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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe, and John is on vacation. It's Wednesday, July 19th.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump announces on Truth Social that he anticipates yet another indictment after receiving a target letter from the DOJ. The House of Representatives needs to take action to defund this special counsel investigation immediately. They are attacking our democracy and engaging in election interference right now. What's the former president being charged with now and how will it affect his ability to run for office in 2024.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe, and we're joined now by Daily Wire managing editor Greg Wilson. So, Greg, Trump released a statement on Truth Social on Tuesday. What are the specifics that we know right now?
--:-- Greg Wilson: That's right. Trump broke the news with a post saying he received a letter Sunday night from special counsel Jack Smith, who he called deranged. Smith invited Trump to appear before a grand jury in Washington within four days. That panel's been looking at Trump's conduct between Election Day of 2020 and January 6th of 2021. The letter also informed the former president he is a criminal target of the grand jury's investigation, and it could mean an indictment and an arrest could be imminent.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Now, do we know what charges Trump is facing and or could face?
--:-- Greg Wilson: Not so far. There's some talk that Smith could seek a seditious conspiracy charge based on Trump's alleged efforts to substitute a different set of electors. to replace the ones who ultimately certified President Joe Biden as the winner. There could also be an obstruction of an official proceeding charge, which we've seen used against other January 6th defendants.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Morning Wire spoke to journalist Julie Kelly, who's been following this closely, and she says the evidence is far from solid. The evidence largely relates to communication with other people, text messages, videos that were made, posts on social media. I mean this is the sort of flimsy evidence that the DOJ is getting away with not just before a grand jury seeking criminal indictments now against more than a thousand January 6th defendants But that sort of evidence will also be presented to the same sort of grand jury seeking these same charges against Donald Trump
--:-- Greg Wilson: Although a lot's been made of Trump's speech at the Ellipse just before the riot, Smith is not believed to be pursuing charges based on that. Trump undeniably riled up the crowd when he told him to march to the Capitol, but he also told attendees to be peaceful and using his words to hold him responsible for the riot could face high First Amendment hurdles.
--:-- Greg Wilson: It's not known if Trump will choose to appear before the grand jury, which is reportedly already heard from former Vice President Mike Pence, former director of the Office of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, and a handful of others, including White House lawyers.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Now, this is just one of several cases that Trump is facing. What's the status on the others?
--:-- Greg Wilson: They're all chugging along. Trump is under indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney in connection with alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, and in Florida, where Smith's office accuses him of mishandling sensitive documents, the ones found at Mar-a-Lago. Trump's also under a criminal investigation in Georgia for his alleged attempt to overturn Biden's narrow victory there in 2020. His legal team's trying to push any federal trials off until after the 2024 election, but Smith is resisting those efforts.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Trump can continue to run while under indictment, and even potentially from a prison cell. And if he were to get elected, he hypothetically could pardon himself.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Now, speaking of his presidential campaign, there's been a lot of talk that these indictments are actually hardening Trump's support. What do the latest polls show?
--:-- Greg Wilson: Right, Georgia. Trump and many of his supporters think the cases are just a witch hunt aimed at preventing him from returning to the White House. And according to a morning consult poll published Tuesday, Trump leads the primary field with support from 55% of likely GOP voters, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 20%, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%, and Pence at 7%.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Senate Democrats are now calling for new legislation that would impose strict ethics rules on Supreme Court justices. The new push comes amid allegations of unethical activity among several justices on the high court. Here with more is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, what exactly are Democrats calling for?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, this week, Democrats in the Senate are pushing new legislation that would enact far stricter ethics rules for the Supreme Court. Among other things, the law would establish a new code of conduct for justices and lay out clear guidelines for when a justice must recuse themselves from a case and also require justices to explain to the public why they're recusing themselves. It would also mandate increased transparency about individuals appearing before the court and any ties they might have with justices. And finally, it would create a first-of-its-kind investigatory board to look into potential violations of that new code of conduct.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So it's pretty substantial. On Thursday, the measure will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, this new push comes after allegations of unethical activity among multiple justices. Can you give us a quick refresher?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, so justices on both sides of the spectrum have been accused of ethical violations throughout the last year. For example, we talked quite a bit on the show about Clarence Thomas who been accused by the left of accepting free vacations and trips on private planes from wealthy friends The left has also called for Thomas to recuse himself from a number of cases involving his wife Ginny Thomas a conservative activist involved in 2020 election efforts. And then there's Justice Sonia Sotomayor. An Associated Press report last week found that her staff had pressured public libraries and other institutions to buy thousands of her books ahead of speaking engagements.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Republicans say it's a blatant example of a pay-for-play scheme that helped Sotomayor earn nearly $4 million in book sales. While members of Congress and the executive branch are barred by law from using their taxpayer-funded staff to help them sell books or secure speaking engagements, the Supreme Court has no such laws on the books.