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--:-- Host (John Bickley): After being hit with more federal charges, former President Trump held a rally over the weekend and called for his Republican challengers to drop out. The Ron DeSantis and so many others are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): We discussed the latest on the expanded charges and how they're impacting the Trump campaign. I'm Daily Wire. Editor-in-Chief John Bickley, Georgia Howe, is off today.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): It's Monday, July 31st, and this is Morning Wire. I have six grandchildren, and I'm crazy about them. I speak to them every single day.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Amid growing political pressure connected to his son Hunter, President Biden has finally publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): We discussed the reversal and how the president is handling the mounting accusations of Biden corruption.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is back in the news after a charge against him in his historic case was dropped. While calls for him to be jailed picked up.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Over the weekend, former President Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate, held his first rally since federal prosecutors in Florida announced new charges against him.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Here with more on the case and how the president-turned-candidate is responding is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, so President Trump had hinted last week that he expected to face new charges in the case regarding his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. And we did see new charges, but they actually stemmed from an existing case, the one in Florida involving his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On Thursday, Special Counsel Jack Smith announced additional charges against Trump, alleging that the former president ordered an employee of his to delete security footage from the property.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That employee, Carlos de Oliveira, has now been added as a defendant in the case and faces three charges himself, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, destruction of evidence, and lying to the FBI.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, while Diolivera himself was only the manager of the property and not a lawyer or top aide to Trump, the charges against him are serious, and there's some real concern in Trump's orbit that he could end up flipping on the former president the way that others in his circle have in the past.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And some are saying that's exactly why prosecutors set their sights on him.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What is Diolivera's role in this case? So prosecutors laid out a timeline in their indictment attempting to prove that he was sort of the fixer for Trump.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to the indictment, on June 24th, 2022, the Justice Department issued a subpoena for security footage from Mar-a-Lago. The next day, they alleged that Diolivera took a Trump aide to a security booth on the property, as well as the rooms in the property where Trump's documents were kept, showing that aide where the security cameras were located.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then two days later, Diolivera allegedly met with another employee from the property's IT department, whom he asked about deleting 45 days worth of security footage.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: When that employee told him he wasn't sure if it was authorized, Diolivera allegedly said it was an order from, quote, the boss.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, the indictment also alleges that Diolivera helped move about 30 boxes of classified documents after the DOJ had subpoenaed Trump.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Again, right now, these are just allegations, so we'll have to wait and see all of the evidence from prosecutors, but it is a clear effort by the DOJ to paint the picture of a planned cover-up on Trump's part.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. Now, what do we need to know about these other new charges. How did they change the case?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So remember the previous indictment included the transcript of a conversation that Trump had with guests at his property back in 2021 where he appeared to show off a secret military document regarding a military attack on Iran.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The original indictment did not include any charges for that conversation, though. But on Thursday, prosecutors added a charge for a, quote, presentation concerning military activity in a foreign country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And they also hinted that they had the specific document from that conversation in their possession.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So while the previous charges revolved mainly around Trump simply possessing and mishandling classified materials, this new charge is important because it alleges that he exposed sensitive information.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the special counsel clearly escalating the case here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As we noted, Trump held a rally over the weekend. How has he responded to these latest allegations?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, he's maintained that the indictments are proof that the DOJ, Democrats, and what he calls the deep state are willing to do anything possible to keep him from the White House.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here he is speaking at that rally this week in Erie, Pennsylvania.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They want to try and demean and hurt us, all of us. You know, they're not indicting me, they're indicting you. I just happen to be standing in their way. That's all it is.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Meanwhile, as we mentioned at the top, Trump is calling for his Republican challengers to drop out.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What sort of impact are the charges having on the primary race so far?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, traditionally, you'd think that a presidential candidate facing multiple indictments and dozens of criminal charges would crater.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But there's nothing traditional about Trump. With each indictment, he's climbed higher in the polls. He now sits in the mid-50s with a 30-point lead.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So until that changes, there's not much reason to think voters will fall off due to new charges.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: One area these cases could have an impact, though, is on the financial side.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We learned this weekend that Trump's Save America PAC has spent over $40 million in legal expenses defending the former president.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's more than Trump's campaign raised in the last fundraising quarter altogether, and more than nearly every other campaign expense combined.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the charges are, if nothing else, an enormous financial drain on his campaign.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And Trump and other Republicans say that's intentional. In their view, the charges are an attempt to keep Trump from the White House by draining his campaign coffers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now the question becomes whether these charges continue to galvanize the GOP base around him or whether voters become disillusioned with him and decide on someone with less baggage.
