UNBIASED - U.S. Sanctions Hamas Affiliates, Biden Considers $100 Billion Aid Package, Rep. Jim Jordan Struggles for Speakership, Protesters Arrested at Capitol, Venezuelans Deported, and More.

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

1. U.S. Sanctions Individuals and Entities Affiliated with Hamas (2:16)2. President Biden Considers $100B Foreign Aid Package for Israel, Ukraine, and Others (5:26)3. Update on the House Speaker Election, Jim Jordan Struggles (7:43)4. Roughly 300 Anti-War Protesters Arrested at Capitol (13:48)5. U.S. Troops Intercept Three Drones in Iraq Targeting U.S. Bases (17:27)6. First Deportation Flight Lands in Venezuela From United States (19:05)7. Notable Mentions (Sidney Powell Pleads Guilty, Alaska Agency Sues Biden Administration, Chick-Fil-A Settles $4M Case) (25:50)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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Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario Helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. You are listening to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast, your favorite source of unbiased

news and legal analysis. Enjoy the show. Welcome back to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. Happy Friday. I hope you have had a good week and are looking forward to an even better weekend. I have six stories for you today, plus a few notable mentions. So for those who are new here, notable mentions is basically this segment I do where maybe there's not enough information to make it a whole story, or I don't feel like it needs a whole story, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless. So I do have three of those and again, six different stories. So we'll be going through these sanctions that the United States put on some Hamas affiliated people and entities, the $100 billion for an aid package that President

Biden is considering, Jim Jordan and his bid for speaker and what's going on with that, the protesters at the Capitol and why some of them were arrested, Iraqi drones that were shot down by U.S. and coalition forces, and we'll finish by talking about the first deportation flight that landed in Venezuela from the United States. Just as a quick reminder, today is Friday, which means that tomorrow is Saturday, and I have my weekly newsletter going out. I didn't send one out last week just because I had a lot going on with the podcast and I actually released a podcast episode on Saturday instead, but I will have a newsletter going out tomorrow. So if you are interested in receiving that, it's basically another source of nonpartisan news. Just go

ahead and go to jordanismylawyer.com slash subscribe. You can also click the link in the podcast description. And so long as you are registered before 9am tomorrow, you'll get that newsletter. Please go ahead and leave my show a review on whatever platform you listen if you haven't already. If you have, thank you so much. It truly is so appreciated. And as my disclaimer, yes, I am a lawyer. No, I am not your lawyer. Without further ado, let's get into today's stories. The United States issued sanctions against nine individuals and one entity on Wednesday with the intent of disrupting funding for Hamas. More specifically, these

sanctions target six individuals that are associated with Hamas's secret investment portfolio, two senior Hamas officials, a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange, and its operator. One of those two senior Hamas officials that sanctions were imposed against was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza on Tuesday. The other senior Hamas official is based in Qatar. Of those six people that are associated with Hamas's investment portfolio, one is based in the West Bank, another is based in Sudan, the third is based in Algeria, and the three others are based in Turkey. So they're pretty spread out around the world. The Gaza-based virtual currency exchange is called Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company. According to

the Treasury Department, it was one of the virtual currency wallets that was seized in June 2021 by Israel's National Bureau for Counterterrorist Financing. And the Treasury Department also said that in addition to being involved with Hamas fundraising, the exchange has also been used to transfer funds by affiliates in other terrorist groups. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in part, quote, what we're doing today is we're cutting them off from their access to money. War costs money and fundamentally by making sure that these networks and financiers don't have the ability to give that money to Hamas. It will mean that they have fewer resources to pay their fighters, buy the weapons, and to support their destabilizing activity, end quote.

In a separate announcement, the Treasury Department also announced sanctions against 20 different entities and individuals based in Iran, China, Hong Kong, and Venezuela who have been accused of aiding Iran's government with either the development or proliferation of ballistic missiles, military equipment, and unnamed military aircrafts. Now, for those that may not know the use of sanctions or why they're imposed, to keep it very short and simple, sanctions are typically used to promote some sort of foreign policy by harming a country's economy through monetary punishment. Because of the importance of the American economy to the international finance system, the thought is

that any action taken by the United States to cut off a particular group would ultimately change that group's behavior. So in this case, you know, on the most basic level, if Hamas is cut off a particular group would ultimately change that group's behavior. So in this case, you know, on the most basic level, if Hamas is cut off from a good chunk of their money by the United States cutting off their financiers, imposing sanctions, Hamas will ultimately possibly agree to back off Israel in order to continue being funded. And sanctions don't always have to be approved by Congress. Obviously, we know that because we don't have a speaker currently in the House, which we'll talk more about in a little bit, the House is pretty much at a standstill as far as passing legislation goes.

