UNBIASED - NY Synagogue Underground Tunnel, Hunter Biden's Surprise Appearance in Congress, Fulton County DA Faces Affair Allegations, NY School Cancels Class to Shelter Migrants, and More.

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

1. DEEP DIVE: Discovery of Underground Passageway Under Synagogue in New York Leads to Chaos and Arrests (1:30)2. DEEP DIVE: Hunter Biden Makes Surprise Appearance with Attorneys at House Contempt Hearing (7:56)3. QUICK HITTERS: Chris Christie Suspends Presidential Campaign (16:05), Fulton County DA Hit With Affair Allegations (18:26), School in NY Cancels In-Person Classes to Shelter Migrants (20:23), Congress' First Year in Session Extremely Unproductive (22:19), Secretary of Defense Fails to Notify Anyone of Hospital Stay (23:15), Alabama Judge Finds Sex Offender Law Unconstitutional (25:08)4. NOT EVERYTHING IS BAD (26:57)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and share it with those you know that also appreciate unbiased news!Watch this episode on YouTube.Subscribe to Jordan's weekly free newsletter featuring hot topics in the news, trending lawsuits, and more.Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok.All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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call the Conax Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to Unbiased, formerly known as Jordan is my lawyer. I have three segments for you today. The first is going to be a deep dive. So that's when we take a deeper look at a couple of different stories. Today is about that were launched against Fannie Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, the school in New York that housed migrants for a night, and what that led to with some parents, Congress's lack of productivity, what's going on with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and a new ruling out of Alabama that deals with sex offenders living with children. And I want your thoughts on that. So stay tuned for that and let me know your thoughts in the comments. And then we will finish with my Friday segment, Not Everything Is Bad, which is just a lighthearted story to remind you of exactly that,

that not everything is bad. This is also your reminder that this podcast is now in video format on both YouTube and X, so if you're watching this, I'm looking at you. And if you're not watching, you should try it out sometime. This episode is being recorded at 4 p.m. on Thursday, January 11th. And as your reminder, if you haven't already and you love what you hear, please go ahead and leave me a review on whatever podcast platform you listen. It really helps my show. And the other thing you can do that really helps me is sharing this show with your friends and your family. So without further ado, let's get into today's stories.

The first story is about this synagogue tunnel in Brooklyn. You may have seen this viral video, it went around this week, of an altercation at a Brooklyn synagogue between synagogue goers and the police. The altercation surrounded this underground tunnel that sparked a wide array of conspiracy theories. But after looking into this a little bit, there's actually a lot of context that's missing and a lot that's not really included in all of the reports. So let's go through it. But first, I want to start by talking about Chabad and Chabadniks and what all of this means, because it really helps understand the story. So Chabad is one of the world's largest and

best known Hasidic movements. The way to look at this is you have Hasidic Jews who are a very strict sect within Orthodox Jews, and Chabad is one of the largest Hasidic groups. Within the Chabad movement, there are smaller sects, which we'll get into in this story. But basically, when you're looking at this big picture, it goes Orthodox Jews at the top. Within Orthodox Jews, you have Hasidic Jews. Within Hasidic Jews, you have the Chabad Movement. And people belonging to the Chabad Movement are called Chabadniks. And the reason that these facts are relevant to the story is because where all of this took place is at the Chabad Movement's headquarters in Brooklyn.

Now, the address of the headquarters is 770 Easter Parkway. And because of that, it's just simply known as 770 to the Chabadniks and the people in the community. The dispute is between two different groups within the Chabad movement. So the Chabad headquarters is an incredibly symbolic place. There are even replicas of the headquarters in other parts of the world. So places like Australia, Italy, Israel, they all have replicas of this building. And 770 is connected to adjoining buildings on the same block. So it's this little community, if you will. And these other buildings that surround 770 serve as other places of worship, so other synagogues, offices, there's a library, and all of these different

places are used by Chabadniks. But as I said, you have various groups within Chabad that don't necessarily share all of the same views on things. And there's been some disputes surrounding the issue of who controls 770. And again, 770 is that main headquarters building. So since 1994, the Chabad movement has been without a leader. And since then, two different Chabad organizations have battled in court over who controls 770. But outside of the legal disputes in the courtroom, there's obviously been some tension on the ground. And about a year ago, there was this initiative that was founded called Expand 770, which is basically trying to gain support to augment and expand the 770 building. And the reason for this is because back in 1991,

