September 26, 2024: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Indicted, Senate Releases Report Re: Secret Service Failures, Haitian Group Files Criminal Charges Against Trump and Vance, Clearing Up Some Rumors, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Thursday, September 26th, and this is your bi-weekly news rundown. As a reminder, for the next few weeks, episodes will be releasing only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the episodes will be released a bit earlier in the day than usual. But once we get into the latter half of October, we'll be back to four episodes per week and back to the 5 p.m. Eastern time release. So, let's get started.

So, today's episode will be a little bit longer than usual because we do have a lot of ground to cover, but for those that may be new here, episodes are usually between 15 and 20 minutes. So, with those few reminders out of the way, and without further ado, let's get into today's stories.

I actually want to start this episode by touching on something I covered last week, specifically the September 18th episode. I was speaking about the detonations in Lebanon, some in Syria, but mostly in Lebanon, which were targeting members of Hezbollah. And in that story, I mentioned that Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim political organization that has an

armed wing. And I mentioned that Israel is very much against Hezbollah and Hezbollah is very much against Israel. What I failed to mention, though, is that Hezbollah is a designated terrorist organization, not only by the United States, but also by the UK and multiple other countries.

The United States designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 1997. The EU gave the designation to Hezbollah's military arms specifically in 2013. The UK gave the designation to all of Hezbollah in 2019, as did the German government in 2020. Now, as I said, I did not mention this terrorist designation fact in last week's episode, but it was only because I've talked about it before. Sometimes,

for the sake of just not wanting to sound redundant, I avoid repeating myself, but I had many listeners reach out wondering why I didn't mention it. But one listener in particular phrased her concern really well. She noted that by leaving out the fact that Hezbollah is a designated terrorist organization by many countries and only mentioning that it's a political organization with an armed

wing, listeners weren't able to come to their own informed opinions because they weren't receiving all of the relevant information. And that point stands true regardless of where you fall on Middle Eastern conflicts and affairs. So because I'm all about wanting you to be able to form your own opinions, your own informed opinions, that fact really should not have been

left out of last week's story, you know, despite me having mentioned it in the past, should have been included because it is relevant to the story. And as always, I'll continue to do my best moving forward.

With that said, let's now move on to the criminal charges that were filed against former President Trump and Senator J.D. Vance over their comments about Haitian immigrants eating pet cats and dogs. It was actually a Haitian group, the Haitian Bridge Alliance, that filed these charges. And you might be wondering how a private entity is able to file charges. And the answer is that in Ohio, there is a state law that allows private

private citizens to file an affidavit charging someone with a crime. But under that law, there must also be a hearing before the affidavit of criminal charges can move forward. And as of now, there has not been a hearing scheduled. In total, that affidavit lists five charges, disrupting public services, making false alarms, complicity, telecommunications harassment, and aggravated menacing. Can

Keep in mind, since Trump's remarks and Vance's remarks about the immigrants in Springfield, Springfield has received around 33 bomb threats. So that fact obviously ties into all of these charges listed into the act.

listed in the affidavit. Now, how this would work is once a hearing is scheduled and that date comes, the Haitian Bridge Alliance would present their affidavit to the judge and ask that the judge find probable cause that Trump and Vance committed the five charges listed in the affidavit and then to issue warrants for their arrests accordingly. Should the judge find probable cause, he or she would issue those arrest warrants and from there, Trump and Vance could be arrested.

Now, as far as what constitutes probable cause, many different courts have defined probable cause differently, but the Supreme Court has said that probable cause requires only a probability or substantial chance of criminal activity, not an actual showing of any criminal behaviors. So if the judge finds a substantial chance that the crimes were committed, he or she could issue those warrants. But we'll see what happens there, and I will definitely...

keep you updated as we find out more. Moving on to an execution out of Missouri. So Missouri executed death row inmate Marcellus Williams on Tuesday, and this was a case that got widespread attention, and I also received quite a few requests to talk about it and clarify why he was ultimately executed despite questionable DNA evidence. So let's do that.

Williams was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of a social worker and former reporter in Missouri. Prosecutors said that Williams broke into Felicia Gale's home in August 1998, waited for her to get out of the shower, stabbed her 43 times with a butcher knife, and stole her purse and her husband's laptop.

At trial, so at William's trial, William's girlfriend and his cellmate testified against him. William's girlfriend testified that one, she saw Gail's purse and her husband's laptop in William's car after the murder.

Two, that Williams sold the laptop a day or two later and actually told her that he was the one that committed the murder. Three, she remembered being curious as to why Williams was wearing a jacket on such a hot August day, a jacket which prosecutors say he wore to cover up the blood on his shirt. And four, that once he took off his jacket, she saw his bloody shirt.

