Morning Wire - Navy Seizes Blockade Runner & Kash Patel v. The Atlantic | 4.20.26

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

The U.S. captures an Iranian-flagged cargo ship trying to bypass its Hormuz blockade, FBI Director Kash Patel goes after a legacy outlet over a “hit piece,” and a second significant leak rattles the Supreme Court. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2742 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Quince - Go to https://Quince.com/WIRE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.  Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text 'WIRE' to 83848 to learn more. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And sometimes, a smooth, silky latte just wins. It's exceptional but effortless. Like actually effortless. Simply press, brew, and explore. Nispresso, what else? Keep exploring at Nespresso.com. After Iran violates the ceasefire, the U.S. captures an Iranian flag cargo ship trying to bypass the blockade. It's the blockade, the U.S. Navy, and President Trump, who's ultimately deciding what gets in and out.

I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howl. It's Monday, April 20th. This is Morning Wire. FBI director Cash Patel is going on the offensive after what he's calling a libelous hit piece by a popular legacy media outlet. If the fake news mafia isn't hitting you personally with faceless information in Washington, D.C., then you're not doing your job. And another significant leak shakes the Supreme Court, prompting claims that a left-wing justice was involved. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Today's show is brought to you by Quince. Quince is an online retailer that sells high-quality clothing and home items made of real materials like cotton, cashmere, silk, leather, etc., all for, extremely affordable prices. And today I am wearing almost head to toe quince, a rare opportunity to see my lower half, but I want you to see this skirt I have. It has such great movement.

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and a full year to decide about your items. That's quince.com slash wire. The ceasefire fractured over the weekend after the Iranian military violated the agreement by targeting ships. Joining us now with more is Cabot Phillips, host of Wired in Live. Morning Cabot.

So there's been anticipation building for a second round of peace talks, but now we've had some major military action. Where do things stand now? Right. It was another roller coaster 48 hours for sure. So heading into the weekend, there was quite a bit of optimism from the White House that a permanent deal was imminent. Iran had reopened the strait of Hormuz,

gas prices started to tumble to pre-war levels, and Wall Street surged. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 each hit all-time highs, and the Dow closed at its highest mark since February. So the vibes were high, but on Saturday, Iranian state media abruptly announced that they were closing the straight once again, blaming the ongoing U.S. blockade, which they called, quote, banditry and maritime piracy. In their words, any vessel attempting to pass through would be considered to be, quote, cooperating with the enemy. And within hours, they began once again firing missiles at numerous vessels, including those from India, France, and Britain. And they did strike at least one. In another case, an Indian oil tanker was given permission by the Iranians to pass through, but was fired upon shortly after.

It's unclear if it was an attempted trap or simply a communication error within the Iranian military. Audio of that incident, though, was released Saturday. And you can hear the frantic Indian captain begging the Iranians to let him turn around after shouting, quote, You gave me clearance to go. SEPA Navy, this is Motoring a Sunmar Hedalt. You gave me clearance to go. My name second on your list. You gave me clearance to go.

You are fighting now. Let me turn back. And then following those attacks, Iranian officials said, quote, as long as the U.S. does not agree to the complete freedom of navigation for vessels, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain tightly controlled and in its previous. the estate. But the president did not back down. On Sunday, he announced that for the first time since the blockade began, the U.S. had seized an Iranian-flagged tanker after it refused to turn around, ignoring numerous warnings over the course of six hours. U.S. forces eventually messaged the crew to evacuate

the engine room before firing multiple rounds into that portion of the ship. Marines then boarded it. The ship is currently in American custody. This episode really lays bare the conflict within Iran between the more moderate voices who want a deal and the hardline fundamentalists who view any compromise with the U.S. as unacceptable. President Trump has expressed satisfaction with Iranian negotiators, calling them reasonable, saying they want to make a deal. But there are questions in Washington regarding whether those negotiators actually represent the broader desires for the regime itself, which still has more than a few radicals. For example, after the country's foreign minister, Abbas Araghqi, tweeted that the strait was fully opened,

the Iranian Navy broadcast a message of their own to vessels in the strait, reading, quote, we will open it by the order of our leader, Ammane, not by the tweets of some idiot. Yeah, it's still unclear who's really in charge there. And that brings us to the peace talks. What's the latest there? Well, despite the strait being closed once again, the White House says they are still confident peace talks will move forward Tuesday in

Islamabad, Pakistan. That's the day the original ceasefire is set to expire. However, the Iranians, for their part, have yet to confirm that they will actually attend. There was even an Axios report that they believed the U.S. was preparing a surprise attack. So we'll have to see if they actually do show up. Now, for his part, President Trump is keeping the pressure and the threats on. Writing on Social this weekend, he said, quote, we're offering a very fair and reasonable deal.