the former Chabad leader called for an expansion and a broadening of the movement's headquarters. But again, not all Chabadniks agree with this message and are on board with expanding the headquarters. However, it appears that the group that dug this underground tunnel to gain access to 770 is actually part of a faction that wants to expand 770 in accordance with the previous leader's message. And that expansion in their eyes is done by connecting all of these adjoining buildings. And that is where the problem lies. That is why this tunnel exists. So they started digging underground basically in an attempt to build a pathway to the synagogue at 770. And allegedly, this passageway started in the basement

of an empty apartment building behind 770. It went under a series of offices and lecture halls before it eventually connects to the synagogue. Now, once it reached that point and it became apparent to the naked eye, that is when those people that oppose this expansion, and obviously they don't want to see this damage being done to 770, they called in a cement truck to have the damage that was done repaired. And supporters of the expansion protested this, right? Because once the cement is filled in, they no longer have this tunnel that they've been working on. And that is when people started shouting, the police were called, books were being thrown at the police, and that's sort of when it really started to turn into

this all-out brawl. That's the video that's been circulating on the internet. Now, 12 people ended up getting arrested. The Chabad has been closed since. The underground cavity is being filled in. This has obviously stirred up some more controversy within the Chabad movement, and those that aren't involved in this expansion movement are now really trying to differentiate themselves from those people, which they call a quote-unquote fringe group. One rabbi and a spokesperson for Chabad called the tunnel a rogue act of vandalism committed by a group of misguided young men and condemned the quote extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access, end quote. New York's Department of Buildings has also been issuing emergency work and vacate orders this week

because apparently there's some structural damage because of the tunnel digging. And all of this, you know, as I said in the beginning, there's been all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around since the video surfaced of everyone fighting and this sort of hole in the wall. But there's the context you should know. Now on to Hunter Biden. On Wednesday, Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance with his attorneys at a congressional hearing that would determine the passage of a resolution holding him in contempt of Congress. Now let's walk through this a little bit. We'll walk through the background first before we actually talk about what happened at the hearing. So let's start with about a month ago, you may remember Hunter Biden was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee, and he was asked to give closed-door

testimony regarding allegations of influence peddling and his foreign business dealings. And this was all part of that investigation into his dad. So instead of agreeing to that closed-door testimony, he actually showed up at the steps of Congress on the day that he was supposed to testify and offered to testify publicly. He said, I'm not going to testify in private behind closed doors. I will instead do it publicly so the public can hear the questions that I'm asked and what I have to say. The House Oversight Committee does not agree to this. And therefore, because he did not comply with that subpoena, they hold this hearing to hold him in contempt of Congress. And the way that this proceeding works is just like a contempt of

court hearing would work. So if you're involved in a case and you don't abide by a subpoena or certain instruction from a court or judge, Like, let's say, for example, the judge says that you have to produce certain documents to the opposing party, and you don't do it. Or the judge issues a gag order, preventing you from talking about the case, kind of like what we just saw in Trump's case, but you talk about the case anyway. The judge can hold you in contempt of court for not abiding by his or her instruction. And this could be in the form of a monetary penalty, it could be a slap on the wrist, in the worst case it could be jail time, that would be criminal contempt of court. But contempt

of Congress is exactly the same, just in a congressional setting rather than a courthouse. So specifically when it comes to Congress, there's a contempt citation and then there's criminal contempt. Now a contempt citation, it's not, there's not really any consequences that come with it. It's really just a slap on the wrist. However, criminal contempt is a little bit different. That can result in a monetary fine, it can result in jail time, it can result in both. Now, a person commits the misdemeanor offense of criminal contempt of Congress when that person, quote, willfully fails to comply with a valid congressional subpoena for either documents or testimony upon any matter under inquiry before either house or a committee within either house of Congress. And in order to find someone in contempt, the charging body, so in this case,

