UNBIASED - Republican Debate Recap, First Nitrogen Gas Execution in U.S., Prostitution Ring Involving Elected Officials, Media Outlets Accused of Using Journalists with Ties to Hamas.

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

1. RECAP: Republican Primary Debate (5 Takeaways + Extras) (2:05)2. Alabama Prepares for First Execution Using Nitrogen Gas (12:31)3. Federal Prosecutors Announce Prostitution Ring Involving Elected Officials, Tech Executives, and Others (18:13)4. CNN, Reuters, AP, and NY Times Accused of Hiring Freelance Photo Journalists with Ties to Hamas (22:23)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and share it with those you know that also appreciate unbiased news!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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news and legal analysis. Enjoy the show. Welcome back to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. Happy Friday. I hope that you are ready for the weekend, that you've had a great week and are ready to hear about the news. So we're talking about four things today. The first is going to be a debate recap. So my five takeaways that I think you should know from the third Republican primary debate that happened on Wednesday night in Miami. The second story is going to be about a death penalty situation, specifically nitrogen hypoxia. The Alabama Supreme Court just allowed the first execution by nitrogen hypoxia, so I want to talk about what that is and how we got here. The third story is about this prostitution ring that federal prosecutors just announced

in Maryland and Virginia, in which some elected officials, some tech executives, and some other people were involved in. And then the fourth story is about this controversy between Israel and the Western media and some particular freelance photojournalists that worked for various outlets that have since lost their jobs because this new report came out from a media watchdog. Those are the four stories. Let's get into them. But before we do, let me just remind you to please go ahead and leave my show a review. Share my show with your friends, those that you love, those that feel will appreciate nonpartisan news, and yes, I am a lawyer. No, I am not your lawyer. So now, without further ado,

let's get into today's stories. Wednesday's Republican primary debate really focused heavily on foreign policy, mostly about issues going on between Israel and Hamas, Ukraine and Russia, Venezuela, China and the United States, a little bit about China and Taiwan. And then towards the end, they did touch on issues like social security and abortion, but mostly it was about foreign policy. And also, let me just say that the debate, for those of you who didn't catch the candidates that qualified, it was Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie. So five candidates in total, Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum did not qualify, and we know former Vice President Mike Pence dropped out of the race just a couple of weeks

ago. Donald Trump was hosting a rally just 25 minutes northwest of the venue. So those are the candidates that participated in the debate. Before we dive in to my five specific takeaways, I will just say from a top level, from a broad standpoint, they all had the same message as one another on any given topic, but their messages were, you know, they varied slightly. As an example, they all side with Israel, they're all against China, they're all against depending on Venezuela for oil, they're all for closing up the border, they're all against abortion. They're all against depending on Venezuela for oil. They're all for closing up the border. They're all against abortion. So they share the same views, but they had different responses as far as how they would achieve these various things. And usually one

would add on to another's response, but again, all along similar lines. There wasn't too much interrupting and drama happening throughout the debate, but I will discuss three of the more dramatic moments, if you will, the more combative moments, what have you, once we're done with the takeaways. So the first takeaway is the situation in Israel. The candidates were asked what they would urge Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel to do in the ongoing war. All five of the candidates were very clear that they stand on the side of Israel to do in the ongoing war. All five of the candidates were very clear that

they stand on the side of Israel. They all used a phrase along the lines of finish them, meaning kill Hamas once and for all, get this over with, you know, use any force necessary, and the United States is here to help you. Tim Scott took it one step further, saying that President Biden is handling this situation incorrectly and that diplomacy alone is just a weak strategy. There needs to be more. DeSantis and Haley specifically were asked if they would are over in the Middle East like sitting ducks, but said, you know, instead of leaving these troops as sitting ducks, we need to go on the offensive. So that was the take on Israel. Now let's talk about China. Again, the message in regard to China was pretty consistent. They all feel that China is a big threat to the United States, not just militarily, but also economically, culturally. TikTok was discussed.