And I hope they take it because if they don't, the U.S. is going to knock out every single power plant at every single bridge in Iran. In the meantime, he says the U.S. naval blockade will remain in effect until a permanent peace deal is reached. So really keeping the pressure on there. Now, one more note before you go, the arrest of the Iranian national here in the U.S. What happened there? Yeah, really a crazy story. So more details are still coming to light.

But on Friday, authorities arrested an Iranian woman at LAX for allegedly, quote, trafficking arms on behalf of the government of Iran. The charges say that Shemim Maffi, a 44-year-old woman, allegedly attempted to facilitate the sale of Iranian-made drones, bombs, and ammunition to Sudan. If convicted, she faces 20 years. in federal prison. We'll be hearing more on that, I'm sure. Meanwhile, we'll see if things continue to escalate in the straight. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely. I want to tell you about our friends and Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is a Christian legal ministry dedicated to advancing free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God's design for marriage and family. They've scored huge legal victories, like helping

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You want to attack my character? Come at me. Bring it on. I'll see you in court. That was FBI director Cash Patel reacting to a controversial report that claims he has a drinking problem that's affected his leadership of the agency. Patel's not just denying the allegations he's filing a lawsuit. Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham, is here now with more.

So, Megan, what exactly is being alleged in this report? Yeah, Georgia. So this report comes from the Atlantic, and they say that they spoke to two dozen current and former FBI and DOJ officials, but no one who was willing to go on the record. But these sources told them that Patel is known in Washington circles for drinking heavily and sometimes for being unavailable for work after late night outings. Now, these anonymous sources claim that meetings occasionally had to be moved to later in the day because he was recovering from these nights of drinking. And, in one incident, members of his security detail reportedly had trouble reaching him behind locked doors, and they actually considered using breaching equipment to get inside. So some very troubling allegations, if true, but there's a lot of skepticism about the reporting in this story. Why is that? Well, Georgia, there's a number of reasons, but to start, the Atlantic does have a history of publishing negative and damaging stories about the Trump administration, relying entirely on anonymous sources. This is the same outlet that in 2020 reported that Donald Trump privately called American soldiers killed in war,

suckers and losers. Those claims were based on four unnamed sources. But on the record sources who were there that day in question said that the Atlantic's claims were completely false. And no one has been able to verify the anonymous claims since then. And then details from another Atlantic story also in 2020 about Ivy League admissions, were found to be false and the Atlantic retracted that entire story. And then you have the Patel defenders who have pointed out that the reporter for this story, a reporter named Sarah Fitzpatrick, was one of three NBC reporters who published a story in 2018

promoting allegations against then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. They alleged that he drugged women at parties in college so that he and other men could gang rape them. Now, the accuser, Julie Swetnik, later retracted pretty much all of the key details for that. And it came out later that she had a history of false allegations. So back to this report, Georgia, I made some calls and I wasn't able to find anyone who was willing to corroborate the Atlantic's reporting. In fact, some of the people I spoke to said point blank that they don't believe there's any way this can be true. For example, Clint Brown is a senior GOP operative who's worked very closely. with Patel. Brown served as Patel's Sherpa, and that just means chief guide and strategist for months

as Patel prepared for his Senate confirmation hearing. Now, Brown told me that he's one of the key people that any reporter should reach out to for information on Patel. Yet he says the Atlantic never contacted him. He says if they did, he would have told them that Patel is one of the most disciplined people that he's ever worked with, and he never saw him over drink. He also told him. He also told him that he was, told me that to his knowledge, the Atlantic didn't reach out to any of the other DC staffers that he would have expected them to contact for a story like this. Now, Brown told me, and I want to quote this directly, I would think if someone spent every waking minute with the FBI director, as I did when he's moving into his job, the reporter might want to ask that person for their