So with sanctions, the president can actually issue an executive order using emergency authorities to get sanctions imposed without having to get congressional approval. So that is what happened here. Speaking of the president, though, sources say that President Biden may request a $100 billion supplemental foreign aid package, which would include aid for both Israel and Ukraine. The details of this supplemental request are still being finalized. But in addition to Israel and Ukraine, we know that the package also seeks funding for Taiwan as well as the U.S.-Mexico border. One official did speak on the condition of anonymity, saying that the bulk of the assistance

will likely benefit Ukraine, but will still provide around $10 billion for Israel. This is something that would require congressional approval. So contrary to sanctions, the president can't just issue an executive order, you know, implementing $100 billion in foreign aid. This would have to get congressional approval. And as we know, nothing is really happening in the House right now. In the Senate, though, both the majority leader and minority leader, so Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, both kind of signaled that they would approve it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday, quote, we'd like to get the supplemental package moved as quickly as possible because support for bundling aid to Ukraine and Israel, but said that he expects the administration to also include money for border security, too. One of the reasons that Israel may not see as much of the money as Ukraine is because Israel already gets more than $3 billion every year from the United States as part of a 2016 10-year agreement, whereas Ukraine doesn't get the same support. That's not to say that Ukraine hasn't received a significant amount of support from the United States, but again, that's not the consistent $3 billion every year that the United States has given to Israel. So it's hard to say for sure, and as I said in the beginning, the spending request is

still being finalized, but that could be a possible reason that Ukraine is getting more than Israel. As we've said, the house is still without a speaker. So that whole situation would need to get figured out before this package was even able to pass the house if it got to that point, which begs the question, what is the House doing anyway? Great question. Let me tell you. Two episodes ago, I talked about Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise running against each other for the GOP speaker nomination. Scalise ends up winning the nomination. Jordan loses. The next day, Scalise drops out. Jordan says he's running again. Jordan gets the nomination. He lost two floor votes, said he was scrapping his bid, he was done, but then all of a sudden was

going to another floor vote. So let's break this down. Let's start from the beginning. Well, not the beginning beginning, but let's start when Scalise dropped out. The reason that Scalise dropped out was because he knew he didn't have enough votes to win a floor vote. So once Jordan was nominated after Scalise dropped out, it was still pretty clear that Jordan was going to face the same problem that Scalise was facing. But Jordan decides to run with it anyway and take it to the floor. As a quick recap, how this works is that the Republican conference puts forth a nominee. The Democratic conference puts forth their nominee. Each conference determines their own nominee by holding an internal vote within their conference. Whoever gets the majority of the votes wins the nomination. From there,

the nominees for the respective parties go to a full floor vote, meaning the whole House is voting now. And for a nominee to win the speakership, he or she needs a majority, a simple majority of the full House. So typically that number is 217, but it really depends on vacancies and whatnot. Keep in mind, the Democratic nominee is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. All Democrats is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. All Democrats are going to vote for Hakeem Jeffries. They're not going to vote for the GOP nominee. And what we know about the House is that it's slim margins, right? You have 221 Republicans, 212 Democrats. So what that means is 212 people are going to vote against whoever the GOP nominee is, which means that

whoever the GOP nominee is can only lose, you know, four votes, give or take. The problem for the Republicans is that whenever they have a new nominee, that nominee is lacking more than four votes. So they don't have enough votes even within their party. Speaker McCarthy faced the same issue. You know, it took him 15 rounds of voting and Steve Scalise knew he wasn't going to have the requisite number of votes. Jordan also, it was looking like he was lacking the votes, but as I said, he took it to a vote. So the first full floor vote came on Tuesday. Jordan lost 20 Republican votes. The second floor vote happens on Wednesday. Jordan loses even more. So 22 Republicans did not vote for him. And the question then became,

you know, is Jordan going to try for a third time? As I said, former Speaker McCarthy went through 15 rounds of voting, but that was historic. That hadn't happened in 100 years. Well, then Thursday comes and Jordan says he's not trying again. He's scrapping his bid, and instead he's going to support a measure that would grant Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry extended speakership powers until January. Because remember, the Speaker Pro Tempore doesn't have the powers that the Speaker does, which explains why the House can't pass any legislation at the moment. So the thought was, okay, instead of electing someone new, let's just expand the Speaker