Williams' cellmate Henry Cole testified that while they were sharing a cell together in 1999, Williams confessed to the killing and gave details about it.

However, Williams' attorneys rebutted the testimony of both Williams' girlfriend and cellmate, arguing that the two of them had both been convicted of felonies and wanted the $10,000 reward being offered. So essentially, they lied to get that reward. Williams' attorneys also argued there was no forensic evidence connecting Williams to the crime scene, which brings us to the DNA issue. The butcher knife that was used to stab Gail was left in her neck.

Williams' attorneys said that DNA experts who reviewed the DNA results from the knife determined that Williams was not the source of DNA found on the knife. And in 2015, the Missouri Supreme Court halted Williams' execution date and proceeded to appoint a special master to review the DNA testing. The special master ultimately sent the case back to the Missouri Supreme Court. The court allowed the execution to proceed.

Then in 2017, hours before he was set to be executed, the then governor of Missouri called off the execution and appointed a panel of five retired judges to investigate the DNA evidence. However, this panel never issued its final report and the panel was actually dissolved by the new governor in 2023.

But William's case still wasn't over because there were still questions surrounding the DNA evidence. And because the prosecutor felt that there was reason to overturn William's conviction due to constitutional violations, the prosecutor himself actually tried to get William's conviction tossed on numerous grounds, one being the inconclusive results of the DNA testing and the other being unfair jury selection.

specifically that when the jury was picked, prosecutors specifically excluded Black people. But then the night before that evidentiary hearing was set to take place, the prosecutor's office got new test results indicating that the DNA on the knife handle was actually consistent with one of the prosecutors that originally tried the case. So this essentially confirmed that the knife was handled without gloves at the time of the investigation and in turn was

hurt William's innocence claim because it became harder to prove that his DNA wasn't on the knife, that he wasn't the suspect. The knife had just been handled by too many people. However, the prosecutor still felt strongly about overturning William's conviction. So what the prosecutor did is he reached an agreement with Williams where Williams would enter a no contest plea to murder in the first degree and instead get a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The death penalty would be off the table.

The judge signed off on this agreement and actually the victim's family approved of this agreement as well. But it was Missouri's attorney general that objected to it. And Missouri's attorney general brought this agreement before the Missouri Supreme Court and the Missouri Supreme Court ordered an evidentiary hearing on Williams' innocence claim.

That hearing took place last month, and at that hearing, an attorney who tried the case back in 2001 testified that he removed one Black prospective juror because he looked like Williams, but not because of race.

That same attorney also testified that he did in fact handle the knife without gloves at least five times during witness preparation sessions before the trial because he thought the investigation was finished and it wasn't a problem. However, despite this testimony, the judge in the Missouri Circuit Court refused to toss Williams' conviction.

The Missouri Supreme Court also denied relief, writing that Williams' attorney, quote, "...failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence Williams' actual innocence or constitutional error at the original criminal trial that undermines the confidence in the judgment of the original criminal trial."

end quote. So from there, Williams and the prosecutor filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court of the United States requesting that the justices pause Williams' execution. But earlier this week, the majority of justices declined to intervene. Notably, Justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan did say that they would have granted the request to halt the execution, but they were outnumbered. So that's the story with Marcellus Williams and

And I know some of you are also wondering why the governor didn't step in and stop the execution. And it's because Missouri's governor believes that Williams was guilty and believed that the evidence overwhelmingly proved Williams' guilt. So that's why. But I have linked the governor's press release in the sources section of this episode if you're interested in reading more about what he had to say.

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This election, remember, politicians aren't just ignoring us. They're willfully defying the law they swore to uphold. Advocate for America paid for and is responsible for the content of this ad.

Moving on, according to a new unsealed 57-page indictment, New York City Mayor Eric Adams faces five federal corruption charges. Those charges include one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive contributions by foreign officials, one count of wire fraud, two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign official, and one count of bribery.

To give you an idea of the allegations, here are some quotes directly from the indictment itself. Quote,

By 2018, Adams, who had then made known his plans to run for mayor of New York City, not only accepted but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value from foreign officials. As Adams' prominence and power grew, his foreign national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that Adams would become New York City's mayor.

End quote. The indictment then says that Adams would accept these benefits and provide favorable treatment in exchange. The indictment alleges that Adams would accept illegal campaign contributions in the form of straw donations, which means that these donors donate their money through third parties to get around U.S. federal laws that are meant to prevent foreign influence on elections.