They all support banning TikTok. The only one that didn't really talk about TikTok was Nikki Haley. She didn't answer the question because she took her allotted time to instead address something that DeSantis said about her relationship with China, which we will get into, you know, once we cover the drama. But they all are in favor of banning TikTok. They think that it is just absolutely tearing up the minds of the young adults here in America and that China is doing it intentionally. So all of them had something to say about not only banning TikTok, but also, you know, here in the United States becoming less dependent on China. The third takeaway, when asked how they would help Americans with the cost of living, three of the

five, Scott, Christy, and Ramaswamy, they all focused on energy and being more energy independent, specifically energy dominant, and explained that being energy dominant would actually decrease the cost of everything else. And, you know, like Chris Christie gave the example of when food has to go to the grocery store, it has to be trucked there, which requires fuel for the trucks. So they were all part of this thought that if you focus on energy, you reduce the cost of everything else. DeSantis focused on flipping Biden economics on its head. So he said on his first day in office, he would rip up all of the executive orders and regulations involving Biden economics and throw them in the trash. Nikki Haley focused on helping rural America, and that was because she actually

got a specific question. So after the other candidates had answered, her specific question was, how would you help rural America and the middle class? She said she would cut taxes for them, but also make spending cuts. The fourth takeaway, when asked how they would stop fentanyl from, quote unquote, water falling into the country, most of them, DeSantis, Haley, and Ramaswamy, focused on using more violent force at the border, specifically authorizing deadly force against the cartels. They also said they want to designate these cartels as terrorist groups. Christie and Haley talked about addiction here in the United States. They said this is an,

you know, an issue we have to take care of here. Obviously, there are things that we can do at the border. They discussed those as well, but they were really the only two candidates to talk about addressing the issue that is addiction here at home. Ramaswamy noted that it's not just the southern border that's an issue, it's also the northern border. So he said for that reason, he wouldn't just build one wall, he would build two. As the fifth takeaway, I wanted to include abortion because abortion is an issue that we just saw a couple of days ago. Voters in Ohio voted for a constitutional amendment allowing for a constitutional right to abortion. So this really begged the question of the Republican candidates, you know, this is a losing issue for you. How do you

see a path forward for Republicans on this issue? And they all reiterated that they are pro-life, but their answers varied slightly from one another. So as an example, Tim Scott suggested a 15-week federal limit, a 15-week ban on a federal level on abortion. None of the other candidates proposed a specific limit. Haley suggested reaching a consensus. She said this is a very personal issue. We really need to stop the judgment on both sides. Stop letting this issue divide America further. Ramaswamy focused more on education. He said more people need to be educated on things like contraceptives, abortion, adoption. He also touched on the fact that men need to have just as much sexual responsibility as women. DeSantis said allowing abortion till birth is

wrong. Democrats won't define a time which is acceptable, but that this pro-life cause has been sort of flat-footed, and the cause really needs to figure out how to work from the bottom up on this issue. And finally, Chris Christie took a slightly different approach. He said that conservatives have flip-flopped. He said, first, conservatives wanted this to be a state issue because abortion was never in the Constitution. Then it became a state issue once Roe v. Wade was overturned in Dobbs. And now candidates are talking about a federal limit. And he said this is an issue for the states and that he fully trusts the people in each respective state to to vote on what's best for them. sanctions that Biden just eased up on, and they talked about Social Security reform and how they could reform Social Security to keep it funded and keep it going. Chris Christie and Nikki Haley

discussed increasing the retirement age, whereas the other candidates more so focused on entitlement reform and dealing with the debt and making spending cuts, things like that. So those are the things that I feel you should know. Now let's quickly touch on the more combative moments and then we'll move on to the next story. The first combative moment was when Ramaswamy called Nikki Haley Dick Cheney with three inch heels. This was a reference to this idea that Dick Cheney and Nikki Haley are both profiting off of wars by and through the various companies that they were or are involved in. Haley responded, first of all, they're five-inch heels and I wouldn't wear them if I couldn't run in them. The second thing I would say, I wear heels. They're not for a fashion statement. They're

for ammunition. Then Ron Masami made a comment, like, you're the second person on stage. I don't remember the exact verbiage, but it was basically a dig at Ron DeSantis as well. The second contentious moment was when DeSantis and Haley got into it over China. DeSantis called out Haley for bringing a Chinese fiberglass company to South Carolina 10 years ago and referring to China at that time as a great friend of the United States. Haley responded by calling out DeSantis for saying Florida is an ideal place for Chinese businesses and having, you know, being involved in a company that manufactures Chinese military planes. And she said, mine was 10 years ago. What's your story? And DeSantis said, you gave them stuff. I didn't give them anything. And I abolished the agency that she's talking about, which was called

