November 21, 2024: Gaetz Withdraws From Attorney General Nomination, Jussie Smollett Conviction Overturned, Florida Man Arrested for Planning to Blow Up NY Stock Exchange, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Thursday, November 21st, and this is your final news rundown of the week. Before we dive into today's episode, you will notice in today's episode description that I have included a link to an Unbiased survey. So I created this survey just so I can make sure that this show is the best it can possibly be, and you can help me with that. I would love to hear from you. You'll get to tell me what you like about the show, what you don't like, which segments are your favorite, which are your least favorite, and much, much more. So if you

could, once this episode is over, just click that link and fill out the survey. It shouldn't take you more than a few minutes, and I very much appreciate it. Now, without further ado, let's get into today's stories. Starting out with some breaking news today, which is that Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination for Attorney General. The announcement comes one day after the House Ethics Committee deadlocked

on whether to release its findings in the investigation into Gates. So let's go through it all. First, we'll start with the report and what the deadlock means for the future of it, and then we'll get into his withdrawal and what that means. So yesterday, Republican lawmakers, as I said, successfully voted to block by way of a deadlock the release of the Ethics Committee's report into Gates's alleged death.

sexual misconduct, misuse of campaign funds, and drug use. Now, we've been talking a lot about these investigations into Gaetz, so if you're not caught up, I would suggest listening to my November 14th episode. That's where I discussed Trump's nomination of Gaetz, and I did cover the specifics of the investigations there. But as we've also discussed, the House Ethics Committee was set to release some of their findings last Friday.

But then Gates stepped down from his position in Congress because he was nominated by Trump for the position of Attorney General. Once he stepped down, it kind of threw a wrench into things because the House no longer had jurisdiction over the investigation. So it was unclear what the committee was going to do with its findings. Friday came and went. The report wasn't released. But then yesterday, the Ethics Committee got together and they held a vote as to whether they would release it.

The bipartisan panel ended up being split along partisan lines five to five, which meant that it wouldn't be released, at least not yet. The committee did vote to meet again in December, which is allegedly when the committee hopes to have a finalized report. And at that point, they can hold another vote and potentially, you know, release that final version. As far as what other measures can be taken to get the report released, I

Any member of the House can actually file what's called a privileged resolution, and this would force the report to be released by saying that the report is relevant to the dignity and integrity of the House. However, even in that instance, the resolution would have to first pass some pretty strict procedural rules, which could be hard to do given the Republican majority, and then if it

it's passed those procedural rules, it would be voted on within two days, but it would still require a simple majority, 218 votes. And that means assuming all House members are in attendance and voting and that all Democrats vote in favor of passing the resolution, Republicans

could really only afford to lose three votes. That's not impossible, given that some Republicans have already called for the report to be released, but it's certainly not easy to get to the point of a floor vote. So we'll have to wait and see what happens there, or even if a privileged resolution is brought. But then things got even more complex today when news broke that Gates would withdraw his nomination for attorney general. As we know, Gates was seen as the most controversial pick of Trump's

at least so far, due to his reputation of being part of the far right flank in the House and the investigations that he has been at the center of.

As I reported on yesterday, Senate Republicans had written a letter to Trump advising him that Gates might not get confirmed in the Senate because there were enough Senate Republicans willing to vote against him. And therefore, Trump should start considering now, you know, nominating someone else that had better odds of being confirmed. So we knew that there were issues with the nomination of Gates.

But today, Gates wrote on X, quote, I had excellent meetings with senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump-Vance coalition.

End quote. End quote.

Trump then posted to Truth Social and wrote, quote, I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be attorney general. He was doing very well, but at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration for which he has much respect.

Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do. End quote. As far as why the decision was made to withdraw, we don't know for sure. There has been a source that spoke to the media who said that Trump's transition team was notified before the announcement was made and that there was this belief that more damning information would come first.

from the house ethics report but take that with a grain of salt as you always should when it comes to unknown sources multiple people also said that while gates's meetings with republican senators yesterday weren't negative per se it became clear that there were too many no's and that information expected to come from the ethics report would likely make confirmation impossible so

What does Trump do from here and what happens to Gaetz's seat in the House since he's already resigned? Well, for one, Trump has to nominate someone else, right? That person will then be subject to Senate confirmation. As for Gaetz's seat in the House, that's a little more complicated. The answer is that we don't really know for sure what will happen, but we can certainly try to speculate as to some of the options and avenues.