Pro Tempore's powers so we can at least get back to business. And if you want more information as to what powers a Speaker has versus a Speaker Pro Tempore, listen to my episode dated October 6th. That's where I covered Speaker McCarthy's removal, and I talk a little bit about it there. So the GOP conference meets on Thursday afternoon after Jim Jordan says he's scrapping his bid. They meet for three hours. It's a heated meeting. The GOP conference is just like not managing to see eye to eye. And they're trying to figure out what their next steps are. They're trying to figure out who would support the

resolution to expand McHenry's powers. And they end the meeting. Jordan comes out and says he's taking it to a vote again. And they're not expanding McHenry's powers, which we kind of knew, you know, before the meeting had ended, there were some stories coming out because some representatives were leaving the meeting early. And as they would leave the meeting, they would talk to the press a little bit. So as an example, Representative Brian Donalds, he left the meeting a little early. And when he was asked if there would be a vote to expand McHenry's powers, he said, quote, it's not going to happen. That is the decision as I understand it. And I think even Patrick, to his credit and to his fidelity to the Constitution,

understands that we cannot just drop powers in the lap of somebody. The House has to elect a speaker. And then from that, everything flows. Donald's also said that the votes just weren't there to do it. So the meeting finally ends. Jim Jordan comes out of the meeting and he says, quote, I'm still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to go talk to a few of my colleagues, particularly want to talk with the 20 individuals who voted against me so that we can move forward and begin to work for the American people, end quote.

Now, the plan was that he was going to start meeting with his fellow Republicans that voted against him at 4 p.m. This episode is being recorded at 5 p.m. We don't have an answer yet as to whether the House will vote on it. They may push the vote to Friday, depending on how late the night goes, but at least you're caught up. So now you know what's going on regardless of if they vote Thursday night or Friday and regardless of whether he wins the speakership or not. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll finish with the last few stories. roughly 300 people were arrested by capitol police during a protest on wednesday against the israel hamas war hundreds of people gathered inside the cannon house office building which is

right across the street from the cap building. Thousands more gathered outside the National Mall, but all who were attending this protest were demanding the end to the conflict and called for a ceasefire. This protest was organized by a Jewish group called Jewish Voice for Peace. The group describes itself as being the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. If you listened to my Israel-Palestine episode, specifically part one, I did discuss Zionism a little bit. Zionism is basically support for the state of Israel or a Jewish state. So if this group describes itself as anti-Zionist, we know that that means that they are not in favor of a state for the Jewish

people. So all of the protesters, they go not in favor of a state for the Jewish people. So all of the protesters, they go, and I'm specifically talking about the protesters in the Cannon House office building. So as I said, some were outside at the National Mall, but this conversation focuses on the Cannon House office building protesters because those were ultimately the ones who were arrested. So almost all the protesters were wearing these shirts that said not in our name on the front and Jews say cease fire now on the back. They basically were right inside the Cannon House office building. So there's this big rotunda, which is typically where we'll hear lawmakers speaking to the press. It's also where the press hangs out and does their reporting. But that's where the group gathered. Some of them sat down, others stood up, but they spent all of their time just kind of huddled in this group in the rotunda, clapping and singing in both English and Hebrew.

The Capitol Police said in a statement that they warned the protesters to stop demonstrating, and when they didn't comply, that's when they began arresting them. So the rule is that, you know, as a member of the public, you can legally enter the Capitol. But once you start to cause a disturbance, that's when you can be arrested. In other words, you can go in, but you can't protest. So Capitol Police said that the protesters entered the building legally. They entered properly. They went through the visitor security checkpoints, which is required. And, you know, they were permitted to gather and congregate. But when they start singing and chanting and all

