December 19, 2024: Fani Willis DISQUALIFIED, Mangione's New FEDERAL Indictment, Stopgap Measure SCRAPPED. PLUS...Is the Biden Admin Selling Off Sections of the Border Wall?
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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 19th, and this is your final daily news rundown of this Unbiased season. And do you know how I know it's been a long year, by the way? Because this is not the end of season two, like I've been saying all week. This is actually the end of season three. January will start season four, which is crazy to think that I've been doing it for as long as I have. But I started the podcast in January, and I'm going to be doing it for as long as I have.

July 2022. So the six months between July and December 2022 was technically season one. 2023 was season two. And then this year was season three. So January 6th will mark the start of season four. And I have a few really exciting changes coming to the show, which I will share with you as soon as I can.

Now, one last thing before we get into today's stories. I asked this of you yesterday, but I figured I would ask one more time before the year is over. If you love Unbiased and you're grateful to have found this show, you feel as if you've learned a lot, and you listen on a podcast platform like Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please

please, please, as the season comes to a close, leave my show a five-star review about why you love it. My ultimate goal with this show is to turn as many people onto unbiased news as possible, and one way that you can all help with that is through reviews and letting other people know why they should tune in. So thank you very, very much in advance. It is very appreciated. And now, without further ado, for the last time this year, let's get into today's

Starting with a correction to yesterday's episode, this is not the way I wanted to start the last episode of the year. In fact, probably the last way I wanted to start the episode, but it has to be done because I

I need to correct an entire story, essentially, which I'm pretty embarrassed to say, but I will always own up to my mistakes. That is the one thing that I can promise you. So yesterday, I knew that Congress had unveiled this stopgap measure that was going to keep the government funded through March if it was passed and avoid a potential shutdown this coming Friday. And I had that story written out in preparation for the episode, but then I

Right before I went to record, I saw a news story posted to X that said, quote, Congress passes continuing resolution to prevent shutdown includes pay adjustment, end quote. And I want to be clear that that wasn't a random person's tweet. This was an actual news story on X. And the article said not only did Congress pass the continuing resolution, but that the measure included a pay raise for lawmakers of about 40%.

Now, this is where I went wrong because normal me would have gone and looked at the actual resolution, verified the 40% pay increase before I put it into the episode, triple checked the story with other outlets, and then updated the story accordingly. But I didn't do that because I was just about to record and I didn't have the time to

But I really learned my lesson because it's better to just not report on a story rather than getting out a story quickly. I should never do that. And I won't do that again because one, not only did Congress not pass the stopgap measure, but the proposed pay increase wasn't a 40% increase. It was a 3.8% increase.

So I'm really, really sorry about that. I hold myself to a higher standard. I know you all hold me to a higher standard, as you should. And quite frankly, a mistake like that just isn't acceptable on this podcast. But now what I want to do is give you an accurate update as to what's going on in Congress.

So Congress unveiled that stopgap measure yesterday, which, as I said, was intended to not only keep the government funded through March, but also included a bunch of other things. And we discussed those other things briefly yesterday. But just to name a few, more than $100 billion in disaster aid, $10 billion in economic assistance to farmers, restrictions on U.S. investments in China, an extension of the Homeland Security Act, and much, much more.

Keep in mind that continuing resolution has since been scrapped. It's no longer even an option as of last night. But I do still want to address the pay raise provision because a lot of people were and still are thinking the pay raise was 40%, myself included, but it was never 40%. Under current law, Congress members automatically get an annual pay raise based on the Employment Cost Index, which is a statistic that the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes.

However, Congress has blocked those raises from happening every year since 2009. They essentially freeze their own pay by including specific language in each annual funding bill. The measure that was unveiled yesterday omits that language that freezes pay, which means that if it were to pass, which it didn't and it won't,

Congress in 2025 would get that annual pay increase, which is 3.8%, but it doesn't apply retroactively. So it's just 3.8%, not 3.8% for each year since they froze their pay. If the raise applied retroactively, that's when that 40% number would make more sense, but that's not the case.

So I hope that clears up any misunderstanding there. I do just want to be very clear that the continuing resolution I spoke of yesterday did not pass, has not passed, and won't pass now that it's been scrapped. The word on the hill currently is that Speaker Johnson is going to be releasing a new clean

continuing resolution, possibly today, but we haven't seen it yet. And when I say clean, what I mean is it doesn't come with all of the extras. It just keeps the government funded, maybe with a couple of other things like disaster aid, but not with a laundry list of extras like that prior continuing resolution did.

Once the text of that new continuing resolution is released, the House and the Senate still need time to review it and vote on it. So we may not know whether it passes Congress until late in the night tomorrow, possibly even into the weekend. But keep in mind, Congress is coming up on their holiday break. So they are going to want to get this done as soon as possible.

