WSJ What’s News - What Trump’s Election Win Means for His Criminal Cases

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

P.M. Edition for Nov. 7. WSJ Justice Department reporter Sadie Gurman discusses what happens to President-elect Donald Trump’s legal battles. Wall Street Journal chief economics commentator Greg Ip on the Fed’s interest-rate cut. Plus, an ongoing China-linked hack leads one U.S. agency to warn employees to reduce the use of their phones for work matters. Tracie Hunte hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three, two, one. What will the world look like 10 or 20 years from now? The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything podcast is here to give you a peek. And we can't wait to show you what's coming. Subscribe now. President-elect Trump has frequently been a critic of Jerome Powell. Today, the Federal Reserve chair said he's not going anywhere anytime soon. If he asked you to leave, would you go? No.

Can you follow up on it? Do you think that legally you're not required to leave? No. And what happens now to Donald Trump's criminal cases? Plus, Chinese hackers lead one major US.S. agency to warn its employees not to use their cell phones for work. It's Thursday, November 7th. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

As expected, the Federal Reserve today approved a quarter point interest rate cut, bringing the benchmark federal funds rate to a range between 4.5 and 4.75 percent. All 12 Fed voters backed the cut. Donald Trump's election victory has the potential to reshape the economic outlook, with a broad shift on taxes, spending, immigration, and trade. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it was too soon to say how the next administration's policies would affect the economy. He was asked twice by reporters if he would step down if Trump demanded his resignation. Powell, who was originally appointed by Trump, made his position clear.

Do you believe the president has the power to fire or demote you and has the fed determined the legality of a president demoting at will any of the other governors with leadership positions? Not permitted under the law. Not what? Not permitted under the law. Let's go now to Greg Ip, our chief economics commentator. So Greg, what do you make of Powell's comments?

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was doing his best today to avoid any politically controversial statements. So I read Powell as trying to assert, as he has in the past, the independence of the Federal Reserve and his determination to finish the job while trying to avoid any direct interaction with anybody around the incoming president because, honestly, that doesn't really do anything positive for the Fed. So going back to the numbers, Powell seemed to point out some concern about the level of core inflation.

What do we make from that about the state of the economy? So the Fed has two goals, low inflation and full employment. And a year ago, inflation was quite high. Core inflation was over 4% and unemployment was quite low at 3.5%. And in the time since then, both those things have moved in the right direction. So we have core inflation, as Powell said, at 2.7% and the unemployment rate has moved up but to still a very low 4.1%. So this collection of facts told the Fed that the high interest rates that they had in place

were no longer necessary. Now, Powell pointed out that while core inflation has come down to 2.7%, that's still somewhat above the Fed's target of 2%. So they're not prepared to declare victory. And the pace at which they continue to lower interest rates will depend on whether they get new information that tells them, yes, we are continuing to move to 2% or no, they're actually stalling at this level, in which case it would probably pause or lengthen out the process of bringing interest rates down from there. Greg Ip is the Wall Street Journal's chief economics commentator.

Donald Trump's win sent stock indexes soaring yesterday. Investors are betting a Trump presidency will be good for economic growth and clear the way for tax cuts and deregulation. Meanwhile, concern that a roaring economy and the president-elect's promised tariffs could again stoke inflation hit government bonds hard, sending yields and borrowing costs higher. WSJ Markets reporter Jack Pitcher joins us now. So Jack, who are the market's biggest winners so far?

You really have a story where people are expecting widespread economic growth that's boosted by lower taxes, lower regulations. Coming into the election, plenty of investors thought that Trump could win, but hardly anyone was pricing in a red sweep, which it looks like we might now have with Congress. So that's a scenario where you could actually get a lot of pretty significant policy changes that could potentially be beneficial for stocks in the economy. And I think that's a lot of what started to get priced in yesterday.

Some of the biggest banks were up huge yesterday. That had to do with expectations that regulations for banks, which have really just gotten tighter nonstop since the financial crisis, that that trend could turn around and we could see lighter capital requirements, easier rules over how much risks banks can take. That combined with the expectation that there's gonna be more deal making,

more mergers and acquisitions, if we have a friendlier FTC chair, all of that had bank stocks soaring yesterday. And who's not doing great right now? Any sort of company that could be impacted by tariffs, companies that import a lot of stuff from overseas or that manufacture overseas. That's one thing.