that, that's when they run into a problem. Police had asked them to stop. They didn't. That's when they were taken away. Now, of course, you have lawmakers on both sides of this, right? So Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is a Republican, requested that the Capitol Police preserve all surveillance footage and photos, police reports, arrest records, everything like that, saying, quote, By launching an insurrection in the Capitol complex, these actors caused elevators to be shut down, staircases and hallways to be blocked, exits to be made inaccessible, and office legislative business to investigate the incident, writing that, you have your Democratic representatives like Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush, who spoke with the protesters and called on the Biden administration to work on an immediate ceasefire. And just as a sort of side note, of the 300 that were arrested, I believe three of them were charged with assaulting an officer. So that's what's going on with the protesters. Now let's talk about the Iraqi drones that were shot down. The U.S. military intercepted multiple aerial drones targeting U.S. bases in Iraq on Wednesday, and one of the interceptions

actually left some coalition forces injured. So this is a very short story, but I felt it was worth talking about nonetheless. A statement from the U.S. Central Command that was released on Wednesday said, quote, in the last 24 hours, the United States military defended against three drones near U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. In western Iraq, U.S. forces engaged two drones, destroying one and damaging the second, resulting in minor injuries to coalition forces. Separately, in northern Iraq, U.S. forces also End quote. in Iraq and the region. We want to emphasize U.S. forces will defend the U.S. and coalition forces against any threat, end quote. This so-called targeted attack, if you will, marked the first attack on U.S. troops in Iraq in the last nine months. And while there has been no public confirmation as to who launched the drones, these drone attacks are frequently attributed to Iran.

It was also reported that same day that an undisclosed number of drones targeted a U.S. base in Syria near the border that Syria shares with Iraq and Jordan, but the U.S. Central Command has not confirmed that report as of the time this episode is being recorded. So just something to note. Story number six. The first deportation flight from the United States arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday as part of a new approach to rectifying the record number of illegal crossings across the southern border. This news follows the news a couple of weeks back where the Biden administration said that it would resume deportation of Venezuelans. But first, so this was a little confusing. First, the administration announced that those Venezuelans who arrived in the country before July 31st of this year would be granted temporary protected status, basically meaning

that those Venezuelans wouldn't be deported. They would have an easier opportunity to get work permits. And that move benefited roughly 500,000 Venezuelans, something like that. The administration cited poor economic conditions and political conditions in Venezuela as its justification for granting the temporary protected status. But then only two days after that, the administration came out and said that it was going to resume deportations for Venezuelans who have either received final removal orders, which are issued after losing an asylum bid, or those Venezuelans who weren't able to seek humanitarian protection for one reason or another. So that announcement

came, and so now we're here. The first deportation flight from the United States arrives in Venezuela. The idea of deportation flights isn't new. However, the United States hasn't been able to utilize them because of its sort of struggling relations with countries like Cuba and Venezuela and Nicaragua, where these people need to go back to. In fact, Cuba just recently allowed for the resumption of deportation flights from the United States in April. Those flights only operate about once a month, whereas this plan with Venezuela is to have multiple flights a week going back to Venezuela. According to ICE, the initial flights are going to target the Venezuelans who have either recently arrived in the United States

or those who have committed crimes during their time in the United States. And the reason for the deportations, of course, has to do with this record number of border crossings that we've been seeing lately. Starting in August, the number of border crossings that we've been seeing lately. Starting in August, the number of border crossings started to increase, but more specifically because most of those border crossings that we're seeing at the southern border are actually Venezuelans, not Mexicans, as some might assume. In the last few years, more than 7 million people have fled Venezuela because of its incredibly corrupt government, its impending economic collapse. It's just not a good place to be. So many people have left that it actually marks the

largest displacement ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. The majority of those that leave Venezuela will settle in other Southern American countries like Peru or Colombia, but more and more are even leaving those countries and heading for the United States. So first they'll go to Mexico, and then they'll come up through the southern border. In August, the United States Border Patrol processed 22,000 Venezuelan migrants who entered the United States illegally, which was a 93% increase from July. And the previous monthly record for illegal Venezuelan

crossings was set in September of last year, where the United States saw a little over 33,000 unlawful crossings. But that record was actually far exceeded this September, so just last month, when Border Patrol reported 50,000 unlawful crossings. So that's an increase of about 17,000 people. And again, that's just Venezuelans. You might be wondering how the United States was able to restart flight deportations, considering we just talked about the reason they were sort of put on pause was because of the struggling relationship with these countries. So specifically with Venezuela, just this week, Venezuela's government and one of the factions of its opposition formally agreed that they are going to work together on electoral conditions. And in response to that, the United States agreed, this was on Wednesday, to temporarily suspend some of its sanctions on Venezuela's oil, gas, and gold sectors.