the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing that will determine whether to push forward a contempt resolution. And that hearing is what took place on Wednesday. That is the hearing that Hunter Biden showed up to. Hunter Biden wasn't supposed to attend the hearing, but he did. And that's not to say that he wasn't allowed to attend the hearing. He just wasn't expected to attend. So when he walked in with his lawyers, the lawmakers and many others in the room were just very surprised

that he was there. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, when she was given the opportunity to speak, she said Hunter Biden should immediately be arrested and that he is the epitome of white privilege, which triggered a heated exchange between Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Democratic lawmakers then suggested that Hunter Biden be allowed to speak for himself at the hearing since he wanted to testify publicly previously, and he was now there in front of them. And it really was just a contentious and heated hearing all around. And actually, let's listen to one of the more contentious moments. Chair recognizes Ms. Mace from South Carolina.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Chairman Comer. First of all, my first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today? That's my first question. Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here and— Mr. Chairman, point of inquiry. Mr. Chairman, if the gentlelady wants to hear from Hunter Biden, we can hear from him right now, Mr. Chairman.

Let's take a vote and hear from Hunter Biden. What are you afraid of? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Order, order, order. Are women allowed to speak in here or no? Are women allowed to speak in here or no? Are women allowed to speak in here or no? Order. You keep interrupting me. I'll interrupt the chairman. You keep interrupting me. I don't know that he's a lady. I think that Hunter Biden should be arrested right here, right now and go straight to jail.

Now, that wasn't the only contentious element of the hearing. But ultimately, Hunter Biden did not speak. He ended up walking out after about an hour after he arrived. Actually, when Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was about to speak, that's when him and his attorneys got up and left. Once he was in the hallway, his attorney, Abe Lowell, made a pre-written statement to the cameras. And then while Hunter Biden was walking out of the building, he was getting asked some questions.

One reporter asked him what type of crack he normally smokes and what type of crack pipe he usually uses. That question obviously went unanswered. The only question that he did answer was why he picked up his phone when his dad called him during business meetings if there was no involvement from his dad. And his response to that was, quote, do you have a dad? Would you have answered? End quote. Following the hearing is when the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee both voted to send contempt resolutions to the full House. So now what will happen is the full House will vote on it and only a simple majority is needed to pass it. But basically, if it passes, that would be considered a contempt

citation. And as I said before, this is something that there's not really any consequences for. Many people have received contempt citations in the past. However, that contempt citation would then be referred to the DOJ, and it would be up to the DOJ to ultimately decide whether to bring charges and to prosecute. The most recent example of someone who was prosecuted for contempt of Congress was Trump's advisor Steve Bannon. He was ultimately found in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas. It was referred to the DOJ and he was ultimately convicted by a federal grand jury. He was sentenced to four months in jail and had to pay a fine of $6,500. Former White House advisor Peter Navarro, he was also convicted of contempt of Congress and he actually, he was just convicted in September, and he is awaiting sentencing. Now, aside from those two individuals, it's not common to go to jail. It's just not. There are many people who have received contempt citations, but none of those people have actually been convicted by a federal grand jury and sentenced to jail.

The last time that it happened before Trump's advisors was 1961. And at that time, two activists were sent to prison after they refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. And even in that case, those two activists actually appeared before the committee in compliance with the subpoena. They just didn't answer certain questions that they were asked. So contempt of Congress really is a case by case basis, as are most things. But that's what's going on with Hunter Biden and the contempt of court resolution. We will see how the full house ultimately votes on this resolution. But for now, let's move on to quick hitters. first one being that chris christie dropped out

of the presidential race he announced it on wednesday and basically he said quote it's clear to me tonight there isn't a path for me to win the nomination which is why i'm suspending my campaign tonight for president of the United States, end quote. And he made this announcement at his own town hall in Wyndham, New Hampshire, at the same time that Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis were debating on CNN, and Trump had his own town hall going on on Fox. So for those not familiar, Chris Kersey, he's a former New Jersey governor. He was running as a Republican. He was consistently polling underneath Haley, DeSantis, Trump, and Ramaswamy. So at the time he dropped out, national polls had

