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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to the Morning Wire, I'm your host John Bickley.
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--:-- John Bickley: It's Tuesday, May 21st, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash morningwire. That's shopify.com slash morningwire.
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--:-- John Bickley: Donald Trump's defense team rested their case this morning. The former president did not take the stand to testify. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The trial is set to resume next Tuesday when Judge Mershon, the defense, and prosecution will review the charges and the jury instructions. The jury was also dismissed until next week when they'll be given final instructions after hearing closing arguments. At the moment, it appears jury deliberation will begin next Wednesday.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The past few days of questioning led to bombshell testimony from the prosecution's star witness, Michael Cohen. Cohen, who previously worked for Trump, was caught in several situations on the stand in which he appeared to be lying. In addition, he admitted to stealing roughly $60,000 from the Trump Organization.
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--:-- John Bickley: The Biden administration says it's releasing one million barrels of gasoline from the Northeast Reserve in an effort to combat high prices at the pump. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The reserve that Biden will pull from was established after Superstorm Sandy. According to officials, the sale will be allocated in increments of 100 barrels at a time. The Department of Energy says the move is intended to lower the cost for Americans as the summer driving season starts.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It also follows a congressional mandate to sell off this particular reserve before closing it, which was part of the $1.2 trillion spending deal Congress approved in March. According to AAA, gasoline prices average about $3.60 per gallon nationwide. That's up six cents from a year ago.
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--:-- John Bickley: White House Press Secretary Corrine Jean-Pierre says this builds on the previous action the president has taken to lower energy costs. Derek Morgan, the former senior vice president for American fuel and petrochemical manufacturers, says it won't help much.
--:-- Derek Morgan: It's really a drop in the bucket, quite frankly. It's refined storage is really meant for absolute acute emergencies like a hurricane or some kind of major weather event that just makes it impossible to get supplies in.
--:-- Derek Morgan: So what I would say is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is crude oil. It's much larger. That can help on the margins, but really there's not enough refined product storage to make a considerable difference.
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--:-- John Bickley: Over a dozen media outlets are now petitioning for the release of audio recordings of President Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Herr. CNN, the Associated Press, and the Wall Street Journal, among others, are joining a lawsuit from conservative groups Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation against Biden's DOJ.
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--:-- John Bickley: The suit says the recordings have, quote, significant public interest. The president is claiming executive privilege to keep the recordings private after House Republicans sought them last week. The White House said Biden did so at the request of his attorney general, Merrick Garland.
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--:-- John Bickley: The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is stepping down after hundreds of complaints against him. President Biden will find a new leader for the bank regulation agency. That according to the White House.
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--:-- John Bickley: Martin Gruenberg was forced to step down from his position in the wake of scathing reports released earlier this month about the FDIC toxic work environment. The investigation found over 500 complaints, including stalking, sexual harassment, and discrimination, were not handled properly.
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--:-- John Bickley: Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer says Gruenberg should have resigned years ago. Based on the hundreds of pages of report that showed this toxic work environment with sexual harassment and all kinds of awful things with the employees.
--:-- Tom Emmer: And yet here he goes again. Hey, I'm going to resign. I'm prepared to do that, but not until we have a successor. I'm sure there are other capable people, by the way, that are there that can pick up the pieces and continue to run the FDIC in a much better fashion than Mr. Gruenberg did.
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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by Lumen. If you want to take the next step in improving your health, go to lumen.me and use code WIRE to get $100 off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E and use code WIRE at checkout for $100 off.
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--:-- John Bickley: An American national was mistakenly accused of taking part in a coup while in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Daily Wire reporter Zach Jewell reports.
--:-- Zach Jewell: Colpatrick Ducey, an engineer living in Eswatini, told ABC News he had nothing to do with it, despite online reports that say he was involved. Congo officials also confirmed that Ducey did not participate in the attempted coup.
--:-- Zach Jewell: Ducey says this was all just a huge case of mistaken identity. DRC authorities say that the coup attempt was led by Christian Malanga, a DRC businessman and politician with U.S. ties. Malanga's goal was to remove the president of the country, alleging that the president had ruined it. He was killed in a shootout with presidential guards.
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--:-- John Bickley: Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis is up for re-election in Georgia. She faces attorney Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary, the same challenger she faced four years ago. As we've covered on Morning Wire, Willis is currently prosecuting former President Trump in an election interference case, but is facing scrutiny herself for her relationship with the special prosecutor she hired.
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--:-- John Bickley: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, the judge presiding over that case, is also up for re-election. And Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough is suing a company planning to auction off the iconic Graceland estate. Lending firm Nasani Investments claims that Lisa Presley, Elvis's daughter, had taken out a loan against the Memphis property.
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--:-- John Bickley: Keough has owned the mansion since Lisa's death last year and says both the foreclosure and the lending company are fraudulent. The firm claims it has a notarized promissory note, though the notary on the document denies ever seeing it. Nassani Investments does not appear on state or national business records, and their phone number is not in service.
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--:-- John Bickley: Loyola law professor Jessica Levinson gave the following advice with regard to these legal situations that deal with fraud.
--:-- Jessica Levinson: You want to keep the status quo and make sure nothing changes, make sure nobody is harmed. And the biggest harm would come from an illegitimate sale of Graceland.
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--:-- John Bickley: A Tennessee court has barred any sale of the property until a hearing tomorrow. Elvis Presley Enterprises manages the property and says that any claim of foreclosure is fraudulent. All right, those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to our latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
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--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to the Morning Wire.