For one, the Constitution's House Vacancy Clause says that the chief executive of each state is to call for an election to fill a House vacancy. So one possibility is that Governor DeSantis of Florida calls for another election to fill Gates' seat, and Gates could run in that election to reclaim his seat. But that election likely wouldn't be until next year. Another thing to keep in mind, though, and that would sort of make everything I just said irrelevant, is that Gates was just reelected earlier this month. He technically

when he resigned, resigned from the 118th Congress and he was reelected for the 119th Congress. So perhaps he's able to keep his seat, you know, for the upcoming session. He just can't take his seat back for the current session. And that would mean that he wouldn't serve in the House again until January 3rd, which isn't too far away, but still keep his seat.

Questions are still out as far as that option goes. We don't know for sure whether, you know, how that will shake out. A third option, and this is definitely a possibility, is that Gates fills Rubio's vacant seat in the Senate. Senate vacancies don't require an election like House vacancies do. Instead, the state governor appoints someone to fill the Senate vacancy until the congressional term is over, which in this case would be 2026.

Given that Trump nominated Marco Rubio and his seat is now vacant, DeSantis may appoint Gates to fill Rubio's vacant seat because they're both from Florida. But that's just a theory and will, of course, depend on whether DeSantis wants Gates to fill the seat and whether Gates himself even wants it. So we'll see what happens within the next week or so. Just sort of laying out all of the thought processes of everyone, because this is a

A little bit unprecedented, but as always, I will keep you updated there. In other news, a man from South Florida is facing charges after the FBI received a tip that he was storing bomb-making materials in an unlocked storage unit. After investigating, it turns out that this man was planning to blow up the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week.

In a new criminal complaint filed yesterday, a special agent with the FBI alleges that Haroun Abdul-Malik Yanair's storage unit was found containing spiral-bound notebooks containing various bomb-making sketches and handwritten letters that included statements about, quote, preparing for combat, end quote, and, quote, unquote, a successful war.

Agents also found numerous watches with timers, about 10 sets of Bluetooth wireless headphones, electronic circuit boards, and other electronics that could be used for constructing explosive devices. During an interview in March of this year, Yenair told law enforcement that he had experience building rockets and bombs and that he did previously attempt to join domestic extremist groups.

A couple of months later, in June, Yenair met with an undercover FBI agent who Yenair thought was part of a militia. And Yenair told the FBI agent that he was planning to deploy and detonate the explosive device at the New York Stock Exchange the week before Thanksgiving on November 18th. He said his motivation was to attain a quote-unquote reboot and or quote-unquote reset of the United States government.

Then over the course of the last month or so, so between October and November, Yenair met with undercover law enforcement in a location which he believed to be controlled by the militia. And during those meetings, Yenair tasked these undercover agents with procuring the explosive element for the device, conducting surveillance of the New York Stock Exchange, and obtaining photos of the building to identify the precise location for detonating the device.

Yanair said he planned on wearing a disguise when planting the device outside the Stock Exchange and had pre-recorded a message which was to be delivered to the press about the reasons for the attack. The message said in part, quote,

Be warned, if you raise your fist, we will cut them off. If you kick at us, we will break your legs. If you speak ill of us, we will chop out your tongue. If you aren't willing to stand, then you will fall a victim. There are no exceptions to our demands or terms. You will burn before and after your demise.

Yanair was arrested just yesterday, which was eight days after that final meeting with undercover agents. There is one charge listed in his criminal complaint, and that is a violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code Section 844, subsection I, which says that anyone who attempts to destroy or damage by means of fire or explosive any building in interstate or foreign commerce shall be imprisoned for not less than five years and not more than 20 years.

More charges can always come later, but that is what he's facing as of now.

Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about a January 6th defendant who was just convicted on a conspiracy to murder U.S. employees charge. Jussie Smollett's conviction being overturned. Some quick hitters and rumor has it. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies.