him at about 3.6%, which just to compare, Ramaswamy is currently polling around 4.3%. Haley is around 11.7%. DeSantis is around 12%. And Trump is at about 60%. So Chris Christie was down there. And as he said, he just didn't see a path to win. He didn't endorse another candidate, but he did write on X after his announcement, quote, I promise you this, I will make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again. That is more important than my own personal ambition. And before we move on, running parallel to that news story was Christie getting caught on a hot mic right before his town hall in New Hampshire. In a live feed on his campaign YouTube page, a mic turned on when it wasn't supposed to, and caught a clip of his conversation

about Nikki Haley and Ron DeS it. She's not up to this. She's still 20 points behind Trump in the future, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And he's going to he's still going to carry out. Yes. Always. I talk to this. DeSantis called me petrified that I would. He's probably getting out after I. And that is where the mic then caught off again. So quick hitter number two is that a co-defendant in the Georgia election interference case is asking the judge to dismiss his charges and remove the district attorney from the case, citing an improper and clandestine relationship with the special prosecutor who helped get the grand jury indictment. Before we go on, let me just remind you, these are allegations. with the special prosecutor who helped get the grand jury indictment. Before we go on, let me just remind you, these are allegations. Nothing has been proven in a court of law, so just keep that in mind.

Mike Roman, one of the defendants in the case, argues that Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis should be disqualified from the case and that the charges should be dropped against all defendants on the grounds that, quote, the district attorney and special prosecutor have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor and in turn, the district attorney profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of taxpayers. This filing goes on to say that, quote, the district attorney and the special prosecutor have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of

office under the Georgia rules of professional conduct. Roman further contends that the prosecutor, Nathan Wade, used some of his attorney's fees that he's been paid by the DA's office for his work on the Trump case to take Willis on vacations to places like Napa, Florida, and the Caribbean. As far as Roman's hard proof of the affair, the filing doesn't provide any direct evidence, but does say, quote, sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney, end quote, have confirmed Willis and Wade's ongoing fling. A spokesperson for the DA's office said that a response to the allegations will be made in a court filing and declined to comment any further.

Quick hitter number three is that roughly 1,900 migrants in New York were sent to a nearby high school to shelter during a storm. As a result, the students attended classes remotely and some parents went to the school to rally the decision. So here's what happened. Obviously, we know that New York has been dealing with a bit of a migrant crisis. Back in August, New York was granted authorization to use an airfield called the Floyd Bennett Field to house about 2,500 migrants. And they're essentially housed in these trailers underneath these white tents. But because of the airfield's location, which is right on the shore of the Jamaica Bay, it's not really an ideal location weather-wise. So on

Tuesday, there was a storm system moving through the area, and city officials made the decision to move the migrants to a nearby high school. It's called James Madison High School. And they stayed there just for the night. They were eventually bussed back to Floyd Bennett Field around 4 a.m. Wednesday morning. So they went Tuesday night, and they were bussed back to where they're housed early the next morning. But Wednesday's in-person classes were canceled for students, and the parents and students

received a notification from the school that said, quote, tomorrow, Wednesday, January 10th, 2024, all classes will be remote. Please log into your teacher's Google Classrooms for your required assignments. The completion of your assignments will dictate your attendance for the day. End quote. And once it became known why the students were attending classes remotely, a lot of the parents weren't happy. They went to the school to rally and just sort of protest what happened. City officials have since said it'll never happen again, but they said that their decision was made, quote, out of an abundance of caution, end quote. So this whole situation really just adds to all of the problems

that New York has been experiencing. Quick hitter number four is about Congress's productivity levels. The 118th Congress had one of its least productive years on record in 2023. Between January 2023 and January 2024, Congress has only passed 34 bills, which according to congressional records is the lowest number of bills passed in the first year of a congressional session since the Great Depression. The last Congress to come close was the 113th Congress, which only passed 56 bills in its first year. But even that is better than our current Congress, which sits at 34. Obviously, this low number has a lot to do with the divided government, but the fact that this Congress can't even match the 104th Congress, 112th, or 113th Congress when Republicans also controlled the House under a Democratic president.

