The Daily Signal - House to Send Mayorkas Impeachment to Senate, Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced, Trump Trial | March 28

Starting point is 00:00:00 Get you and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. And Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at gotransit.com slash tickets. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal, top news for Thursday, March 28th. Here are today's headlines.

Starting point is 00:00:51 The House of Representatives is moving ahead with the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alessandro Mayorkas. House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote today on his ex-page that together with the 11 House impeachment managers, I sent a letter to Senator Schumer telling him will deliver the articles of Secretary Mayorkas's impeachment to the Senate on April 10th, and that he must hold a full trial. The American people deserve accountability, according to Speaker Johnson. The letter that was delivered to Schumer reads in part, The constitutional grounds for Secretary Morgas's conviction and removal from office are well-founded, and the historical record is clear.

Starting point is 00:01:34 The framers of our Constitution gave Congress this authority for scenarios where executive branch officials who are responsible for executing the laws passed by Congress flout the law substituting their own judgment for that of Congress. The House voted on February 13th to impeach Mayorkas in a vote of 214 to 213. No Democrats voted in favor. And three Republicans, including representatives Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Ken Buck of Colorado, and Tom McClintock of California, also voted actually twice, both the first round that failed and then when it did pass against that impeachment.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Heritage Action for America, Executive Vice President Ryan Walker said that every senator should explain their position to the American people. Do they want to show the country the evidence against the man responsible for the deadly border crisis? Or will they help Biden cover up the truth? Heritage action stands with the Americans' demanding a trial. Republican Pennsylvania representative John Joyce previously told the daily signal that the February 13th vote was a vote for law and order in our communities and a vote to restore the rule of law at our southern border. Joyce also said our nation's southern border has descended into crisis due to Secretary

Starting point is 00:03:00 Mayorkas's willful and systemic refusal to comply with federal immigration laws by purposely neglecting to carry out the law, he was appointed to uphold and enforce. Secretary Mayorkas has allowed more than 10 million illegal immigrants to enter our nation under his watch. The Democrat-controlled Senate likely will not vote to convict Mayorkas, so stay tuned. Former FDX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. The Wall Street Journal reported that last year, a jury found Bankman Fried guilty of stealing billions of dollars from FDX customers as well as defrauding investors and lenders to his crypto investment firm Alameda Research. Referring to his actions, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan

Starting point is 00:03:51 said Thursday that Bankman Fried knew it was wrong. He knew it was criminal. Prior to his sentencing, Bankman Fried said that a lot of people feel really let down and they were very let down. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about what happened at every stage. The New York Times reported that Bankman Freed also has to forfeit over $11 billion in assets. With the 2024 presidential election underway, voters in Pennsylvania should listen up. This is of interest to you. The third U.S. District Court of Appeals handed down a decision in a case known as the NAACP versus Schmidt on Wednesday. The court ruled that Pennsylvania could toss mail-in ballots if they don't have the correct.

Starting point is 00:04:38 handwritten dates on the outer envelope. CBS reported that Wednesday's ruling brings the return of a technical mandate that caused thousands of voters to be declared invalid in the 2022 election. CBS also reported that Pennsylvania said many voters wrote their birth date on that envelope when they should have been writing the date prior to the election day that they filled out the ballot. Wednesday's decision follows a November decision from a lower court judge who ruled that mail-in ballots should be counted if they are received in time, even without the proper date, according to the Associated Press. The primary election in the Keystone state will take place next month on April 23rd.

Starting point is 00:05:26 A judge in Fulton County, Georgia heard arguments today for a case involving former president Donald Trump's alleged election interference in the 2020 election. Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis brought this case against Trump, and arguments today lasted about two hours, but Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee did not deliver a ruling as of today and did not say when that ruling would come. But what would a ruling against Trump mean for the former president? Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Cully Stimson, is here with us to explain more. Collie, first, if you would just explain a little bit of the background here. Why did Fannie Willis bring this case against former president Donald Trump? The basic allegation, and there are a lot of charges in this wide-ranging indictment, is that he violated the state racketeering corruption statute, RICO,