Try it at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Welcome back. A man who was convicted earlier this month of assaulting law enforcement officers and other crimes on January 6th

2021 was found guilty again yesterday on three additional charges, which include conspiracy to murder employees of the United States, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing or retaliating against federal officials by threat.

So this man, his name is Edward Kelly. He was originally arrested and charged for his actions on January 6th. On January 6th, he used a piece of wood to break a window at the Capitol, jumped through that window, and ended up kicking open a fire escape.

Following that, while he was awaiting trial on those charges, he created a quote-unquote kill list of roughly 37 law enforcement personnel who worked on his case. He then shared that list with a friend, Carter Austin, who has since pled guilty and testified for the prosecution at Kelly's trial this week, and said that he and Kelly planned attacks on the Knoxville FBI field office using car bombs and incendiary devices attached to drones, all

Austin further testified that they strategized about assassinating FBI employees in their homes and in public places such as movie theaters. Kelly's trial lasted three days, and the jury returned its guilty verdict just one hour after entering deliberations. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7th of next year. Earlier today, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned actor Jussie Smollett's conviction on charges that he staged a racist and homophobic attack against himself in downtown Chicago in 2019 and thereafter lied to police. So this unanimous decision from the state Supreme Court comes after an appeals court actually upheld

held his conviction last December. Let's back up to 2019 when Smollett reported to police that two men wearing ski masks had assaulted him, yelled racial and homophobic slurs, and put a noose around his neck. Law enforcement officers thereafter initiated this massive search around Chicago to try to find the suspects, but the search actually turned into an investigation into Smollett himself.

And law enforcement officers ended up finding that Smollett paid these two men, two brothers who he knew from working on a TV show called Empire, and that Smollett actually told these men what slurs to shout and to yell during the staged attack that he was in, quote unquote,

Smollett was originally charged in 2019 with 16 counts for filing a false police report in March of that year, but those charges were later dropped by the Cook County State Attorney's Office, which said that at the time, Smollett was willing to turn over his bond to the city and participate in community service, and they thereafter entered into this non-prosecution agreement because of that.

And this is going to be important later. This decision from the state attorney's office drew backlash across the country and a special prosecutor ended up reviving the case and charging Smollett again, this time with five felony counts of disorderly conduct, which in Illinois can be charged when a person lies to the police.

So this case ends up going to trial despite objection from Smollett's attorneys. And in 2021, a jury found Smollett guilty on all five counts. And he was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months probation. Smollett has maintained his innocence from the beginning.

And from the beginning, Smollett's attorneys argued that Smollett was the target of a racist justice system and people playing politics, but also felt that because Smollett had entered into this non-prosecution agreement the first time around, this case was impermissibly revived.

So following the conviction, his lawyers take the case to the appeals court. And this past December, the appeals court upheld the conviction, finding that because no one promised Smollett that he wouldn't face a new prosecution after accepting the original deal, the new charges were permissible.

From there, Smollett's attorneys take it to the state Supreme Court. And today, the state Supreme Court issued a decision overturning the conviction. In its ruling, it noted that although many people felt the original resolution of the case was unjust, it would be more unjust to declare that the state wasn't bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.

So now let's move on to quick hitters. The FBI is currently investigating a string of burglaries at the homes of professional athletes. Kansas City Chiefs players Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes had their homes burglarized just hours apart while both men were outside of their homes, not outside in the yard, but like

not at home. Minnesota Timberwolves guard Mike Conley Jr. also had his home burglarized when he was at a Minnesota Vikings football game, and so did Milwaukee Bucks player Bobby Portis. Detectives say that the burglaries appear to fit a pattern connected to an organized transnational crime ring from South America that had been targeting affluent neighborhoods in several states, including Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Colorado, and Michigan.

Major League Baseball will soon test the use of robot umpires with the aim of implementing the system in the 2026 regular season. The automated ball strike challenge system will be trialed at 13 spring training fields to allow players to experience the new technology as the league works out how to best implement it. The ABS technology will use what are called hawk eye cameras to track the location of each pitch in relation to the strike zone.