In some other news, District Attorney Fannie Willis has been disqualified from her prosecution of Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case. Quick break.

backstory here, and I'm going to simplify this as much as possible. Last year, it came out that the district attorney who was prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his multiple co-defendants, her name is Fannie Willis, had a romantic relationship with the man that she appointed to be the special prosecutor on the case. His name is Nathan Wade.

When this came out, Trump and his co-defendants asked the judge to disqualify Willis from the case due to the appearance of impropriety that the relationship created. In other words, the improper nature of the relationship.

Ultimately, the judge agreed with Trump and his co-defendants that the relationship between Willis and Wade did create a significant appearance of impropriety. But instead of disqualifying Willis, the judge said that either Wade or Willis had to step away from the case. They couldn't both remain on the case. So Wade steps down, Willis stays on. Trump and his co-defendants then appeal the ruling because they felt that Willis should have been disqualified given the finding of a significant appearance of impropriety.

On appeal, the appellate court was tasked with determining whether the remedy was appropriate given the finding of impropriety. It wasn't up to the appellate court to determine whether the relationship resulted in a significant appearance of impropriety, but rather given that finding by the trial court, was the remedy appropriate or should Willis have been affirmatively disqualified? And today, the appellate court ruled that given the circumstances of this case,

Willis should have been disqualified. The court wrote, quote,

at times when District Attorney Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring. While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings."

What we can expect from here is a new prosecuting team, including a new district attorney and a new special prosecutor, but the indictment will remain, at least for now. It is still up in the air what will happen with all of the cases against Trump now that he's been elected, but for now, the case does still stand and we will see a new prosecution team. Let's take our break here. When we come back, we'll cover a couple of updates in Luigi Mangione's case, some quick hitters, and rumor has it.

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A couple of Luigi Mangione updates. Number one, he waived his extradition this morning and has been flown from Pennsylvania to New York City to face his charges in New York. Two, he is now facing federal charges on top of the Pennsylvania and New York state charges. Those federal charges include two counts of stalking, one count of murder through the use of a firearm, and another firearm offense.

Now, we did learn a bit from this indictment. So we've learned a lot more about the allegations and the movements of Mangione both before and after the shooting. We've also learned about some of the evidence that they recovered when they arrested Mangione. So the indictment reads, quote, on November 24th, 2024, at approximately 10, 11 p.m., the shooter arrived in New York City on an intercity bus at the

Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan. The bus originated in Atlanta, Georgia. The shooter took a taxi to the area around the Midtown Hotel and stayed in the area for approximately one hour before taking another taxi to a hostel located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The shooter registered at the hostel under the name Mark Rosario and provided a false New Jersey driver's license as a form of identification.

When the shooter was checking in at the hostel, the desk clerk asked the shooter to remove his mask, which he did, revealing his face to a security camera. Other than this interaction with the desk clerk, the shooter consistently kept his mask on throughout his time in New York, including while inside the hostel.

On December 4th, 2024, at approximately 5.35 a.m., the shooter left the hostel wearing the gray backpack and rode an electric bicycle down Central Park West to a location near the Midtown Hotel. At approximately 5.41 a.m., the shooter walked around the area of the Midtown Hotel and at one point purchased items from a nearby coffee shop.

The shooter then returned to a bench in the vicinity of the Midtown Hotel. On at least one occasion prior to the murder, the shooter was depicted using a cell phone. At approximately 6.45 a.m., after waiting near the Midtown Hotel for approximately an hour, the shooter saw and approached the victim, shot the victim multiple times, and then fled on foot to West 55th Street where the shooter mounted the electric bicycle and rode towards Central Park. And

End quote. The indictment then details Mangione's movements after the shooting took place. We also learned more about what was written in the notebook that was found on Mangione's person and the contents of a letter that he allegedly wrote, which was addressed to the feds. The letter to the feds reads in part, quote, I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial. Some elementary social engineering students

basic CAD, which the FBI believes stands for computer-aided design, and a lot of patients. P.S. You can check serial numbers to verify this is all self-funded. My own ATM withdrawals. End quote. If you do want to read that indictment for yourself, I have it linked in the sources section of this episode.

Now for some quick hitters, Oklahoma executed Kevin Ray Underwood this morning via the lethal injection. Today was also Underwood's 45th birthday. Underwood was sentenced to death in 2006 after he admitted to luring a 10-year-old girl into his apartment, beating her over the head with a cutting board, and then suffocating and sexually assaulting her. He told investigators that he nearly beheaded her in his bathtub before deciding not to eat her.

Last Friday, Underwood said that although he doesn't want to die, he deserves to die for what he did. And this morning, the United States Supreme Court denied a last-minute request from Underwood's attorneys seeking to pause the execution. Underwood's last meal was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, pinto beans, a hot roll, a cheeseburger and fries with ketchup, and, quote, cola from the canteen, end quote.

The Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, has issued a ban on drone operations in several areas in New Jersey until January 17th unless operators are granted special permission from the government. According to the restrictions, recreational drones are not allowed at all in certain restricted areas, and in other areas of New Jersey are allowed to operate up to 400 feet in

but cannot operate above that. The FAA said that it may use deadly force against drones that violate these rules or pose an imminent security threat.

A 20-year-old California man was detained by the FBI after he allegedly communicated with the 15-year-old Wisconsin school shooter. The emergency protective order filed with the court says the man was detained after he was discovered plotting a mass shooting with the Madison, Wisconsin shooter. The man apparently admitted to agents that he told Rupnow that he would, quote, arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building, end quote.

According to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies, there are 7.9 million people living illegally in sanctuary states and cities, which the center says is 56% of those who are estimated to be living illegally in the country. The report was done by the center to, quote, assess how much of an obstacle to enforcement these sanctuary jurisdictions are, end quote. It found that California has the largest share, or

with 21.8%. New York has the second largest share, with 6.2%. And New Jersey has the third largest share, with 4.1%. And finally, in a new lawsuit, the DOJ has accused CVS of knowingly filling illegal prescriptions and subsequently trying to get reimbursements from federal health care programs. According to the DOJ's press release, from 2013 to 2019,

present, CVS allegedly filled scripts for controlled substances that lacked legitimate purpose, were not valid, and or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice. In some cases, CVS allegedly filled scripts for dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids and ignored substantial evidence of unlawful scripts from multiple sources, including its own pharmacists and internal data.

The suit accuses CVS of contributing to the opioid crisis and seeks to hold CVS accountable for its misconduct. And now it's time for Rumor Has It, my weekly segment where I address some recent rumors and either confirm, dispel, or add context. Rumor has it that President Biden is selling off portions of the border wall. Let's add some context.

Earlier in the week, Trump held a press conference and spoke about the Biden administration selling parts of the border for five cents on the dollar, knowing he, meaning Trump, is getting ready to put the wall up. Trump was saying how prices have gone up substantially, and if the administration sells off the parts, the incoming administration is going to have to pay much more than what they did to rebuy what the country already has.

Then an account on X called Trump War Room, which has more than 2 million followers, reposted that clip of Trump's press conference and described the clip as, quote, President Trump on the Biden administration selling off sections of his border wall, end quote. So that clip.

Post on X is the origin point of this idea that sections of the built wall are being sold. The truth is built sections of the wall are not being sold, but unused materials are. And here is why. In December 2023, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024. It is an annual bill that mainly sets the budget for the Department of Defense, but also includes various other provisions.

In this case, one of the provisions was that the Department of Defense is required to submit a plan to Congress detailing how it plans to either use, transfer, or donate the excess border wall materials that were purchased between fiscal years 2017 through 2022 and were never used to build the wall.

According to that law, the unused materials were to be distributed to border states or other federal agencies. That was the priority. And that was so that these border states or federal agencies could then use those unused materials for the construction of their own border walls.

Then the surplus of materials, the materials that were not taken by states and agencies, could be sold to private companies for auction. So on March 14th of this year, in accordance with that law, the DOD submitted its plan to Congress.

and has been since then redistributing or auctioning off excess materials. More recently, on December 13th, the DoD said that roughly 60% of the unused materials had been redistributed and roughly 40% had been sold to GovPlanet, which is a private company that auctions off and resells government surplus equipment.

As far as what's available at auction, Republican Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said that Texas's Governor Abbott had instructed the Texas Facilities Commission, which oversees Texas's border wall construction, to look at the items available at auction from GovPlanet.

The Texas Facilities Commission then reported that the material they saw was mostly junk with most panels covered in concrete and rust, and that there were a few panels that might be usable but not worth the cost of shipping from Texas to Arizona.

So that's what's going on with that. It's not that sections of the built wall are being sold, but rather that unused materials that were bought between 2017 and 2022 and were not redistributed to states or federal agencies were sold to a private company and are now being auctioned off by that private company in accordance with that National Defense Authorization Act.

So now before we leave each other today, I want to say a big thank you to each and every one of you who tune into Unbiased. Whether you tune in once a week or four times a week, it is tough to put my appreciation into words. I simply just could not do what I do without you. And I'm so thankful and grateful for this opportunity and that this is my job.

I also want to thank my advertising sponsors who keep the lights on and keep a roof over my head. And to each and every one of you that have used any of my discount codes and have let a brand know that I am the one who sent you there. That is how I make a living. So thank you for that. Thank you to my Patreon members. Thank you to my intern who has brought so much value to this podcast. Thank you to my husband and my family for their continued support.

always just so in awe of what I do and how I do what I do and constantly pushing me to be my best. Thank you to my management team, my agents, and the Forward Network who saw my potential fairly early on and wholeheartedly believe in my mission and what I've set out to do. I have so much appreciation for all of you and I cannot wait to share with you everything that's in store for season four of Unbiased. Have a very happy holidays and I will talk to you in the new year.

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