The Daily Signal - Clinton Named in Epstein Documents, Trump Accused of Financially Benefiting From Foreign Governments, Responsibility Claimed for Iran Terrorist Attack | Jan. 4

Starting point is 00:00:02 I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Thursday, December 4th. Here are today's headlines. Documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were released Wednesday. The court documents had previously been sealed, but now reveal some of the people who interacted with Epstein. Epstein was a millionaire known for associating with big-name politicians, celebrities, and billionaires. In 2008, Epstein was convicted. on the charges of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute in a controversial plea deal. Authorities arrested him in 2019 on federal charges for the sex trafficking

Starting point is 00:00:58 of minors. He died in his jail cell in August of 2019. The medical examiner ruled his death a suicide. Yesterday, 40 documents of an expected 250 were unsealed and released to the public. The documents name roughly 150 people in previously redacted parts of a lawsuit brought against Jeffrey Epstein's associate, Jelaine Maxwell, in 2015. Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other crimes in 2021. A New York judge sentenced her to 20 years imprisonment in June of 2022, and she's currently serving out her sentence. The names of the newly made public court documents include former president Bill Clinton, former President Donald Trump, lawyer and former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, and founder of Bath and Body Works, Les Wexner.

Starting point is 00:01:58 Neither Clinton or Trump have been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein. In total, Clinton's name is mentioned 73 times in the unsealed documents, and Trump's name is mentioned 14. times. The documents include testimony from a woman who accused Epstein of sexual misconduct named Joanna Soberg. When asked if Bill Clinton was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Soberg said, I knew he had dealings with Bill Clinton. And when asked, did Jeffrey Epstein ever talk to you about Bill Clinton? She replied, he said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls. Clinton spokesperson, Angel Urena, told the Daily Signal,

Starting point is 00:02:39 that Clinton and Epstein did not have a close personal relationship. He also noted that Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing. Clinton did not object to the unsealing of the documents. Zuberg is also cited in the document as saying that Epstein told her he would take her on a trip to Trump's Atlantic City of Casino but did not allege any wrongdoing. She also said in a deposition that Prince Andrew had inappropriately touched her at Epstein's mansion in New York. Check out today's Daily Signal show notes so that you can find the Daily Signal's

Starting point is 00:03:16 Tyler O'Neill's full report on this story. Federal bureaucrats and other employees can take paid administrative leave to volunteer as poll workers. In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order, carving out paying administrative leave to encourage federal bureaucrats and other employees to volunteer as poll workers. The administration also requires that. federal agencies grant four hours of leave for voting to employees. That's according to reporting from the Daily Signals, Fred Lucas. The Heritage Foundation's oversight project obtained internal

Starting point is 00:03:53 documents from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management showing that the administration requires four hours of leave for employees to vote or volunteer at the polls. But the issue here is that Biden's executive order may violate the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act prohibits part of the state. The Hatch Act prohibits partisan political activity using federal resources and time. Republican New York representative Claudine Tenney, who co-chairs the House Election Integrity Caucus, told the Daily Signal that the Biden administration policy is an example of Democrats interfering in state election policy and pushing for nationalization of our elections. But Tenney, she's not the only one expressing concerns. Many congressional Republicans, as well as government watchdog groups, expressed

Starting point is 00:04:41 concerns about the federal agencies engaging in partisan political activity under Biden's executive order in violation of the Hatch Act. The Biden administration's office of personnel management did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Signal regarding these concerns. You can learn more about the whole story and specifically the Hatch Act and concerns over the Biden administration's violation of it by checking out Fred Lucas's story in today's show notes. House Democrats released a report today alleging that former President Donald Trump unlawfully benefited financially from his time as president. According to the report, Trump accepted more than $7.8 million in payments from foreign states and their leaders, including some of the world's most unsavory regimes. The report claims Trump businesses benefited financially from China, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