Some yield-sensitive stocks had a bad day yesterday. Think about the real estate sector. Anything that's really debt intensive, home builders, they were all down. Jack Pitcher covers markets for the Wall Street Journal. And let's see how U.S. markets did today. Stocks climbed as investors, still celebrating Donald Trump's win, got another rate cut from the Federal Reserve. Major stock indexes mostly rose, the Nasdaq composite rallied over 1%, the S&P 500 posted smaller gains, and the Dow was little changed.

What questions do you have about Trump's campaign promises? How they may be implemented and what they mean for you? Send a voice memo to wn at WSJ.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328. We might use it on the show. Coming up, what Trump's election means for his many legal battles. That's after the break. What then will the future reveal? There's one thing we know about the future. It's being built now. We all have a stake in the future.

The future. The future. The future. And the Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything podcast is here to give you a glimpse of what's on the way. I'm Danny Lewis. Join us as we dig into how science and technology are shaping the future. For that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House today, President Biden again promised a peaceful transition of power to President-elect Donald Trump and pleaded for unity among Americans. As Biden spoke, his top aides looked on, and the mood was somber, with some hugging each other. You can't love your neighbor only when you agree. Something I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries,

but as fellow Americans. Bring down the temperature. I also hope we can lay the rest of the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent. And it can be trusted, win or lose. Donald Trump's victory on Tuesday made the difference between going to the White House and potentially going to prison.

Let's recap. In Washington, a federal grand jury indicted him on charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election. In Florida, federal prosecutors say he unlawfully hoarded classified documents. In Georgia, local prosecutors said he conspired to overturn the state's 2020 election results. And back in May, a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts, saying he falsified business records in order to cover up hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. So what happens now?

Sadie Gurman is a Wall Street Journal reporter and she joins us now. Sadie, let's start with that last case because he was scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Now that he's president-elect, how does that change things? The judge in that case is already deciding whether July Supreme Court ruling that presidents have sweeping immunity for acts they take while in office basically renders that conviction moot. And so if the answer is no to that question, then he faces this November 26 sentencing.

It's likely that that will be postponed. Certainly this development, his election win, throws a wrench into that case. And now onto his federal cases. What should we expect there? For all intents and purposes, Trump's federal cases are pretty much done. Special counsel Jack Smith brought two criminal cases against him and yesterday his people in his office were trying to figure out how to wind those cases down before Trump takes office because there's a longstanding Justice Department rule that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

The alternative, of course, is to not wind them down and to wait until Trump takes office. But Trump has promised to fire Jack Smith almost immediately as soon as he gets there. So these cases are pretty much done as far as the eye can see. That last case in Georgia, he's facing charges that he tried to overturn that state's 2020 election results. What is going on with that case? Well, that case has already pretty much gone off the rails. It's been on hold for a while as the state appeals court decides whether to disqualify the district attorney there

over a relationship that she had with a lawyer she hired to manage the prosecution. So even if it gets back on track, there are all these immunity issues that are similar to the other cases need to be sorted out before the prosecution could move forward. And I just, I don't see a way that that happens. It's important to note that a year and a half ago, it seemed like the justice system was closing in on Trump.

And instead what we've seen is that these four criminal cases gave him a that a year and a half ago, it seemed like the justice system was closing in on Trump. And instead, what we've seen is that these four criminal cases gave him a boost in popularity, and a boost in the polls, and also had the effect of giving him much more authority once he takes office. And so it's just kind of an irony. These are the cases that we've been covering for years now, and this is how they end. That was our Justice Department reporter, Sadie Gurman. Thank you so much, Sadie.

Thank you. And we exclusively report that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has directed employees to reduce the use of their phones for work matters. According to people familiar with the matter, this comes after China's recent hack of U.S. telecommunications infrastructure. The federal agency's chief information officer warned today that work-related conversations involving non-public data should only be held on platforms like Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx. It wasn't clear if other federal agencies had taken similar measures or were planning

to. According to a former official, many officials have already curtailed their phone use due to the hack. A directive to avoid cell phone use in response to a specific threat is rare for a government agency and reflects the level of concern among investigators about the severity of the breaches of telecommunications firms. The alert added that staff shouldn't place calls to a cell phone even if using a different communications platform like Microsoft Teams. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has the authority to issue cybersecurity directives across federal civilian agencies, didn't respond to requests for comment.

And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi and PRBAnime with supervising producer Michael Kosmitis. I'm Tracy Hunt for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.