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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe, and I'm here with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, we're covering the federal government cracking down on a Texas housing developer accused of being the largest settlement of illegal immigrants in the US. Republicans are taking steps toward impeaching the Homeland Security Secretary, and a judge has ordered the full release of court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Let's start with the Texas housing developer. The Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have filed a lawsuit against Colony Ridge Development, LLC.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Joining me now is Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist. Spencer, can you break down the lawsuit for us?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Thanks, Georgia. The lawsuit alleges that Colony Ridge's actions violate both the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, two federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in housing and lending.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. And the lawsuit also alleges that Colony Ridge engaged in bait and switch sales, accusing the developer of false advertising by telling buyers the lots have infrastructure for water, electricity, and sewage when they do not.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: That's correct. Our investigation revealed that Colony Ridge operates as a one-stop shop for discriminatory lending. First, it targets Hispanic applicants with false advertising, promising home ownership on properties it claims have basic utilities.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, the major controversy around Colony Ridge among Republicans has been that it incentivizes illegal immigration. But the Biden administration is primarily cracking down on practices that unfairly target migrants, correct?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Yeah, that's correct. In addition to the allegations about the bait and switch advertising and the sales, the suit also alleges that Colony Ridge engages in predatory financing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. And what kind of evidence is there that Colony Ridge specifically targets migrants as opposed to low-income citizens?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Well, first off, all the marketing posts on social media are in Spanish. But much more concerning than that is that some of the posts encourage people to, quote, own land in the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: When you couple that with the fact that they do financing through the individual taxpayer identification number, that's a form of ID that's available to illegal immigrants, it provides much more context.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Now, you've been reporting on this since September with Daily Wire. There's been some movement to crack down on this development since then. Where do those other efforts stand?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: So we first published an investigation on Colony Ridge back in mid-September, and we pointed out that it had become a magnet for illegal immigrants due to its financing and shady marketing operations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. And several officials at the state level began discussing Colony Ridge. Every Republican congressman from Texas, 25 in total, signed a letter calling on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott to take action on the development.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Somewhat complicating the matter is the fact that Governor Abbott actually received over a million dollars in donations from Colony Ridge developer William Trey Harris over the past few years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Regardless, Attorney General Paxson launched an investigation into Colony Ridge, and Abbott went on to call for the development to be addressed with legislation and send the Texas Department of Public Safety into the area.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: As we covered this week, there's actually legislation on the governor's desk right now to provide $40 million for state troopers to patrol the area. It had previously been a virtually police-free zone.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This lawsuit from the DOJ, however, certainly marks a significant escalation in the action around Colony Ridge, and we'll be following along as the situation develops.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Republicans plan to rev up an impeachment investigation into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas next year.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Joining me now is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. Tim, what's the plan going to be come January?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks, Georgia. The House Homeland Security Committee plans to hold hearings to go over Mayorkas' performance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, there's already broad support among House Republicans that Mayorkas should be impeached, and impeachment has been pushed about half a dozen times now this year.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But on the Republican side, there are a handful of holdouts. The last vote on this in November had eight Republicans vote with Democrats to block passage of articles of impeachment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The articles were referred down to the Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Green wants Mayorkas impeached, and he said it'll be a top priority next year to convince the GOP holdouts of that as well.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's what Green had to say over the weekend. He's derelict in his duty. He's broken the laws of the United States that have passed Congress. He's lied to Congress.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to Green, most of the holdouts have procedural concerns. Are Republicans doing this the right way? They don't disagree with impeachment on the substance of it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So getting them on board should be fairly straightforward. But with Republicans' slim majority, they can only afford a few defections before impeachment is lost.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Success here isn't guaranteed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, an impeachment case requires high crimes and misdemeanors. What has Mayorkas done that the GOP says meets that bar?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Several different versions of impeachment articles have been introduced, but they all pretty similar in general accusations against Mayorkas.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They say he intentionally broken federal law and undermined U.S. national security and sovereignty.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Republicans say the numbers prove it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Marjorie Taylor Greene last month going through some immigration data for the Biden administration so far.
--:-- Marjorie Taylor Greene: There have been approximately 10 million illegal border crossers who have invaded our country at our border. This is broken down between 8 million encounters and approximately 1,800 known gotaways who have evaded United States authorities and are roaming the interior of the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: At least 280 people on terrorist watch lists caught while attempting to cross the border between ports of entry.