Enterprise Florida. And I banned China from owning any land in the state. And Nikki kind of got the last word in. She said, you scrubbed the site last week, meaning he got rid of the agency last week, so it's not really anything, you know, it's still recent. And the third confrontational moment was again between Haley and Ramaswamy. When talking about potential TikTok bans, as I said, Haley used her a lot of time to respond to DeSantis' comments about her involvement with China, which we just talked about, so she didn't really address a potential TikTok ban. And Ramaswamy then said, notice how Haley didn't answer the question. Last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,

so you might want to take care of your family first. To which Hailey responded, leave my daughter out of your voice. The crowd booed Ramaswamy for a good five to ten seconds and then Hailey said, you're just scum. So those were really the three combative moments. It wasn't that contentious. There wasn't a ton of back and forth. There wasn't a ton of talking over one another. So those were really the three most combative moments of the debate. Now that you are all caught up on the debate, let's move on to the death penalty. If you are subscribed to my weekly newsletter that goes out on Saturday, you may have read that Alabama's Supreme Court just gave the green

light to the first execution by nitrogen gas. But now the Department of Corrections has actually set a date. So in the newsletter, I said a date hasn't been set yet, but now it has. So I want to talk a little bit about it. What is nitrogen hypoxia and why now? Why is it being used now? Nitrogen gas or nitrogen hypoxia, as it's called, is a method of execution that's really been tossed around for a while and it's been debated, but it's never actually been used.

It's basically where the inmate will lie on a gurney, they have a mask placed over their face, the pure nitrogen gas gets funneled through this mask into the inmate's mouth and nose, it's administered for either 15 minutes or five minutes following a flat line on the EKG, whichever is longer. And eventually what happens is the nitrogen gas deprives the brain and the body of oxygen, so it causes suffocation, and that's how the inmate dies. Proponents of this method say it's a more humane way to execute because the risk of a botched execution is lower than, you know, with the lethal injection or with the electric chair. And it's pretty painless.

It might be uncomfortable, but it's painless. Opponents, on the other hand, argue that because this has never been used before, we're basically conducting human experimentation because no one really knows how it's going to go until it's tested out. Alabama is one of only three states that have authorized its use. The other two are Oklahoma and Mississippi. But even in, you know, in all of these three states, it's not the primary method of execution. It's really just a backup in case the lethal injection isn't available. Now, the lethal injection could be unavailable because it's found to be unconstitutional or there's a lack of supply because in recent years, the lethal injection medication has been hard for these facilities to get their hands on,

but that's another story for another time. So it really comes into play only if the lethal injection is unavailable. But here's what happened. Kenneth Smith, who was sentenced to death for killing a pastor's wife in a murder-for-hire scheme, he was supposed to be executed last year by way of the lethal injection. He's getting prepped, and the execution team isn't able to find two IV lines to actually hook up the injection and carry it out. So the execution gets called off. The Alabama Department of Corrections sets a new date. They decide they're going to try again. But Smith is like, no, you're not. I'm not going through this again. And he filed a lawsuit. And he argued that the state shouldn't be able to execute him via lethal injection again. And he filed a lawsuit and he argued that the state shouldn't be

able to execute him via lethal injection again. And instead he wanted nitrogen gas and he won in the district court. But then Alabama took it to the Supreme Court and they said, hey, you guys got to reverse the district court's decision because we as a state haven't even finalized our nitrogen gas protocol. Therefore, it's not able to be readily implemented and we can't carry out an execution this way. But the Supreme Court sided with Smith. They said he could in fact be executed by nitrogen gas and that Alabama had to get its protocol finished. So Alabama finishes its protocol, they get ready for Smith's execution, and Smith sues again. And this time, he doesn't want

nitrogen hypoxia. His lawsuit was based on the fact that nitrogen hypoxia has never been used, and by using it, the state was essentially making him the test subject for their experiment. And he said, even though I opted to die by nitrogen hypoxia, I never waived my right to challenge the method, so here I am. But this time, it did not go in his favor. Last week, Alabama's Supreme Court granted the state's request to carry out the execution, and then this past Wednesday, Alabama's governor actually set an execution date. So the execution is scheduled to take place on January 26th, sometime between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., which is a pretty unusual time for an execution, and I'm not sure why that is. Typically, executions happen around dinnertime, so around 6 p.m. I'm not sure why it's in the middle of the night,

but if I get clarity on that, I can always update you accordingly. Now, it's very possible that Smith tries to petition the Supreme Court of the United States one more time, but my guess is that because they've already kind of ruled on the issue, they've already said in his original case that he can be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, my guess is they wouldn't take up the case. But you never know, they could. And in that case, his execution may be prolonged. But now you know a little bit about nitrogen hypoxia and how it would work. And I, you know, I don't typically post polls on my Spotify, but I know Spotify gives you that option. So I may poll you guys and see if you would prefer if, you know, God forbid, you were on death row, if you would prefer nitrogen hypoxia or the lethal injection.