The allegations then continue and the indictment reads, quote, Adams compounded his gains from the straw contributions by using them to defraud New York City and steal public funds. New York City has a matching funds donation program that matches small dollar contributions from individual city residents with up to eight times their amount in public funds to give New Yorkers a greater voice in elections.

Adams' campaigns applied for matching funds based on known straw donations, fraudulently obtaining as much as $2,000 in public funds for each illegal contribution. Adams and those working at his direction falsely certified compliance with applicable campaign finance regulations, and as a result of those false certifications, Adams' 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10 million in public funds." End quote.

And then finally, the indictment accuses Adams of forcing the bypass of a fire inspection by the New York City Fire Department of a new Turkish consular building. The indictment says that the building would have failed the fire inspection at the time, but because Adams fell to a Turkish official's demands by having the building open by the time he arrived for a visit, Adams forced the FDNY not to complete that inspection and the building opened as requested.

I do have that indictment linked for you in the sources section, but that's the gist of it, and now we can move on to a story out of the Senate. On Wednesday, a bipartisan Senate committee released an interim 134-page report detailing key lapses in preparation and communication on the day of the first assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

That bipartisan committee is the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has been conducting this ongoing investigation into the July 13th incident.

In creating this report, the committee said it relied on 2,800 internal documents and conducted 12 in-depth interviews. The report says the Secret Service fell short in coordination with local law enforcement and drone operation that would have ensured a safe area and made numerous mistakes on the day of the assassination attempt.

The report also lays out a timeline of the day's events, which illustrate various moments when the Secret Service failed to respond to reports of a suspicious individual. According to the report, almost 30 minutes before the shooting, Secret Service was notified about a suspicious person with a range finder, but agents told Congress they didn't receive this information and local law enforcement lost track.

track of the suspicious person. Secret Service was also notified by local law enforcement about the individual being on the roof two minutes before the shooting, but that information was not relayed to key personnel. And then shortly before the shots were fired, a Secret Service counter sniper observed law enforcement running to the roof that the suspect was on with guns drawn, but did not alert Trump's protective detail to take him from

from the rally stage. The report goes on to allege that the Secret Service operator responsible for the drone technology lacked experience and knowledge about the equipment and experienced multiple difficulties in getting the system online after several phone calls requesting assistance.

The drone operator told the Senate committee that his total hands-on training for the role, quote, wasn't very long, less than an hour, end quote. The report says the operator seemed unaware of the basic functionality of the drone, including whether it had cellular capabilities.

And finally, the Senate committee accused Secret Service of essentially slow walking the investigation into its actions that day. The report says the Secret Service gave contradictory or incomplete information, refused to identify the lead coordinator for the site, and either didn't provide or extensively redacted written material delivered to Congress for its investigation.

And now on to quick hitters. Staying on the topic of assassination attempts, but pivoting to the second assassination attempt, the suspect Ryan Ruth was indicted by a Miami grand jury Tuesday on five charges. Those charges are attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm, and furtherance of a crime of violence.

assaulting a federal officer, felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Just to note, all five of those charges are federal charges, not state charges. So from here, Ruth will be arraigned on the 30th, where he will enter a plea, and he will eventually be tried.

In an update to Tuesday's episode, the House and Senate both passed the continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through December 20th and provide $231 million in conditional funding to the Secret Service. The House first passed that bill in a 341-82 vote, and the Senate passed it shortly thereafter in a 78-18 vote. It now heads to the President's desk for signature.

And another new bill is headed to the president's desk. This bill is called the Enhanced Presidential Security Act of 2024. And what it'll do is enhance Secret Service protection for major party presidential candidates. The House and Senate both passed this bill unanimously. The bill is very short, and I do have it linked for you in the sources section, but it essentially gives major party presidents

presidential and vice presidential candidates the same level of Secret Service protection as the sitting president and sitting vice president.

And speaking of the president, President Biden announced another $8 billion in aid for Ukraine. The president has an allocated amount of presidential drawdown authority from the Pentagon each fiscal year. And there was about $5.5 billion that was set to expire on September 30th. The president had asked Congress to include an extension on the presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine in its continuing resolution that just passed. But Congress didn't do that, which meant the PDA was set to expire next week.

The DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa on Tuesday, alleging that the company used its size and dominance to restrict competition in the debit card market. The complaint says, among other things, that Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don't use Visa's own payment processing technology to process debit transactions. According to the complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa's debit network.