Starting point is 00:05:40 The report was issued by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. It's 156 pages long and makes the claim to uncover a stunning web of millions of dollars in payments made by foreign governments and their agents directly to Trump-owned businesses while President Trump was in the White House. The report is reportedly drawn from documents from Trump's accounting firm, Mazzar's and a federal agency. The Democrats report centers around several of Trump's real estate holdings and claims that foreign actors spent money at places like Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, and Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza in New York. For example, the Hill reports that the Chinese state-affiliated Industrial and Commercial Bank of China spent $5.4 million for nearly three, three, years for a lease at Trump Tower. It is important to note that the Constitution prohibits any president from accepting money or gifts from foreign governments without the consent of Congress. The New York Times reports that Eric Trump has long insisted that foreign interests did not

Starting point is 00:06:55 influence his father's presidency and that any profit the company earned on the hotel stays was returned to the federal government through a voluntary annual payment to the Treasury Department. The report from Democrats came after Republicans have spent months investigating the business dealings of the Biden family and claiming that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden benefited from dealings with foreign governments while Biden was vice president. In response to Democrats' report, Republicans are arguing that Trump did not violate the law and should continue to hold the Biden family accountable because, according to Republicans, they did violate the law. Republican chairman of the oversight panel, James Comer, said it's beyond parity that Democrats

Starting point is 00:07:43 continue their obsession with former President Donald Trump. And he added that former President Trump has legitimate businesses, but Bidens do not. Well, yesterday we reported on an explosion in Iran that killed over 100 people and injured many more. Initially, it wasn't known who was responsible for that attack, but today the Islamic State claimed responsible. The attack occurred near the tomb of Iranian General Qasam Soleimani, who was killed by a drone strike while Trump was president. Iranian officials say the explosion occurred during a ceremony honoring Soleimani. The Islamic State, which is a militant Sunni Muslim group, said that two of its members detonated explosive belts in the crowd gathered at the ceremony for the anniversary of Soleimani's death. The attack is the most deadly in Iran since the 1970.

Starting point is 00:08:38 Islamic Revolution. There have long been tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the Middle East. Iran's leaders have vowed that there will be retaliation for the attack. We end today's show with a little bit of hard news. Multiple people were injured at a school shooting at Perry High School in Iowa today. Police were called about an active shooter at 7.37 a.m. local time before school had started. Police arrived within seven minutes at the school. The shooter has been identified and reportedly took his own life.

Starting point is 00:09:14 We're still learning details about the severity of those that were injured in the shooting. Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante spoke to the press today and says that the investigation is ongoing per NBC News. The community is safe. We're just now working backwards trying to figure out everything that happened and make notifications. The sheriff says that there will be another press conference later today with more details. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds called the incident a senseless tragedy. White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said Congress must act to enact universal background checks, ban assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines, and require safe storage of firearms. The White House and

Starting point is 00:09:59 Iowa officials have praised law enforcement for their actions at the school today. Well, we are going to leave it there for today's edition of the Daily Signal's Top News. Thanks for being with us and make sure to join us tomorrow morning as we continue our climate change podcast series. Tomorrow is the third and final installment of the series. And I'm sitting down with meteorologist and climate change expert, Roy Spencer, to answer the question, should we be concerned about climate change? Really enjoyed the conversation so far, both with David Legates and Willie soon discussing the history of climate change and some of the causes of climate change.

Starting point is 00:10:37 We continue the conversation with Roy Spencer about the causes of climate change, but also get into the fear aspect. There's a lot of fear mongering around climate change, and we address some of those concerns with Mr. Spencer. Make sure to catch that conversation tomorrow morning. And in the meantime, take a minute to subscribe to the Daily Signal podcast wherever you'd like to listen. We love hearing your feedback and seeing your comments rolling.

Starting point is 00:11:01 Have a great evening. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning for the final installment of our three-part climate change podcast. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Clinton Named in Epstein Documents, Trump Accused of Financially Benefiting From Foreign Governments, Responsibility Claimed for Iran Terrorist Attack | Jan. 4

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