News Brief: Judge Approves Release of Redacted Evidence in Trump Election Case; Appeals Court Revives Vaccine Law; Tennis Great Rafael Nadal to Retire This Year

A federal judge will allow some evidence pertaining to former President Donald Trump’s election case to be released...
News Brief: Judge Approves Release of Redacted Evidence in Trump Election Case; Appeals Court Revives Vaccine Law; Tennis Great Rafael Nadal to Retire This Year
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pa., on Oct. 9, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Bill Thomas
Updated:
0:00

Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we’ve got some really compelling stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.

A federal judge will allow some evidence pertaining to former President Donald Trump’s election case to be released, a judge is blocking a gun law in New York from taking effect, and a judge rules that a Montana law which prohibits discrimination based on vaccination status is not unconstitutional.

Also, the FDA is proposing a new approval process for vaccines, and one of the greatest tennis players ever is hanging up his racquet.

We have so much to get to, and we begin with this. Just weeks before the big election, more details are coming out of former President Donald Trump’s election case, and here’s what we know.

Judge Approves Release of Redacted Evidence in Trump Election Case

A federal judge has approved the release of the redacted appendix that is part of special counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page brief that disputes the former president’s claim of immunity in his federal election case.

It argues that Trump can still be prosecuted for his alleged criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents enjoy some criminal immunity for official acts.

The brief alleges that the former president organized “fraudulent electors,” lied to state officials, and attempted to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election in his role as president of the U.S. Senate.

The special counsel’s brief maintains that none of the allegations in the indictment are protected by presidential immunity and that “at its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan says the prosecutors’ proposed redactions to the brief’s appendix “are appropriate” and that the defense’s blanket objections to further unsealing were without merit.

Prior to Chutkan’s decision, Trump’s team had requested that the court grant a stay for a reasonable period if it decided to approve the release.

You should know that the judge has granted Trump’s request for a stay and is holding off on releasing the brief for seven days in order to allow the defense to “evaluate litigation options.”

One final note. Trump’s attorneys maintain that the special counsel’s office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized “so-called ‘evidence’” purposely during early voting in the 2024 presidential election.

We continue with other hot-button election-related issues, and head to New York, where a federal judge is blocking a state gun law, and you’ve got to hear this.

Judge Blocks New York Gun Law

U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. says the 2023 law that bans people from carrying guns on private property in New York unless the property has signs stating that carrying firearms is allowed, is unconstitutional.

In his 43-page decision, Sinatra pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2022, which concluded that Second Amendment rights cannot be interfered with by the government unless officials can show the restrictions are consistent with the nation’s history of firearm regulation.

Sinatra said New York’s law fails that test and that while property owners have the right to exclude guns from their property, the state may not unilaterally exercise that right.

His decision granted a motion by plaintiffs to permanently block state officials from enforcing the law with regard to private property that is open to the public. Sinatra also denied a request from the state to stay the ruling pending appeal.

So you know, the ruling applies to a range of commonly visited properties, including grocery stores, hotels, parking garages, and cemeteries.

You should know that the Firearms Policy Coalition, one of the plaintiffs, cheered the decision, saying that it’s another important victory for “Second Amendment rights and another major loss for New York, authoritarian governments, and radical anti-rights organizations.”

Interesting to note that just one day before the ruling, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed six bills involving guns, including a law that requires credit card companies to use unique codes to track dealers of guns and ammunition.

We move to the hot-button issue of vaccines now, and in one state, the courts say the unvaccinated cannot be discriminated against, and here’s what we’ve learned.

Appeals Court Revives Montana’s Vaccine Law

A U.S. appeals court has just removed the injunction blocking a Montana law that prohibits discrimination based on one’s vaccination status.

Montana House Bill 702, which was enacted in 2021, states that it’s illegal for a person or government entity to deny a person services based on their vaccination status. It also prohibits employers from requiring vaccination as a condition of employment.

In 2022, a U.S. district judge said that the law, as applied to health care employees and employers, was preempted by two federal laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). He also said that the law violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment so he entered an injunction blocking the statute.

It was appealed to a panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which unanimously disagreed and ordered the injunction to be removed.