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So in these cases, the justices weren't actually breaking any rules. Right. So supporters of the justices point out that even if all these reports are true, they don't constitute illegal activity. The reality is there are no laws requiring justices to disclose every vacation they take with friends. No matter how wealthy those friends are, There's no law against the justice selling their home, and there's nothing on the books requiring justices to explain in writing why they have or haven't recused themselves from a case.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The argument from Democrats is that all of these activities should be regulated by law.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the main argument from Democrats and others in support of the ethics code is that local and federal judges, as well as members of the executive and legislative branch, must abide by a strict ethics code. It requires them to disclose gifts and relationships with private citizens. and they say that those sitting on the Supreme Court should be held to the same or higher standards.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here's Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, sponsor of this legislation, on MSNBC. The legislative branch of government has processes and transparent proceedings involving other individuals that the Supreme Court has avoided for itself, but that all other federal judges actually have to adhere to.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: How likely is this measure to pass?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, as it currently stands, it doesn't look likely. Democrats would need 60 votes in the Senate for passage. And right now, the only Republican who appears on board is Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. In the coming days and weeks, though, expect to see a full court press from Senate Democrats in the media looking to put pressure on vulnerable Republicans to cross party lines and support the measure.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At the moment, Republicans in opposition to the law say that it's another attempt by the left to undermine and, even more importantly, intimidate the court. They say Democrats are looking for retribution against the court for recent rulings in support of conservative causes and point out that under current law, the Senate does not have the power to dictate how the Supreme Court operates.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So even if the measure were to pass, there are significant legal questions as to whether it would actually be binding.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A suspected serial killer has been arrested for a string of unsolved murders that occurred on Gilgo Beach in Long Island, New York between 2007 and 2010. Almost a dozen bodies were found in the dunes of Gilgo Beach in 2011, confounding police for more than a decade. The suspect has been identified as a 59-year-old architect consultant in midtown Manhattan. Here to explain how police found the suspect after more than a decade is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, Ash, I understand the suspect, who we won't be naming per Daily Wire policy, wasn't even on police's radar until last year, correct?
--:-- Ash Short: Correct. The case went cold shortly after the bodies were discovered in late 2011, but the case was reopened in January 2022 with the creation of a task force. The victims included mostly adult women but at least one adult male and one toddler were among the deceased Within two months the task force came up with a suspect in four of the 11 total murders
--:-- Ash Short: And how did his name come up?
--:-- Ash Short: A witness remembered his car. Someone who was in the Gilgal Beach area at the time one of the women disappeared reported seeing a first-generation Chevrolet avalanche in the area. Police ran a search for people who owned that particular vehicle and came up with the suspect's name.
--:-- Ash Short: It's unclear how many people in the area owned one of those vehicles in the same color as the suspects. Once police focused on him, they were able to link him to burner cell phones that were used to speak to the women shortly before they disappeared. Cell phone records also showed that he used the phones of two of the victims after they disappeared.
--:-- Ash Short: A particularly chilling detail, the suspect allegedly used at least one victim's phone to call the victim's family members on multiple occasions to harass them.
--:-- Ash Short: So what was the nail in the coffin that made police pretty sure they'd found their guy?
--:-- Ash Short: So the Suffolk County Crime Lab found several female hairs on the bodies of some of the victims, hairs that didn't belong to the victims. Initially, there wasn't enough for DNA, but when the case was reopened, the crime lab sent the samples to a forensic lab that uses advanced DNA techniques. That lab was able to determine that the hairs belonged to the same woman.
--:-- Ash Short: Police collected some discarded bottles from the suspect's trash and found that the DNA from the hairs would exclude 99.98% of the North American population, but not the suspect's wife. It's important to note, though, that the wife is not suspected of participating in the murders and was out of the country when the women disappeared.
--:-- Ash Short: And they were eventually able to link to the suspect himself.
--:-- Ash Short: Yes. The forensics lab used the same techniques on male hair found on the victims and determined that 99.96% of the population was excluded from being the source of the hair. The suspect, however, could not be excluded.
--:-- Ash Short: Police collected a discarded pizza box from the suspect's trash to connect the DNA on the hairs to the suspect.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, the suspect has been officially charged with at least three murders, but there were more bodies found. Is he a suspect in those additional murders as well?
--:-- Ash Short: Yes. So the suspect has been charged in the murders of three out of four of the women known as the Gilgo Four and is the prime suspect in the fourth. But shortly after these four bodies were found, seven more were found in the area for a total of 11. Police are currently looking into whether the suspect was responsible for those murders as well.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, the suspect is, of course, innocent until proven guilty. But if convicted, what kind of time does he face?
--:-- Ash Short: Oh, multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole since New York doesn't have the death penalty.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all for today's show. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