take. Now, as we heard at the top, Patel is suing over this. Has the Atlantic put forward any receipts to support their reporting? No, they haven't. No. No verifiable records, no documentation, including for things like calendars or records of missed meetings, something that you would expect if Patel were missing meetings like this regularly due to being out late the night before. But the Atlantic and Fitzpatrick say they're standing behind this story. I am a very careful, very diligent, award-winning investigative reporter with a history of award-winning work across multiple organizations. I stand by every word of this reporting. important to note for non-journalists out there, though, Georgia, that on the record sources are generally considered more credible than unnamed sources. And also that you would typically expect to see at least something like a specific date for a missed meeting or someone being spotted out drinking to excess.

And there's nothing like that in this story. Right. And we've certainly refused to run stories from anonymous sources. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yep, my pleasure. Look, Air Canada F.A. Canada has been a sold world.

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AirCanada com or at your agent of voyage. The conditions Another major leak from the Supreme Court hit the front pages of the New York Times over the weekend, raising concerns about the court's culture of collegiality and confidentiality breaking down.

Here with more is Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce. Morning, Tim. So the Times came out with this article about the court's shadow docket. They cited internal memos from some of the justices. But the bigger issue seems to be that this is another major breach of the court's confidentiality. what do we know so far? Well, we have a lot of speculation and conjecture. A lot of that is focused on the court's newest justice, Katanji Brown Jackson, and there's reason for that.

She made a speech at Yale just a few days ago against the court's shadow docket. There is a serious concern that the Supreme Court's modern stay practices are having an enormously disruptive and potentially corrosive effect on the functioning of the federal judiciary's usual decision-making. process. Some people have looked at those comments and seen evidence of clear bias and an interest in having a story like the one just leaked to the public. There's also some conjecture that involves the evidence of the story itself. All the memos cited in the Times piece are from official

letterhead from each Supreme Court justice except for one, a memo from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, which was written on plain paper. Jonathan Adler, a professor at William and Mary Law School, says this suggests that whoever leaked to the Times had access to Sotomayor Mayor's draft memos, not just her official internal communications. So it looks like a lot of the focus is on the liberal justices, and that was the case for the major leak, the Dobbs decision, the early draft of that was leaked back in 2022. Again, speculation that one of the liberal justices was involved, but we never got an answer to who was behind that.

What can we expect here? Well, the pressure is really on Chief Justice John Roberts at this point. Legal experts say that unless he wants his court remembered, as a lot of the court remembered as the one in which confidentiality and integrity finally broke down, he has to get a handle on these leagues. It may already be too late in some respects. It's not hard to see justices being a bit more reticent to be as open and frankly disagreeable directly with one another, so the walls may already be going up internally and hurting discussion between them. But as legal expert, Jonathan Turley pointed out, Roberts needs to act decisively here to catch the leaker and deter future

leaks before even worse damage is done. Now, for those who haven't read the Times story, Can you explain what the shadow docket is and what this story in particular was about? Right. The shadow or emergency docket essentially refers to initial Supreme Court rulings that are published without oral arguments or the usual pages of explanations. These rulings aren't considered final, but prioritized speed to stop what could be irreversible harm to one of the plaintiffs. The gist of the time story is that in 2016, the Supreme Court took an unprecedented step and stayed the Obama EPA. clean power plan and a case that was still in the lower courts. Justice's Roberts and Alito at the time led the push for the stay in the leaked memos. They said that the regulation seemed a huge overreach that was likely to be struck down. And Roberts also said that the costs were extreme,

nearly half a trillion dollars. And he and Alito were both concerned that the Obama EPA was actually trying to run around the court because of an incident two years before. But by doing this, the court set a new precedent that now effectively resolved, and dozens of significant decisions every year without the full deliberative process. Now, that's Times' version, but SCOTUS blog editor Sarah Isker pointed out that the court had used a shadow docket in 2013 and 2014 to stop a ban on same-sex marriage in Utah, as well as an abortion ban in Texas. Unlike in a Times story, in both of those cases, the rulings please the left,

rather than the right, like in the Clean Power Plan case. So that really disrupts the Times narrative there. Now we'll see if the court can catch a leaker on its second go around. Tim, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us and for those listening to the show. You can also now watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.