The panel pointed to a Fifth Circuit ruling from 2021. It found that the ADA did not preempt a Texas law prohibiting mask mandates in schools after disabled plaintiffs said a lack of a mask mandate would deny them a quality education. In that ruling, the Fifth Circuit found that “plaintiffs are not entitled to their preferred accommodation, but only a reasonable” one.

You should know that they found that the law also does not violate the U.S. and Montana constitutions because Montana officials have a rational reason for outlining different standards for different classes of health care facilities. The law contains one set of rules for nursing homes, another for hospitals, and a third for other types of health care facilities.

On a final note, the press secretary for Montana’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen told The Epoch Times that this is great news for Montanans because one should not be subject to discrimination because of their vaccination status.

We’ll stay with the topic of vaccines, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing a new approach to pandemic vaccines.

FDA Proposes New Vaccine Approval Process for Pandemics

Jerry Weir, director of the FDA’s Division of Viral Products, asked the 11 committee members to discuss changes to the influenza vaccine strain change process due to concerns about the H5N1 avian virus.

Under the current plan, vaccines would be developed before a pandemic to target specific high-risk viruses and those vaccines could be released if a pandemic occurs.

New seasonal influenza vaccines have an established manufacturing process of being produced in eggs or in cell lines, and they don’t need to undergo a clinical trial since they’d be made using the same standard as seasonal flu vaccines. The FDA says that’s because there’s an assumed history of efficacy and safety for vaccines used for seasonal influenza.

This new plan also suggests that should a bird flu pandemic break out, those H5N1 vaccines would also be updated accordingly.

So you know, a bird flu pandemic is not imminent. The acting chief for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Virology, Surveillance, and Diagnosis Branch confirmed that there is no evidence currently showing that the H5N1 avian virus has gained DNA mutations targeting people.

However, 16 cases have been reported in humans.

By the way, mRNA-based vaccines are not a part of the current vaccine preparedness activities.

We have time for just one more story, and the professional sports world and fans are saying goodbye to one of the greatest players to ever pick up a tennis racquet.

Tennis Great Rafael Nadal to Retire This Year

On Thursday, Rafael Nadal said that he plans to retire after he represents his country in the Davis Cup in November. The 38-year-old from Spain, who’s known as one of the most successful tennis players, says he’s slowed down thanks to various injuries over the past several years.

His injuries include a foot condition called Mueller-Weiss syndrome, which includes early-onset degenerative arthritis. He’s also had abdominal issues, and he underwent hip surgery just last year.

He posted his retirement announcement on social media, saying it’s been a very difficult decision that he did not make right away. Nadal went on to say that everything has a beginning and an end, and that it’s the appropriate time to end his long and very successful career which lasted more than he could’ve ever imagined.

You should know that Nadal, known as one of tennis’s all-time greats, won 22 Grand Slam titles over his 20-year career. It includes 14 wins at the French Open, four at the U.S. Open, two at Wimbledon, and two at the Australian Open. He’s also been part of four teams that won the illustrious Davis Cup.

Nadal competed in this summer’s Olympic Games, where he lost the singles competition to Novak Djokovic in the second round.

Interesting to note, Nadal ended his social media post to fans by saying “many thanks to all” in 12 different languages. Game, set, match!

And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Saturday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.

Just a reminder, you can reach out to us anytime via email, and we’re at [email protected]. You can also leave comments for us on The Epoch Times app which you can download for free.

*(Don’t forget the News Brief Motto): We’re portable, affordable, and always on-demand.

And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from chef Edward Lee, who said: “Dessert is like a feel-good song, and the best ones make you dance.”

For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

The Epoch Times News Brief program was written today by the incomparable Sharon Reardon.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.

Enjoy the remainder of your Saturday, and we’ll see you right back here next time for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief. For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.

Bill Thomas
Bill Thomas
Author
Bill Thomas is a two-time Golden Mike Award winner who has specialized in breaking news coverage. In his career he has covered floods, forest fires, police pursuits, civil unrest, and freeway collapses. He is a host of EpochCasts News Brief, an audio news show from The Epoch Times. You can reach Bill via email at [email protected]
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