December 12, 2024: President Biden Grants Clemency to 1500 People, Ex-FBI Informant Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements About Bidens, What We Know About the Drones in New Jersey, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis.

Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Thursday, December 12th, and this is your final news rundown of the week. In today's episode, we're talking about President Biden's historic grant of clemency, an ex-FBI informant pleading guilty to making false statements about Hunter and Joe Biden, Trump being named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, a new federal rule that will cap overdraft fees at $5, the drones in New Jersey, and much more. So without further ado, let's get into today's stories.

President Biden granted clemency for roughly 1,500 people today who were either on home detention or convicted of nonviolent offenses. In a statement earlier today, President Biden wrote in part, quote, "'America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances.'"

As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities

for nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses. That is why today I am pardoning 39 people who have shown successful rehabilitation and have shown commitment to making their communities stronger and safer. I am also commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who are serving long prison sentences, many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today's laws, policies, and practices."

To be clear, roughly 1,500 people received commutations, 39 people received pardons. So the difference is that pardons serve as a complete forgiveness of a crime and restore full rights of citizenship, like the right to vote, the right to hold public office, etc. Whereas a commutation is a reduction in a sentence, and it may wipe away the sentence altogether, but it doesn't restore the full rights of citizenship or remove the conviction from a record like a pardon does.

So the 1,500 people who received commutations were all serving their sentences in home confinement for at least a year. And according to a White House fact sheet, many of them, not all but many, were convicted of nonviolent crimes and would have received lower sentences under more current laws. The 39 that were granted partial

Hardin's had been convicted of nonviolent crimes. The White House is calling this the biggest single day act of clemency in modern history. And it is, but it's a little bit misleading. And here is why. Back in October 2022, President Biden granted clemency to all people with prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. And that act of

clemency benefited more than 6,500 Americans. Obviously, 6,500 is a much higher number than the 1,500 that are affected by today's pardon, so that begs the question, how is today's clemency action the biggest single-day act of clemency in modern history?

I will tell you, at the time of Biden's marijuana pardon in 2022, there was not one single American serving prison time solely on federal simple marijuana possession charges. So what that pardon did is it wiped away any federal simple marijuana conviction from anyone's record who had been charged with that crime before the date of the pardon, but it didn't actually commute any sentences because no one was serving a sentence for that crime alone.

Today's pardon, on the other hand, actually commutes the sentences of roughly 1,500 people that are currently serving sentences. So yes, today's pardon is the biggest single act of clemency in modern history when it comes to the actual commutation of sentences, but not necessarily the biggest single day act of clemency generally. And because I can already foresee this question coming, let's quickly go over the differences between

pardons, commutations, and clemency. We already said that a pardon completely forgives a conviction, it restores full rights, and it wipes away the conviction from a record. And that a commutation simply reduces a sentence, which can result in a sentence being completely wiped away, but a commutation does not restore full rights and does not remove the conviction from a record. But where does

clemency fit in. Clemency covers both. So commutations and pardons are different forms of clemency. When you hear an act of clemency, that could mean either a pardon or a commutation. So hopefully that clears that up. And now let's move on to the next story, but we'll stay on the topic of President Biden, sort of.

An ex-FBI informant who was accused of falsely claiming that President Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges as per new court documents filed today. So let's backtrack just a little bit so we can all get caught up to speed and we're all on the same page. And then we'll talk about what these new court documents say.

Alexander Smirnov was previously an FBI informant, and he was indicted and arrested back in February on two counts, one count of making a false statement and a second count of creating a false and fictitious record. According to that February indictment, in March 2017, Smirnov, while he was working as an informant, reported to an FBI agent that he had had this phone call with the owner of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that Hunter Biden worked on the board of,

And in reporting that phone conversation, Smirnoff stated that Burisma had expressed interest in acquiring a U.S. company and making an initial public offering or an IPO on a U.S.-based stock exchange. That was allegedly all that was said at the time of that report, so nothing incriminating. And it's also worth noting that at that time, it was public knowledge that Hunter Biden was a member of Burisma's board.