And finally, in the latest update in the developments between Ukraine and Russia, Putin said today that Russia has the right to use its weapons against the military facilities of countries employing their weapons against Russia, a.k.a. the United States. Putin said in part, quote, we consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military objects of those countries that allow to use their own weapons against our object.

In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in a mirror manner, end quote. These remarks came after Ukraine fired a United States-provided long-range missile into Russia and days after Putin updated the Russia's nuclear doctrine, which essentially lowered the bar for when Russia can respond with nuclear weapons.

And now finally, it's time for Rumor Has It, my weekly segment where I either confirm, dispel, or add context to recent rumors. Rumor has it that RFK Jr. accused the government of planning the COVID pandemic. This needs context, so let's roll the clip, which was recorded at an August 2020 press conference in Germany, where he was promoting the European chapter of his group Children's Health Defense.

Many people argue that this pandemic was a plandemic, that it was planned from the outset, that it's part of a sinister scheme. I can't tell you the answer to that. I don't have enough evidence. A lot of it feels very planned to me.

So that is what you need to know there. Staying on the topic of Kennedy, rumor has it that Kennedy's anti-vax campaign in Samoa resulted in the death of 83 children. So this one stemmed from the governor of Hawaii saying during an interview on CNN that RFK Jr. scared Samoans away from a vaccine for measles during a measles outbreak in 2019 and it resulted in the death of 83 children.

The governor was implying that Kennedy may have the same effect here once he takes the position of HHS secretary. Important to note, the governor of Hawaii is also a doctor himself, and he did go to Samoa to vaccinate more than 30,000 individuals during the 2019 outbreak.

Kennedy, on the other hand, has said he had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa and never told people not to vaccinate. So that's a bit of a he said he said situation. But what we know is that Kennedy went to Samoa in the summer of 2019. And at the time, vaccine rates were much lower than what they had been in the past.

because the Samoan government had actually paused the MMR vaccination program for roughly a year after two infants tragically passed away within minutes of being administered what the doctor thought was the MMR vaccine, but it ended up being a muscle relaxant.

Now, while acknowledging the decreased vaccination rates that already existed, it's also important to note that Kennedy is extremely cautious of vaccines and their safety, and he did visit the country in the summer of 2019. As far as what he said while he was there, that is the he said, he said situation.

like I said, so we don't know for sure. It's also worth noting that there are health officials in Samoa that have sounded the alarm around Kennedy. The director general of health for Samoa's health ministry told the Washington Post that Kennedy will, quote, be directly responsible for killing thousands of children around the world by allowing preventable infectious diseases to run rampant, end

So whether the deaths of the 83 children can be directly attributed to him is something we do not have the answer to, but that is the context that you need. Rumor has it that FEMA views Trump supporters as domestic terrorists.

terrorists. This rumor stems from a post written on X by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, which reads, quote, my staff just made contact with a new whistleblower who provided a credible account that a FEMA contractor visited the home of an elderly disabled veterans family around October 10th. While there, he recommended that the family remove Trump campaign materials and signs from their house and yard, stating that his FEMA supervisors view Trump supporters as domestic and

The elderly homeowners were so frightened by this and afraid that they would not recover their loss that they removed the signs. Nevertheless, FEMA has not returned to their residence. This took place not in Florida, but Georgia. End quote. So just to add a little more color here, a FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell, testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this week about a FEMA employee that was fired,

because that employee told other female workers to skip houses during disaster relief efforts that had Trump signs in their yards. That testimony took place Tuesday, and Comer's post on X was written the same day, but hours after her testimony. We don't know who that whistleblower is that Comer is referring to. We don't know how credible the whistleblower is. We just don't have a lot of information here other than what Comer posted to X.

So yes, we know for sure that a FEMA employee was fired for telling other FEMA employees to skip houses with Trump signs because the FEMA administrator confirmed that. But we don't know for sure whether FEMA supervisors see Trump supporters as domestic terrorists.

That is what I have for you today. Please don't forget about that survey. You can find the link in the episode description. Also, as a reminder, next week is Thanksgiving. I will be releasing episodes on Monday and Tuesday, but no episodes on Wednesday or Thursday. So have a great weekend and I will talk to you on Monday.