Starting point is 00:06:28 by essentially trying to overturn the election indictment. Georgia and get state electors to not certify the election for Biden. And so, according to the state's theory of the case, he did this by a variety of means, calling people, tweeting, twisting arms, figuratively speaking. And so now we're in the pretrial stages of that case. And I can tell you as a former judge and a former prosecutor, this is not sexy stuff usually. The pre-trial stages, there's no Perry Mason moment, there's a lot of motions by defense, there are counterarguments by the government, and so this is sort of the just-make-the-dunuts phase of a criminal trial, and so I'm not surprised that Judge McAfee didn't issue a ruling from the bench, and I can go

Starting point is 00:07:28 into the arguments that were made today, and there's a reason why you wouldn't, as a judge. a judge issue a ruling on something as complicated as these pretrial motions. Okay. Were there any moments that stuck out to you during those two hours during the hearing? Honestly, what stuck out to me is that nothing stuck out. This is the bread and butter of typical criminal cases. You see a collegial discussion by a judge who's clearly comfortable in his robe and prosecutors making arguments of why at this stage in the case the court should either not consider the defense's motion because it's premature or should outright deny the defense's motion.

Starting point is 00:08:17 And you hear the defense say, no, this is ripe now to take up, and here's why you should rule for us. And that's very standard. And that's why court TV doesn't cover these types. of things in your average case. I'm sure there are tens of thousands of motions like this being argued in courtrooms across the country and except for the litigants and the family members associated with the case. No one's paying attention because this is the grist of prosecution pretrial motion work. If Judge McAfee rules against Trump, what does that mean for the former

Starting point is 00:08:56 president? It means that at this juncture in time, he simply did not grant their motion to dismiss the charges on an as-applied basis, probably because they're not ripe to bring up the motion. Now, you get a lot of bites at the apple as criminal defense counsel, and I was one in criminal cases. And so just because they bring this as-applied challenge now, and the judge denies it, let's assume that he does, they're perfectly capable of bringing that, and they should bring it again at the of the government's case in chief after the government puts all of their evidence on. And that is exactly what they'll do because they'll make a motion for a finding of

Starting point is 00:09:39 not guilty. And they'll base that on a lot of things, either failure, proof of evidence and they'll go through charge by charge by charge outside the presence of the jury. And they'll also bring an as-applied challenge to dismiss the charges or a motion for a finding of not guilty. And by the way, that's not appealable. And so if the judge finds them not guilty because there was a failure of proof, well, that's that the state is stuck with that.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Does this case have ramifications for the 2024 elections? And if so, what? I almost thought that was a trick question because I think what we've seen as a political matter, and you know, I don't do politics. I just do law and policy. Every time he gets charged by one of these prosecutors, his poll numbers go up. And so I think the answer has to be yes, but don't ask me how, because I have no idea. And as is typical, the defense waived the presence of the president and the other defense counsel waived the presence of his client. And you'll see a lot more court hearings in these pretrial stages where the client is just not there. Well, we're going to be watching this closely in the coming weeks. Heritage Foundation's Colley Stimson. Colley, thank you for your time.

Starting point is 00:10:59 We appreciate it. Of course. Quick announcement before we go today. Since tomorrow is good Friday, we do not have a normal morning show or a top news edition. But be sure to check out Tyler O'Neill's bonus edition that will be out tomorrow. He is sitting down with the head of great American family media. Be sure to catch that conversation. We will be back with you for our morning editions on Monday and back with regular top news starting Tuesday. We hope that you all have a wonderful Easter weekend. And hey, if you have a little time over the weekend, if you would, take a minute to leave the Daily Signal podcast, a five-star rating and review wherever you like to listen. And also make sure you hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on our new shows. Have a wonderful Easter weekend. We will see you right back here tomorrow for that bonus edition. And then, of course, on Monday morning for my conversation with James Whitford of True Charity as we discuss their unique approach to dealing with homelessness and communities across America.

Starting point is 00:12:01 great week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visitdailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - House to Send Mayorkas Impeachment to Senate, Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced, Trump Trial | March 28

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