--:-- Marjorie Taylor Greene: Approximately 400,000 unaccompanied illegal children encountered at the southern border with at least 85,000 of these children having gone missing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: At least 1,424 deaths of illegals at the southern border.
--:-- Marjorie Taylor Greene: Approximately 73,000 special interest aliens arrested at our border, which are aliens from a nation that promotes terrorist activity, harbors terrorists, or poses a security threat to the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is the number arrested at the border, not counting, however, many of the 1,800,000 known gotaways are special interest aliens.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Republicans also say that Mayorkas has lied to Congress about his claims that the border is secure.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Republicans say that the border is obviously not secure under the definition given in the Secure Fence Act of 2006.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Mayorkas has said that the border is secure, though under the definition in that act, it wouldn't be, but that's because the standard in the act is unrealistic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Regardless of the legalese, it seems like every month we see some kind of new record set for illegal immigration into the country.
--:-- Tim Pierce: I think we can safely say yes. The immigration system has been strained for years, but never like this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Take the backlog of asylum cases, for example. According to the TRAC Immigration Database at Syracuse University, at the end of 2022, 2 million asylum cases were pending in front of immigration judges.
--:-- Tim Pierce: In 12 months, that number has grown to 3 million. That's about 4,500 cases per judge.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that's only for immigrants who have claimed asylum.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Since Biden has taken office, about 6 million immigrants have crossed the border illegally, and another 2 million have come through ports of entry.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Never since the government started tracking this data have the numbers looked like this. Truly overwhelming numbers.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: New court filings show that federal judge Loretta Preska has decided to unseal in full the list of 177 individuals associated with Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Joining me now is Daily Wire Investigations editor Brent Schur. Brent, what's the story behind this release?
--:-- Brent Schur: Thanks, Georgia. So it actually all comes from a 2016 defamation case brought by Virginia Roberts, who accused Prince Andrew of fondling her at Epstein's New York City mansion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Robert sued Jelaine Maxwell for defamation, and that case has actually already been settled.
--:-- Brent Schur: But the Miami Herald sued to get the documents from that case made public. And that brings us to this big release.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Who can we expect to see on this list?
--:-- Brent Schur: It's a massive trove of documents that's set to be released, and many of the names on the list are known.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, for example, he's publicly called for all material related to him to be made public, and he's been transparent about his association with Epstein.
--:-- Brent Schur: And there's also Haley Robinson, who spoke out in the Netflix documentary Filthy Rich about how she recruited women to come give massages at Epstein's Florida home.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They're both in the 177 individuals, but there may well be some surprises.
--:-- Brent Schur: And that said, in the days since the ruling, most of the chatter online has been people speculating that something will come up to stop these names from ever coming out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You know, fire destroying the evidence, something happening to the judge, you name it.
--:-- Brent Schur: Right. Now, this isn't the only batch of outstanding Epstein documents, correct?
--:-- Georgia Howe: No, it's not. There's actually an ongoing fight in the U.S. Senate over the release of more information, including the flight logs from Epstein's private jet, the Lolita Express.
--:-- Brent Schur: We know some of the high-profile associates who flew on that jet, including former President Bill Clinton.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But Senator Marsha Blackburn says the Department of Justice has more information that it's keeping from the public.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: In Jelaine Maxwell's trial, these flight records that were released were heavily redacted, and we were not able to obtain the information that was needed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We fully believe that the Epstein records, the video surveillance from his homes, the flight logs, all of that is in the possession of the FBI and DOJ.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: And getting that released so that we can get justice for these victims, it's an important thing to do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Interestingly, Blackburn says her push to subpoena these documents has been given the cold shoulder by our Democrat colleague Dick Turbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: He was asked about her request to subpoena the records and said he was completely unaware.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She says that's impossible.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: In committee, when I had sought recognition, which he gave me, and I laid out what I wanted to do with my subpoenas, I, of course, talked about Jeffrey Epstein.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then when I finished my comments, he said he would not have called on me if he knew what I was seeking recognition for.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: So I find it very curious that either he wasn't listening to me, he wasn't paying attention, or he was trying to ignore me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But Blackburn said it's not going to be something she's going to let him ignore.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: I am not giving up. I am still on this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And as I've said many times, Dick Durbin, he can come to my office. We can discuss how to go forward.
--:-- Marsha Blackburn: But these victims, women that were trafficked by him, women that were recruited and groomed by Jelaine Maxwell and then put in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit, these women need justice.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, we'll keep an eye on that brewing fight and for those court documents in the new year.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
