] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[5] It's Wednesday, January 5th, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] A new report found that some widely used prenatal genetic tests give false results at a stunning rate.
[7] With families making serious decisions based on these tests, including abortions, we'll unpack the alarming findings of the study.
[8] And with the Galane -Mexual sex trafficking trial concluding with a guilty verdict, the spotlight is now falling on a member of the British royal family.
[9] We'll look at the claims against Prince Andrew and the Duke's denials.
[10] I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady.
[11] None whatsoever.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
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[21] Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will face no charges for sexual harassment or for misleading the public about the number of COVID -19 deaths tied to nursing homes in his state.
[22] Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson is here to give us the details.
[23] Welcome to the show, Ben.
[24] Good morning, John.
[25] So the former governor will not be charged for his handling of the thousands of nursing home deaths in his state, including covering up the numbers.
[26] Has the District Attorney's Office explained its decision?
[27] It hasn't, at least so far.
[28] The DA didn't make any public statement.
[29] We only know the charges were dropped because one of the former governor's attorneys named Elkin Abramowitz made the announcement on Monday.
[30] This investigation began under Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr., who also closed it down sometime before he left office at the end of 2021.
[31] Neither Vance nor his successor have had any public statement as of this time.
[32] So they're playing this close to the vest.
[33] Can you remind us what the governor ordered specifically in the scope of his order?
[34] Sure.
[35] Cuomo's Department of Health issued the order on March 25th, 2020.
[36] The advisory read, quote, no resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the nursing homes solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID -19.
[37] Nursing homes are prohibited from acquiring a hospitalized resident who's determined medically stable to be tested for COVID -19 prior to admission or readmission.
[38] At that time, NPR described New York State as the epicenter of the COVID -19 outbreak.
[39] It had 5 % of all reported cases worldwide.
[40] So pretty soon, nursing homes began placing COVID -positive patients alongside senior citizens who are the most susceptible population to the virus.
[41] Cuomo's office reported 6 ,600 nursing home deaths that August, but one of his aides, Melissa DeRosa, admitted on video that the office vastly undercounted that because they were afraid of prosecution from the Trump administration.
[42] State Attorney General Leticia James, who's a Democrat, said the state underreported COVID -19 deaths by about.
[43] half.
[44] The actual number of seniors who died in nursing homes from the virus was 15 ,000, according to the New York Times.
[45] A Democratic State Assembly member named Ronald Kim said the governor threatened to destroy him if he went public about the scandal, but Kim broke the news anyway.
[46] What about the federal government?
[47] Did the DOJ ever consider pressing charges?
[48] Yes, it did.
[49] In August 2020, the Justice Department opened an investigation into New York and three other states where Democratic governors had issued similar nursing home orders.
[50] New Jersey Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
[51] But the Biden administration's Justice Department announced it to drop the probe into Governor's Cuomo, Phil Murphy, Tom Wolfe, and Gretchen Whitmer last July.
[52] Could Cuomo face additional charges for his handling of the nursing home order?
[53] Possibly if another office wants to open an investigation.
[54] Cuomo's defenders have said that bad judgment isn't illegal.
[55] The order was a political decision, so it requires a political punishment, like impeachment.
[56] But the State Assembly didn't take action before Cuomo resigned last August.
[57] But Representative Cynthia Tenney, a Republican from New York, said additional investigation should be opened into falsifying government records and allegedly requiring aids to work on his memoirs, which netted the governor more than $5 million.
[58] As everyone knows, the facts are not disputed that he altered and changed data, which is a violation of U .S. Code.
[59] The U .S. attorney should certainly be looking into this.
[60] As of now, Cuomo looks to have gotten off Scott Free on this issue.
[61] That caps off two weeks of really good news for Cuomo.
[62] On December 23, a prosecutor in Long Island declined to press charges against Cuomo for fondling the breast of an aide named Brittany Camiso.
[63] A few days later, on December 28, the Westchester County DA decided not to charge Cuomo with harassing two women, including forcibly kissing one of them.
[64] And on Tuesday, Albany County District Attorney David Sores announced he wasn't going to press charges against the governor for allegedly touching a state trooper in a suggestive way, even though they found her to be, quote, credible.
[65] So far, things appear to be going Cuomo's way in the courts.
[66] Yes, they do.
[67] Well, we'll see if he faces legal consequences for any of his actions at some point.
[68] Thanks, Ben.
[69] My pleasure.
[70] That's a Daily Wire reporter, Ben Johnson.
[71] Coming up, a new report on prenatal testing finds an alarming degree of inaccuracy.
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[75] A stunning new report from the New York Times found that certain types of prenatal tests used to identify rare genetic disorders are inaccurate up to 85 % of the time.
[76] Here to tell us more about these findings is DailyWire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
[77] So Charlotte, first of all, which tests are these and what are they testing for?
[78] So these tests use a relatively new technology that uses a small sample of maternal blood to screen for chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus.
[79] When people hear about chromosomal disorders, they usually think of Down syndrome, which is caused by an extra whole or partial chromosome 21.
[80] But that's just one of the disorders these tests screen for.
[81] In the case of Downs, the tests are actually pretty accurate.
[82] However, the test also claim to identify other rarer genetic disorders that result from something called gene microdeletions, which are caused by a tiny missing portion of a chromosome.
[83] This is where the test accuracy really breaks down.
[84] So the same technology has varying levels of accuracy depending on which disorder it's screening for.
[85] Correct.
[86] The New York Times found that specifically it's the disorders caused by microdeletions that really trip up these tests.
[87] So the report looked at five specific popular micro deletion tests.