And Donald Trump's attorneys today argued in a New York appeals court to try to get his $454 million civil judgment thrown out. This appeal is in his New York civil fraud case in which Judge Arthur Engeron found that Trump and his company misled banks and insurers about property values and net worth to obtain bigger loans and better insurance rates.

On appeal, Trump's attorneys are arguing in part that the case should have never been brought because the claims exceeded the statute of limitations and that the state shouldn't be policing private business transactions.

And finally, just as a reminder, Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz will participate in their first and likely only vice presidential debate on October 1st. That debate will be aired live at 9 p.m. Eastern time on CBS News as well as other major networks. I will remind you again on Tuesday, but just in case you don't catch that episode within the first few hours of it being released, I did want to include it in today's episode as well.

And that takes us to Rumor Has It, my weekly segment where I clear up any recent rumors that have been circulating and either confirm them, deny them, or add context. Sometimes we only have a couple, other times we have a handful. It really just depends. Today we have two.

So rumor has it Harris's name was removed from the ballot in Montana. This is false. Harris remains on the ballot in Montana, but an electronic glitch resulted in Harris's name temporarily missing from an electronic ballot sent to voters abroad.

The Montana Secretary of State's office released a statement that said, quote, Contrary to egregious misinformation campaigns circulating online, the Montana Secretary of State's office certified all qualified candidates to appear on its 2024 general election ballot on August 22nd. Shortly after going live at 8 a.m., election officials were notified about Montana's electronic absentee system, which is the system exclusively used by a small number of eligible individuals covered under the Uniform and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act,

This includes military serving abroad and overseas citizens to access and mark their ballot. The Secretary of State's office took the system offline, working with the vendor until troubleshooting was completed. By Friday afternoon, the system was back online and available to eligible voters, including those few voters who may have been impacted.

No ballots were affected, including those that will be sent to registered absentee voters and those that will be presented to voters at the polling place on Election Day. As always, voters should rely on Montana's trusted sources for credible election information, including the Secretary of State's office and the state's 56 county election officials. End quote.

Rumor has it Trump called Republicans the dumbest group of voters in a 1998 interview. This is also false. A post currently circulating, and has circulated in recent years, shows a photo of Trump and what appears to be a quote from a 1998 People magazine interview. It reads, "...if I were to run, I'd run as a Republican. They're the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie, and they'd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific."

End quote.

end quote, but didn't find it. Plus, the image that was used in this post that's circulating is actually from an interview he did on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1988, not a 1998 People magazine interview. Finally, for today's critical thinking segment, let's go back to William's case, the death penalty case. There's a lot we can think about here, right? But I always like to give you a launching pad to get you going to get you thinking.

When it comes to evidentiary standards of proof, we have three main standards. From lowest to highest or easiest to prove to hardest to prove, we have preponderance of the evidence, then clear and convincing evidence, and finally beyond a reasonable doubt. So the preponderance of the evidence standard requires a party to show that it's more likely than not that a fact is true. So more than a 50% chance a fact is true.

Clear and convincing evidence is one step higher and means the evidence is highly and substantially more likely to be true than untrue. The truth must be highly probable. Then, the hardest standard to prove is beyond a reasonable doubt. This is met when a party can show that there is no reasonable doubt as to a defendant's guilt.

The evidence has to be so convincing that no reasonable person would ever question the defendant's guilt. Now, I tell you this to ask the following question. When we see a case like William's case, and, you know, it's not just Williams requesting an evidentiary hearing on his innocence, but also the prosecutor, the attorney that would otherwise prosecute Williams, right?

What standard do you think the court should use in determining whether to overturn a death penalty conviction and instead sentence a defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole? Because that's always the sentence when a death sentence is overturned. Remember, this is a post-conviction proceeding. So once a defendant is found guilty and they come with the evidence after

after the fact to claim their innocence, what standard do you think courts should use in evaluating that evidence? Maybe you think it's the standard currently used, clear and convincing evidence. Maybe you think the standard should be higher, beyond a reasonable doubt. Maybe you think the lowest standard should apply, right? Preponderance of the evidence.

or maybe you think an entirely different standard should apply, one that doesn't even exist. I implore you to try to define what that standard should be. And actually, to take it one step further, even if you think an existing evidentiary standard should apply, challenge yourself to actually make one up. This is the whole purpose of these critical thinking segments, to get you thinking deeper and forming your own unique opinions. You don't

have to have an opinion that aligns with what exists. You can think outside the box too. In fact, thinking outside the box is encouraged and that's what helps us sharpen our critical thinking skills. That is what I have for you today. Remember, there is no episode on Monday, so have a great weekend and I will talk to you on Tuesday.

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