Then, three years later, in June 2020, Smirnov allegedly reported two meetings that had taken place four or five years prior in 2015 and or 2016. Smirnov said that in these meetings, executives associated with Burisma admitted that they hired Hunter Biden to, quote, "...protect us through his dad from all kinds of problems."

Smirnov also reported that at that meeting, executives said they specifically paid $5 million each to both Hunter and Joe Biden so that Hunter would, quote, take care of all those issues through his dad, end quote, and, quote, unquote, deal with the then Ukrainian prosecutor general. Because at the time, Burisma was the center of an investigation in Ukraine. And it was these allegations that led to the House investigation into President Biden and Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings.

So the February indictment goes on to say, quote,

after the end of the administration when Joe Biden had no ability to influence U.S. policy and after the Ukrainian prosecutor general had been fired in February 2016. The indictment alleges that Smirnov transformed his routine and un-extraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Joe Biden after expressing bias against Biden and his presidential candidacy.

So in other words, the reason he was indicted is because a grand jury found that Smirnov had lied about what was said at these 2015-2016 meetings with Burisma. Then, just weeks ago, Smirnov was hit with more federal charges, but this time for tax evasion for tax years 2020-2022.

And then this plea deal was just filed today, which combines all of Smirnoff's charges. So according to the deal, Smirnoff will admit, one, that he fabricated that story about Burisma paying the Bidens and hiring Hunter Biden to protect Burisma, and two, admit that he received unreported income in the amount of $2.15 million for tax years 2020, 2021, and 2022. In exchange, prosecutors will recommend a sentence of at least $2.

two years, but no more than six, plus one year of supervised release and $675,000 in restitution. It's ultimately up to the judge to accept or reject this deal, and then the judge will impose a sentence accordingly. So let's take our break here. When we come back, we will finish with quick hitters and Rumor Has It.

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Alright, let's do some quick hitters, shall we? Donald Trump rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, which coincided with Time Magazine naming him Time's 2024 Person of the Year. This morning's ringing of the bell marked the first time the bell had been rung by a president since President Reagan in 1985.

And speaking of Trump, Meta has donated $1 million to Donald Trump's inaugural fund. Meta and Trump haven't had the best of relationships after Meta removed Trump from its platform in 2021 and later worked with the Biden administration to censor certain types of speech on the platform. But post-election, Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to get back into Trump's good graces. The two did have dinner a couple of weeks ago at Mar-a-Lago, and this inaugural donation follows.

According to a new report released by the CDC yesterday, drug overdose deaths fell 17% between July 2023 and July of this year. While the rest of 2024 still has to play out and the months between August and December of this year still have to be accounted for, the White House did say that this is the largest decrease in deaths ever seen in the United States year over year,

and credits the reduction to the administration's efforts like cracking down on fentanyl and making over-the-counter medication available to reverse opioid overdoses. Still, since 2021, more than 100,000 people have reportedly died from drug overdoses each year, and 2022 set a record with just about 108,000 deaths.

And as part of the Biden administration's effort to crack down on junk fees, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, finalized a new rule today that would cap bank overdraft fees at $5 in some cases.

A couple of important notes to make here. Number one, the rule applies to the biggest banks and credit unions, specifically banks and credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets. And two, banks will actually have options to manage this overdraft lending program. So they can either choose to charge a maximum overdraft fee of $5. They can offer overdraft

overdraft as a courtesy by charging a fee that covers no more than costs or losses. Or option three is that they can continue to extend these profit generating overdraft loans, aka fees, in some cases up to $35, so long as they comply with longstanding lending laws in doing so, which includes disclosing any applicable interest

rate. In other words, if they want to continue charging these high overdraft fees, these banks and credit unions have to start treating these fees like any other loan. The CFPB says the rule is expected to add up to $5 billion in annual overdraft savings to consumers or about $225 per household that pays overdraft fees.

And finally, a new watchdog report released by the inspector general today found no evidence that the FBI deployed agents to the Capitol or nearby protests on January 6th, 2021. However, the report did say that there were 26 FBI informants

in the crowd that day. Now informants are not government employees, but they are used to provide information to the Bureau, so that's really the difference between them. This report has been long awaited due to swirling theories on the right that January 6th was instigated by law enforcement rather than civilians. The report said, among other things,

things that of the 26 informants present that day, three were specifically asked by the FBI to report on people they suspected of potential domestic terrorism activity. And the other 23 informants were there, quote, on their own initiative.

end quote, and were not tasked with any activities by the FBI. The report further found that three of these 23 informants present on their own initiative did enter the Capitol building and 11 trespassed on Capitol grounds.