So stay tuned for that poll so that you can give me your choice once that's up. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we will finish with this prostitution ring in Virginia and Maryland, as well as this controversy with Israel and the Western media. Federal prosecutors in Boston announced the uncovering of a prostitution ring in Northern Virginia that had elected officials, tech and pharmaceutical executives, lawyers, professors, and military officers as clients. So the three operators of this ring were arrested this week. However, prosecutors did say that this probe is just getting started. Search warrants had been executed

in Massachusetts, Virginia, and California. However, I did get my hands on an affidavit from one of the special agents within the Department of Homeland Security who actually investigated the prostitution ring, so I do want to read a little bit of that and paint this picture of how the prostitution ring operated. But I will say we don't know the names of the particular clients. That may come out as, you know, clients and buyers potentially get arrested. But as of now, we don't know the names. But here's what the affidavit said.

And actually, before we get into the affidavit, for those who may not know, an affidavit is essentially a sworn statement by someone who has knowledge of a particular matter, and its purpose is to be used in court. So it's just a statement of the truth, really. What the affidavit says is that beginning sometime before July of 2020, three people of Asian descent, Han Lee, James Lee, and Junmung Lee, opened this prostitution network with multiple brothels. What they really were were high-end apartments. And these high-end apartments were in Boston and Eastern Virginia, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, as well

as Fairfax and Tysons, Virginia. So these high-end apartments would sometimes be rented for, I think the highest number was $3,600 a month, but nice apartments. And this is where the clients would meet the sex workers. The ring was advertised on these two websites under the disguise of nude photo shoots of Asian models. And the two sites were BostonTop1010.com and BrownEyesGirlssvirginia.blog. So basically, it would appear as if the buyer was renting out a studio location for a photo shoot with a nude model when really they were picking out the apartment and the services. And not often would they pick out the services online. Sometimes they would get a text with a menu of services, and they could pick out their services online. Sometimes they would get a text with a menu of services and they could pick out their services that way. In the description of, you know, the studio location with the model,

the model would be described by their height, weight, and breast size and would either be deemed coming soon or open depending on their availability. To actually book one of the sex workers, the buyers had to go through a vetting process. So they actually had to provide their name, their email address, their phone number, their employer, and a reference if they had one. And once they were vetted, that's when they would get the menu of services offered. The rates would range from $350 an hour to $600 an hour. It really just depended on what services, you know, you were buying. Apparently, the operators of this ring would entice these women, and I think I said this, but all the women were Asian, would entice these women to participate

in the ring by paying for their airfare, their transportation, and then they would actually stay the night in the apartments so they didn't have to stay at a hotel anywhere or work out any sort of other accommodations. And that's how they would get these women to take part in it. Authorities do say that they believe the network had potentially hundreds of customers who paid a fee to be a part of this network. So, you know, possibly as more information comes out, we'll find out more. Will we ever know the names of those involved? Who knows? You know, we know how these things work. Sometimes these things get covered up. Sometimes things come to light. But perhaps as this investigation develops, we will find out more. The fourth and final story is about this controversy with Western media outlets.

The controversy arises from the situation between Israel and Hamas, the October 7th attack, and some photojournalists that were used to document the October 7th attack. There's this media watchdog, it's called Honest Reporting, and they proclaim themselves as exposing anti-Israel media bias. So that is their stated goal. They opened this investigation into journalists who were in Israel to document the October 7th attack. And the findings of their investigation were just reported and released on Wednesday on their website.