The United States Treasury Department said that the sanctions would be lifted for six months, but that if Venezuela's president didn't follow through on his promise that he would let independent candidates run in next year's Venezuelan election and allow election experts and international media to monitor the election, then those sanctions would be immediately re-imposed. The sanctions were initially imposed back in 2008. That happened following the then-president expropriating oil assets of companies like ExxonMobil, and those sanctions were later tightened in 2019 under the Trump administration. There's a lot more, you know, you could learn about these sanctions with Venezuela, so I did

link one specific article talking about the sanctions. It's a Politico article. It's in the sources section that you can find in the podcast description if, you know, if you want to know more about it. But all of this to say that this agreement, you know, about the electoral conditions for the upcoming election in Venezuela, which then triggered the United States to ease up on sanctions, that happened to align with the first deportation flight being sent to Venezuela. So they're likely interconnected. Some pro-immigration lawmakers have spoken out against the move, like AOC, who said that the United States must take examining the route of immigration more seriously, re-examine policy towards Latin America, and stop contributing to the destabilization that drives

migration like imposing sanctions. Then you have the other side of the aisle, you know, you have your GOP lawmakers that are furious about the easing of sanctions. Then you have the other side of the aisle. You know, you have your GOP lawmakers that are furious about the easing of sanctions. Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski called the move beyond absurd, saying, quote, they're easing up on the worst regimes in the world, giving them the revenues to stay in power and spread terror and corruption while kneecapping environmentally responsible development in Alaska. And that's referring to the Biden administration canceling oil and gas leases in Alaska roughly a month ago. So this is kind of like a no-win situation, right? You would think the GOP is happy about more people being sent back to their home state, but then they're not happy because sanctions were eased up on, and then you have your pro-immigration lawmakers that

aren't happy because people are being deported. So it seems like this move really just isn't leaving anyone happy on either side of the aisle. Finally, let's mention a few notable mentions. I have three of them. And again, these are just things that I felt are worth mentioning, don't necessarily require an entire story dedicated to it, but things you should know nonetheless. On Thursday, Sidney Powell, Trump's former lawyer and co-defendant in the Georgia election interference case, agreed to plead guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, and her plea deal calls for her to be sentenced to six years of probation, and she agreed to testify

against the other co-defendants, including former President Trump, if she is called to do so. On Wednesday, an Alaskan state agency sued the Biden administration over its decision to cancel oil and gas leases in the state's North Slope. So we kind of just briefly mentioned this in the final sixth story, but just to give you a little more context, the Biden administration canceled seven leases back in September, saying that the Trump administration's lease sale was not only flawed, but failed to consider things like climate change impacts. However, the Alaskan state agency says that the Biden administration's decision to cancel these leases violates a clear congressional mandate in a 2017 tax bill to open up the Arctic to drilling, and that this mandate did not give the government discretion to avoid possible climate change impacts by declining to issue leases.

So that's a little bit about that lawsuit. And the final notable mention is sort of a lighthearted one. It's about Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A has agreed to pay $4.4 million to its customers after being accused of raising their prices on food ordered through their delivery app. According to the lawsuit, Chick-fil-A advertised its delivery as a low-cost option, but then marked up their prices, sometimes as much as 25 to 30 percent on their food only for delivery. And yes, they were still charging a delivery fee. So basically, let's say you order 30 chicken nuggets. You end up paying five to six more dollars just on

those chicken nuggets for getting them delivered. And that's on top of, you know, the low cost delivery fee. So if you would just pick them up at the store or order them on site in the drive-thru, whatever, you would not only not pay the delivery fee, but you'd pay five or six less dollars for those same 30 chicken nuggets. So rather than, you know, having this play out in litigation and possibly taking it to trial, Chick-fil-A decided to settle like a lot of companies do. And basically what the settlement means is that each customer affected will receive a $29 cash payment or gift card. So that's what's going on in the Chick-fil-A fast food world. That concludes today's episode. Thank you so much for being here with me. I hope

you have a great weekend. Don't forget about that newsletter going out tomorrow and I will talk to you on Tuesday.