And now it is time for Rumor Has It, my weekly segment where I either confirm, dispel, or add context to recent rumors submitted by all of you. The most popular rumor that you asked me to address in this episode was the rumor about the drones in New Jersey. So first, I'll say that the rumor is true. There are drones flying around New Jersey, but there's also a lot of

unknown and none of the theories have been confirmed. So the best thing that I can do is run through the facts, the things that we do know, and then I'll also discuss some of the theories and what people have been saying. We know that over the last few weeks, multiple people as well as law enforcement and the military have spotted drones flying around New Jersey. And I initially reported on this last week and I said the FBI has begun investigating.

Now, these are not your typical drones. They're not the size of hobby drones that people just fly up and take videos and pictures. These drones are actually bigger. Think the size of a small car. Wow.

One resident said that she saw a drone flying around her house around 2.30 a.m., and when she got up again at 5.30 a.m., the drone was still there. Another resident said that the drones have been out pretty much every night of the last few weeks, except for Thanksgiving, joking that the drone operators took the holiday off.

New Jersey's governor has said there is no known threat to public safety. The U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security did both say that one of its assets encountered the drones, and the FBI has said the drones are the subject of an active investigation. At one point, the drones were seen near a military research facility in New Jersey, as well as near Trump's Bedminster Golf Course, which prompted the FAA to issue temporary flight restrictions over those properties.

These drones primarily operate at night, often displaying flashing lights, but then whenever they're approached by police helicopters, they turn the lights off. The government has allegedly had a hard time identifying the drones via radio frequency monitoring, which suggests that the drones may have more sophisticated equipment. We know, as an example, drone operators in Ukraine have

have developed ways to control drones through things like fiber optic cables, which don't emit detectable radio frequencies. So it's possible something like that is happening here. That's not to say, by the way, at all that these drones are from Ukraine. That's just to say that perhaps the drones are using some sort of technology like that.

As of now, federal agencies have ruled out any connections of local, state, or federal governments. So what are people saying? Well, a New Jersey state representative suggested the drones were from an Iranian mothership off the east coast of the United States, which the Pentagon has said is not true and that there is no Iranian ship off the coast. But then in response to that, the New Jersey lawmaker said that we aren't being told the truth and that the government is treating the American public like we're stupid.

Others have suggested the drones are acting as Russian or Chinese spies. Again, no proof of that either. One man, and I may not pronounce his name properly, but his name is Pramodin.

Pramod Abhichandani says that he has done drone research for the Department of Defense as well as its various branches and for defense contractors like Lockheed Martin. And he says that if these drones are what are called swarming drones, which are designed to communicate with each other over a wireless network so that they can coordinate movements and formations, then it's highly likely that this

is a U.S. government or at least government-funded operation, either by the military or defense contractors. He says it is possible that civilians are behind it just because there are smart people that can purchase drone parts on foreign e-commerce sites like Alibaba, but he says it's improbable because the amount of money required to back such an operation is just so

so high. So that is what we know as of now. There's a lot of theories out there. Like I said, not much known. One of the many questions I've been asking myself, and I'll pose the same question to you, is this. Do you think that if these drones were deployed by a foreign adversary, like

many people are saying that the government would have already taken steps to shut them down. Of course, there's a possibility that the government has tried and hasn't been able to write or maybe the government isn't able to confirm who's operating these drones and therefore doesn't want to take the risk of interfering with them in some way. But I would think having one of the most advanced militaries in the world, we would have that capability. Who really knows? Just something to think about. I guess that can be our critical thinking question for the day.

Just something to think about. That is what I have for you. Have a great weekend, and I will talk to you on Monday. In D.C., it's not always easy to save. But with unlimited welcome from Verizon, saving on your phone bill's never been easier, even if you're on a single line. For a limited time, single lines start at just $50 a month when you bring your own phone. With AutoPay plus taxes and fees.

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