It's just kind of an illustration of what we already know, that our government continues to become more and more divided as the years go on. Quick hitter number five. The United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin found himself in some hot water this week after he underwent surgery at a D.C. hospital but didn't report his vacancy ahead of time. Now, he likely won't be fired, but there have been some questions as to whether he violated any laws or any policies and where the controversy stems from. So here's the thing. Austin sits right below the commander in chief, right below the president, and the importance of his job is what makes this an issue. There's this law in the United States that deals with the reporting of vacancies when

it comes to heads of each executive agency. And what that law says is that the head of each executive agency must report not only to the Comptroller General of the United States, but also both houses of Congress whenever there's going to be a vacancy and just let them know who's going to be filling in temporarily. Well, given the fact that Austin was out of the office for five days and didn't report it, he may very well have violated this law technically, but as is the case with a lot of laws, there's no real penalty for violating it. It's more so in place for procedural purposes more than anything. Now, thankfully, nothing terribly bad happened during the five-day vacancy, and the president was still given his daily briefings on national security issues by other officials during that time, so everything was fine. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle

have expressed concern over the situation. Two senators, specifically on the Senate Armed Services Committee, spoke out about it. Republican Senator Roger Wicker said the situation was unacceptable and demanded a, quote, full accounting of the facts immediately, end quote. And Democratic Senator Jack Reed said the lack of disclosure, quote, must never happen again, end quote. And again, it'll probably just result in a reprimand, perhaps another look at policies and procedures when it comes to vacancies, but that's what's going on with that just so you're caught up. The sixth and final quick hitter is a recent ruling out of Alabama that sparked some really interesting questions from sort of the moral and constitutional crossroad that I would love your thoughts on, so drop them in the comments. But Alabama has this

law that prohibits anyone who's ever been convicted of a sex offense involving a minor from ever living with or even spending a night with a child. And this includes their own children. So a dad filed this lawsuit challenging this law. He had been convicted of possessing child pornography eight years before his son was born. He was convicted back in 2013. He had a son in 2021. And consequently, he was prohibited under state law from living with his son or even doing overnights with his son. So this goes to court. And on Wednesday, the judge sided with the dad. And the judge's ruling said

that this law is unconstitutional and that it violates the 14th Amendment, which gives parents the right to care, custody, and control of their own children. And the judge says that this is a fundamental right that's long been recognized by the Supreme Court. And because of this, Alabama can't create a law that strips a parent of that right. Now, the state of Alabama has already filed their notice of appeal, which will take this to the appellate level. And then from there, it would go to the state Supreme Court and potentially to the Supreme Court of the United States. But drop a comment. What are your thoughts? And another good thing about this being on YouTube now is that I have a designated comment section where we can

actually share our thoughts about this issue. But please, the one thing I ask is just be careful with your word choice. Given the nature of this particular story, I don't want YouTube hiding comments or potentially even removing my video. So just when it's a topic like this, just be very careful with your choice of words. Definitely share your thoughts, but maybe in a vague way if you catch my drift. And finally, not everything is bad. It's a Friday.

Let's go into the weekend feeling a little bit lighter. I really should start naming this segment the good side of social media or something because it feels like every story comes from social media. But anyway, this is the segment where I tell you a piece of good news to, you know, leave us on a good note going into the weekend, remind you not everything is bad. Things are good. People are good. You just have to find them.

Kevin Ford, he is this guy who has worked at Burger King for almost 30 years. And in 2022, his managers surprised him with a gift basket for never, not one time, missing a shift in the 27 years that he worked for Burger King. A video of him receiving this gift ended up going viral on social media back in 2022 when it happened. And a lot of people who watched the video were asking for some sort of way they can donate a GoFundMe or a Venmo, whatever it was. And Kevin's daughter started this GoFundMe shortly after, and she has since raised more than $450,000 for her dad. But the reason that it's making news now is because Kevin was finally able to buy himself a car, a house, he also had his daughter buy a home, put a down payment on a home with this money, and he still has some leftover. According to the GoFundMe, Kevin got the job at Burger King

all those years ago when he was a single dad who had gotten custody of his two daughters. He continued to work there over the years because of the health insurance benefits, and now he's approaching retirement age, and he doesn't really want to lose the job because he needs money, but this GoFundMe will help. So this is just a reminder that there are good people out there. And you know what, we should reward hard work. Not a lot of people want to work hard these days. And it's it's nice to see that people are still grinding it out out there. That is what I have for you today. I am wishing you the best weekend. I hope you had a great week and I hope you have an even better

weekend. Thank you so much for being here and I will talk to you on Tuesday.