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--:-- Host (John Bickley): Coming up, President Biden finally acknowledges his seventh grandchild.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): In a reversal this week, President Biden finally acknowledged his seventh grandchild, Navy, a four-year-old daughter of his scandal-plagued son, Hunter.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Biden's decision comes after a protracted custody and support battle in which Hunter sought to lessen his monthly payments and also to deny Navy the last name Biden.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The situation has put even more political pressure on the president amid growing accusations of Biden family corruption.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Here to discuss the development is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey Dave, so why now has something significant changed here?
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. Many of Biden's media allies are arguing that this decision is simply the result of the court battle wrapping up.
--:-- David Marcus: But as the New York Post Miranda Devine pointed out on Twitter, in fact, DNA testing has shown for over two years that the child is Joe Biden's granddaughter.
--:-- David Marcus: So he had ample time to build a relationship. After all, this is a reality and circumstance that millions of grandparents navigate without refusing to admit the existence of their grandkids.
--:-- David Marcus: So in a sense this is Biden ripping off a political band that was always going to sting
--:-- David Marcus: Now we did hear in the last few weeks that Navy knows her grandfather is the president of the United States.
--:-- David Marcus: Do you think that revelation could have played a role in the political calculus?
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, of course. As we discussed on Morning Wire recently, the prospect of an adorable five-year-old girl on television saying her famous granddad won't talk for her is like Oppenheimer nuclear level bad optics.
--:-- David Marcus: And now it appears like that's going to be off the table.
--:-- David Marcus: Let's not forget as well that being Grandpa Joe is a real part of Biden's brand, one that sometimes offsets his rather obvious decline as he gets older.
--:-- David Marcus: So ultimately, there was likely no choice but to come to this conclusion, even though Miranda's right. A lot of voters are going to say to themselves, how on earth did this take you this long?
--:-- David Marcus: Now, this all comes at a time when the Bidens hoped that Hunter's legal woes were about to be in the rearview mirror after his plea deal.
--:-- David Marcus: But of course, that hasn't happened at all. In fact, one could argue things are worse now than ever.
--:-- David Marcus: Is Biden's attempt to turn the page on Hunter floundering?
--:-- David Marcus: Oh, it is.
--:-- David Marcus: And you're right. This was supposed to all get tied up as Hunter finished his custody battle, took his what some critics call a sweetheart deal from the Department of Justice.
--:-- David Marcus: And the pink bow on top would have been a photo op with Joe and his granddaughter.
--:-- David Marcus: Instead, the quagmire is growing.
--:-- David Marcus: Not only has the plea deal fallen apart for now, but we know the DOJ investigation is ongoing.
--:-- David Marcus: And to add acrylics to injury, we learned this week that one of the buyers of Hunter's insanely expensive artworks was a Democrat mega-donor who Joe Biden appointed to a prestigious commission.
--:-- David Marcus: If the goal was to get Hunter out of the headlines, well, not so fast.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Hunter Biden's former business partner, Devin Archer, is set to finally testify before Congress today, and reports indicate that if he does, he'll say Joe Biden was on dozens of phone calls with Hunter's business associates.
--:-- David Marcus: How badly does that undermine the president's claims that he knew nothing about Hunter's business dealings?
--:-- David Marcus: I mean, it destroys them.
--:-- David Marcus: First, we should note that over the weekend, as Devine also reported, the DOJ sent a menacing letter to a judge pushing for the prompt arrest of Archer just a couple of days before he was set to testify.
--:-- David Marcus: So another weaponization wrinkle there.