[88] They found that the test for DeGeorge syndrome, which is associated with heart defects, is inaccurate 81 % of the time when the result is positive.
[89] So basically four out of five positive results are false positives.
[90] The four other tests also had drastically inflated positive rates.
[91] One was 80 % inaccurate, another was 84%, 86%, and one had a 93 % chance that a positive result was incorrect.
[92] Wow.
[93] Yeah.
[94] And of course, families make serious decisions based on tests.
[95] In fact, the Times report did include one story of a mother who was told her baby wasn't healthy.
[96] It turned out the test was wrong, but she only found that out after she'd gotten an abortion.
[97] And do we have any data about how these tests are affecting abortion rates?
[98] Well, that's hard to track down.
[99] The percentage of babies with Down syndrome who are aborted isn't clear, but the number of babies born with the condition has gone down dramatically around the world.
[100] A study from late 2020 showed that babies born every year with downs dropped by an average of 54 % in Europe due to the rise in prenatal testing.
[101] So we can infer that women are using these results to make decisions about whether to have the baby.
[102] Compare that to the U .S. A study from 2016 from the same group discovered that in the United States, 33 % fewer babies with Down syndrome were born each year, even as average maternal age continues to rise.
[103] And that's only Down syndrome, of course.
[104] these other tests for genetic disorders also lead to women getting abortions too, especially because many of them are carried out very early in pregnancy, and many women make their decision based on these tests alone.
[105] A study from 2014 showed that 6 % of women who received a positive test result got an abortion without getting an additional test to be sure it was right.
[106] We should know these kinds of tests are not regulated by the FDA, which some say would impact at least how the tests are advertised to prospective parents, since many of the companies claim their results are, quote, highly accurate and provide, quote, peace of mind.
[107] The New York Times looked at 17 patient and doctor brochures, and 10 of those never mentioned that a false positive can occur.
[108] Wow.
[109] Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
[110] That's Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence -Bond.
[111] Now that the Galane Maxwell trial is over, some high -profile members in Jeffrey Epstein's circle are back in the spotlight, including one member of the British royal family.
[112] Daily Wires, Ian Howarth, joins us from London, where he's following the story.
[113] So, Ian, what do we know so far about Prince Andrew?
[114] Well, we rounded out 2021 with news the jury reached a guilty verdict in Jolay Maxwell's sex trafficking trial.
[115] And now that the case is being wrapped up, the focus has returned to Epstein's famous friends.
[116] And one of the most prominent names in his long list is Prince Andrew, who's ninth in line to the British throne.
[117] Based on various reports, Prince Andrew's legal team went into emergency talks after Maxwell's conviction.
[118] His involvement relates to allegations that he sexually abused Virginia Geoffrey, who was previously known as Virginia Roberts when she was 17 years old.
[119] Jeffreys sued Prince Andrew earlier this year in a civil case in New York.
[120] And so what is the case hinge on?
[121] Well, there are two main factors which are being focused on right now.
[122] The first is a move by Prince Andrew's lawyers to leverage a previously secret settlement between Geoffrey and Jeffrey Epstein.
[123] The $500 ,000 agreement was made in 2009 and was kept secret until just this week.
[124] Prince Andrew's legal team were hoping that it would release him from liability, but when it was released, it became clear that it made no mention of the British Royal by name.
[125] And now his legal team are going to rely on the vague wording in the agreement, which refers to, quote, other potential defendants.
[126] Now, you mentioned two main factors, what's the second factor?
[127] Yeah, well, that's the continued denial of any wrongdoing, including the claim by Prince Andrew that he never even met Geoffrey, despite apparently being photographed with the then -17 -year -old, along with Jolene.
[128] Maxwell.
[129] As part of their strategy to disprove this claim, Jafri's lawyers recently demand proof of one particularly strange excuse Prince Andrew used to dismiss the allegations made against him that he couldn't sweat.
[130] She described dancing with you and you profusely sweating and that she went on to have bath, possibly.
[131] There's a slight problem with the sweating because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don't sweat or I didn't sweat at the time and that was, oh, actually, yes, I didn't sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at and I simply, it was almost impossible for me to sweat.
[132] But this rather bizarre claim is falling apart somewhat, given the pictures which appear to show a sweating Prince Andrew have resurfaced, and his lawyers have said that they have no documented proof of his so -called inability to sweat.
[133] And this is all while Prince Andrew's team is also struggling to find witnesses who can provide him with an alibi.
[134] So a lot of moving parts in what is becoming a complex and honestly strange case.
[135] Well, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on this story.
[136] Ian, thanks for reporting.
[137] You got it.
[138] That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[139] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[140] Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, was found guilty on four charges of fraud.
[141] The founder of the blood testing startup was found guilty of conspiring to defraud investors as well as wire fraud.
[142] She now faces up to 20 years in prison as well as hundreds of thousands in fines.
[143] A new CNBC poll found that President Biden's disapproval rating has reached a new high, with 56 % disapproving of his handling of the presidency.
[144] The network found that even more voters, 60 % are unlawful.
[145] unhappy with his handling of the economy, while 55 % disapprove of his approach to the pandemic.
[146] Hundreds of drivers were stranded in their vehicles on I -95 in Virginia Tuesday, following a severe snowstorm and a serious crash involving tractor trailers Monday.
[147] Some drivers report being trapped in their cars for more than 20 hours.
[148] And police in Germany have cracked down on protesters of pandemic restrictions, citing sporadic violence at some demonstrations.
[149] Officials say tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in multiple cities despite the government's restrictions on public gatherings.
[150] People accused of violating social distancing rules face criminal charges and fines.
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