And here is what it said in part. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll give you an idea as to what it said. On October 7th, Hamas terrorists were not the only ones who documented the war crimes that they had committed during their deadly rampage across southern Israel. Some of their atrocities were captured

by Gaza-based photojournalists working for the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies, whose early morning presence at the breached border area raises serious ethical questions. Now, one of the freelancers whose name appears on the AP's photo credits from the Israel-Gaza border on October 7th is named Hassan. I'm not even going to try to pronounce his last name. Couldn't find the pronunciation anywhere and I don't want to butcher it. But his name is Hassan. He, aside from working for the AP, also worked for CNN, at least up until yesterday. Specifically, Hassan was shown standing in front of an Israeli military tank without any sort of tactical gear, giving updates as to what was happening,

saying people had just been kidnapped. The report from Honest Reporting also names three other freelance photojournalists who were given photo credit on various pictures, but the controversy really surrounds this Hassan guy. Following the release of the expose by Honest Reporting, new material apparently came to light. Honest Reporting posted a picture of Hassan being kissed on the cheek by a man named Yaya Sinwar, who is one of the alleged masterminds of the October 7th attack. So he is a head, one of the heads of Hamas, and he's being kissed on the cheek by this guy. So the insinuations of this report from Honest Reporting is that these photojournalists who had ties to outlets like CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, and the Associated Press may have actually had prior knowledge of the October 7th attack

by Hamas because of their relationship with, you know, people associated with Hamas. And that's why they were there to document it right as it was happening. And because one of the photojournalists is being kissed on the cheek by this guy who is one of the heads of Hamas, you know, additionally signals that he had this inside knowledge and therefore he was able to be boots on the ground covering the events as they were taking place. Now, I do want to say, because this podcast is based on fairness, there is no hard evidence that these photojournalists knew of this attack before it happened. Okay, I just want to be clear on that. I also want to

be clear on the fact that, as I said, honest reporting is a watchdog that dedicates its platform to exposing anti-Israel media bias. So, you know, when you're looking at this story, just take everything into account so you can make actual informed opinions. Following this report from Honest Reporting, Israel's Minister of Communications and Prime Minister Netanyahu came out with their own words. Israel's Minister of Communications wrote a letter to CNN, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and Reuters requesting an urgent investigation into the matter, and he wrote in part, quote, I write to you with deep concern regarding recent reports about your employees' alleged involvement in the tragic events in southern Israel, where Hamas ISIS terrorists carried out a heinous massacre. It has come to our attention that certain individuals within your organization, including photographers and others,

had prior knowledge of these horrific actions and may have maintained a troubling connection with the perpetrators. I urgently request a thorough investigation into this matter. It is now time for individuals, journalists, institutions, unions, and organizations around the world to make a clear choice. End quote. Prime Minister Netanyahu called the media outlets in question, quote-unquote, accomplices to crimes against humanity and demanded immediate action by the outlets. CNN was the first to announce that it had cut ties with Hassan on Thursday. CNN put out a statement that said, quote, we are aware of the article and

photo concerning Hassan, a freelance photojournalist who has worked with a number of international and Israeli outlets. While we have not at this time found reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us, we have decided to suspend all ties with him. End quote. The Associated Press issued its own statement on Thursday, which said, quote, the Associated Press had no knowledge of the October 7th attacks before they happened. The first pictures AP received from any freelancer shows they were taken more than an hour after the attacks began. No AP staff were at the border at the time of the attacks, nor did any AP staffer cross the border at any time. We are no longer working with Hassan, who had been an occasional freelancer for AP and other international news organizations in Gaza, end quote. Reuters similarly said that it, quote, categorically denies that it had prior knowledge of the attack or that it embedded journalists with Hamas on

October 7th. Their statement goes on to say Reuters acquired photographs from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who were at the border the morning of October 7th, with whom it did not Their statement goes on to say, Reuters acquired photographs from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who were at the border the morning of October 7th, with whom it did not have a prior relationship, end quote. A Reuters spokesperson also said that the pictures it published were taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets across southern Israel and more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border. Obviously, this is meant to insinuate that it's possible this guy was not notified in advance that Reuters did not know in advance this attack was going to happen, but rather that this photojournalist was able to act quickly.

The New York Times also denied any prior knowledge of the attack, calling any allegation against it reckless, and said, quote, the advocacy group Honest Reporting has made vague allegations about several freelance journalists working in Gaza. There is no evidence for Honest Reporting's insinuations. And now you know the take of all of these Western media outlets. As always, I love hearing your feedback. I just love hearing from you guys generally what you loved about the show, what you enjoyed about today's episode, and what you'd like to hear in the future. So please never hesitate to reach out to me. You can always submit a contact form on jordanismylawyer.com. And that concludes this episode. Thank you so much for being here.

Have a great weekend, and I will talk to you on Tuesday.