--:-- David Marcus: And as for the claim that Biden was on those calls, look, it was already clear from the laptop that Joe Biden had met with many of these business partners, had them on Air Force Two, took pictures with them.
--:-- David Marcus: But for Archer to say, and he's not the first, that Joe Biden had firsthand knowledge of all this, it means somebody's lying.
--:-- David Marcus: And obviously, that will just intensify investigations in the GOP House of Representatives, where impeachment has already been discussed by Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
--:-- David Marcus: So we could soon be in a situation where the leading Republican candidate is in a criminal trial while the Democrat is being impeached.
--:-- David Marcus: I guess it's fair to say this would be unprecedented.
--:-- David Marcus: I think that's a polite word for it.
--:-- David Marcus: But unless something changes, yes, These candidates will square off under dark clouds and it'll be left to the American people to find whatever silver lining there may be.
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--:-- Host (John Bickley): Meanwhile, we'll have no shortage of new revelations and allegations to cover here.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The disgraced crypto magnate Sam Baikman or SBF may be headed back to jail after prosecutors accused him of witness tampering last week.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): But in a bit of good news for the young tech exec, who is also a major Democrat donor, prosecutors have decided to drop a campaign finance charge from his indictment.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us to talk about the latest in SBF's criminal trial.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, Tim. Why is SBF again being threatened with jail?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried tried to intimidate and discredit Caroline Ellison by leaking what amounted to her diary to the New York Times for a report published last week.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Ellison was an executive at Bankman-Fried's hedge fund Alameda Research and one of his earliest hires.
--:-- Tim Pierce: She was also his off-and-on girlfriend for a time, which complicated their relationship at Alameda and still does.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So SBF gave the New York Times access to a bunch of Google Docs in which Ellison had recorded her private thoughts about her time at Alameda, her relationship with him, and presumably a host of other personal details.
--:-- Tim Pierce: His defense attorney said that he was being mischaracterized and lied about in the press, and he has a First Amendment right to defend himself.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But prosecutors say that SBF was really attempting to send a message to Ellison and others expected to testify at his trial.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Keep this up, and I will leak all sorts of embarrassing information about you to the press.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Ellison and a couple other former Alameda executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges and are expected to testify at SBF's trial.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And how has the judge handled this so far?
--:-- Tim Pierce: U.S. District Judge Louis Kaplan said he was sensitive to the claims of both sides and told each side to submit their arguments in writing before he'll make a decision.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Kaplan ordered tighter bail restrictions on his behavior in February after he used an encrypted messaging app to contact a potential witness.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Prosecutors at the time also objected to his use of an Internet VPN, which is used to obscure details about the user when accessing the web.
--:-- Tim Pierce: His defense attorney said it was all innocuous, Bengman Freed talking with a former colleague and then using a VPN when he was trying to watch football online.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Still, SBF was given tighter rules and reduced access to his devices.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But last week's court hearing wasn't all bad for Bengman Freed.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Why did prosecutors drop one of his charges?
--:-- Tim Pierce: They dropped the campaign finance charge after the government of the Bahamas complained that it violated the terms of his extradition.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Prosecutors had added six charges, including the campaign finance charge, to SBF's indictment in the months after he was extradited from the Bahamas, where his now defunct crypto trading platform FTX was based.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Bahamian government filed a complaint with a judge, and rather than fight it, prosecutors decided to drop the charge.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So at this point, how many charges is he facing?
--:-- Tim Pierce: He was extradited on an indictment of seven charges related to allegations of defrauding investors and covering up the collapse of Alameda with money invested in FTX.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He's scheduled to face trial on those counts in October.
--:-- Tim Pierce: On the other five charges prosecutors tacked on, those have since been separated into a separate trial tentatively scheduled for next March.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Those charges included allegations of bank fraud and a bribe paid to a foreign government.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So 12 charges and potentially two trials for Bengman Freed in the next year.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He's facing dozens of years in prison, but for now, SBF is out on a house arrest and staying at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California.
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--:-- Host (John Bickley): That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
