Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Saturday, April 6, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas.
From legal battles and political controversies to societal debates, we’re here to unpack it all. Let’s get started.
Fani Willis Accused of Illegally Recording Trump Defendant’s Lawyer
A lawyer defending one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case said in a recent interview that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis illegally recorded a phone call between her and a lawyer.Christopher Kachouroff, an attorney representing Trump co-defendant Harrison Floyd, said that Ms. Willis’s office recorded a call between her and one of his colleagues without their knowledge or consent.
Maryland has a wiretap law that makes it a felony to record an electronic communication or phone call unless all parties consent to it. But Georgia has only a “one-party consent” law for making recordings, meaning that only one person or party involved has to consent.
Mr. Kachouroff said in the interview that the recording by Ms. Willis’s office is “a felony in Maryland.”
At the center of the Willis case against President Trump is a phone call between the former president and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Mr. Raffensperger reportedly recorded his own phone call with President Trump, who asked him about election fraud in the state and whether any ballots were missing during the 2020 election.
Mr. Floyd, President Trump, and 17 others were indicted in August by a Fulton County grand jury. They were accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty after reaching a deal with prosecutors and the rest have pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Floyd has denied those claims and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
NY Judge Quashes Trump Subpoena of ‘Stormy’ Documentary Records for Hush Money Trial
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has rejected President Trump’s request for documents from NBC Universal concerning the “Stormy” documentary ahead of his trial.President Trump faces 34 charges for falsifying business records. His defense team filed a subpoena for all materials related to the documentary. However, the judge ruled the subpoena “too broad.”
The NBC documentary discusses allegations made by Stephanie Gregory Clifford, better known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with President Trump and is a significant witness in his case. The charges suggest the former president was involved in a payment plan to influence the 2016 elections, including an alleged payment to Ms. Clifford.
President Trump’s legal team also sought information on the documentary’s premiere, release date, editing, promotion, marketing of the documentary, and any form of compensation to Ms. Clifford relating to the documentary. They had also requested any agreements between either NBC or Ms. Clifford with the prosecutors or Michael Cohen, another key witness in the case.
The defense contended that there was a deliberate timing for the documentary’s release by NBC and Ms. Clifford to coincide with the start of the trial and to negatively impact President Trump. However, the judge dismissed these allegations as unfounded and speculative.
The trial is set to begin with jury selection on April 15. This is the first time in American history that a former president has been criminally tried.
President Trump’s defense has expressed concerns over the trial date, citing unresolved issues such as claims of presidential immunity and the emergence of new evidence. Additionally, they have highlighted a potential conflict of interest involving Justice Merchan, whose daughter heads a marketing firm connected to President Trump’s political opponents.
Recent Federal Election Commission filings revealed that multiple payments have been made to the judge’s daughter’s firm by groups that have been fundraising with messages related to this case. Defense attorneys argued the judge now has a commercial interest in the upcoming trial.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor Pressured to Retire
Liberals are urging Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down. They want President Joe Biden to name a younger liberal judge in her place before the next election.Their worry is that if President Trump wins again and Justice Sotomayor, an Obama appointee, passes away during his term, the court would tilt even more toward conservative decisions.
At age 69, Justice Sotomayor is the current oldest Democrat-appointed justice. She has not publicly responded to the calls and has made no indication about retiring.
The liberals pointed out that President Trump was able to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett right before the 2020 election, after Justice Ginsburg died of pancreatic cancer complications on Sept. 18, 2020, at 87.
The liberals claimed that Justice Barrett’s appointment played a part in reversing Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said in a recent news broadcast on NBC News that Justice Sotomayor should retire.
Sens. Mazie Hirono and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats, have refrained from giving their opinions on whether should Sotomayor should retire.
Justice Sotomayor is reportedly in good health, but activists have seized on the fact that she has had Type I diabetes since she was 7 years old and that she has had some health scares. Justice Sotomayor hasn’t made any public comments about these retirement discussions.
Left-wing activists successfully pressured liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, now 85, to retire in June 2022, which allowed President Biden to replace him with liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, now 53.
Mayorkas Pressed to Explain Illegal Immigrants on Terror Watch List Released Into US
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is facing questions about letting people on the terrorist watchlist into the United States instead of keeping them out.A group of Republican lawmakers wrote to Mr. Mayorkas on April 3, expressing their concerns about how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is letting known or suspected terrorists into the country.
Their letter points out an increase of over 3,000 percent in the number of people on the FBI’s terror watchlist trying to sneak into the United States illegally during President Biden’s time, compared to President Trump’s term.
The lawmakers—including House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green and Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger—expressed particular concern about the number of terrorist gotaways.
They noted a number of recent cases of people on the terror watchlist being released into the United States.
They cited one “particularly concerning” case involving a man recently arrested in North Carolina following a four-hour standoff with police. The individual, Awet Hagos, was later found to have been on the terror watchlist—and that he had been residing in the area for six months. He was arrested in March.
Another case involved a known Somalian member of the al-Shabaab terror group, who was allowed to roam free in the United States for almost a year. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January.
A third case involved Basel Bassel Ebbadi, who said that he was an active member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, and that he was in the United States trying to make a bomb. He was arrested near El Paso, Texas, on March 9, after crossing the border illegally.
The lawmakers want to know how DHS deals with these people and how many have been released since January 2021.
Republicans are saying that illegal immigration under President Biden could be a security risk.
Mr. Mayorkas faces an impeachment inquiry for his handling of the border crisis.
California Agency Issues ‘Health Advisory’ on Tuberculosis
California officials have warned about a big increase in tuberculosis cases. The state reported around 2,100 cases last year, a jump of 15 percent from the previous year.This includes cases where people had tuberculosis without symptoms that later became active and could spread to others.
Because of this, California’s health department is telling doctors to be on the lookout for tuberculosis (TB) when they see patients with lung problems, focusing on those at higher risk.
Health experts are urging for tests and treatments for those who might have TB without knowing it, to stop it from becoming worse. This is particularly important for people from places where tuberculosis is more common, those with weaker immune systems, people who have been near someone with TB, homeless individuals, and those in prisons.
In other news, Chicago has reported TB cases in shelters for illegal immigrants, making clear that this isn’t a widespread outbreak. There have been measles cases in these shelters, too, which has health officials on alert for possible outbreaks.
A report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that thousands of illegal immigrants under 18 diagnosed with latent tuberculosis were released across the country between June 2022 and May 2023.
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Thanks again for tuning in, and for all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas, and have a spectacular weekend.
