The Megyn Kelly Show - Swalwell and Gonzales Resign Amid Scandals, Husband Released in Lynette Hooker Case： AM Update 4⧸14

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00:00:32.500 Good morning, everyone.

00:00:33.940 I'm Megan Kelly.

00:00:34.900 It's Tuesday, April 14th, 2026.

00:00:37.900 Happy birthday, Yardley.

00:00:39.820 And this is your AM update.

00:00:42.120 Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell and Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez

00:00:46.380 announcing they will step down from their congressional seats

00:00:49.820 amid growing political pressure relating to their sexual misconduct scandals.

00:00:54.260 If the Iranians are going to try to engage in economic terrorism, we're going to abide by a simple principle that no Iranian ships are getting out either.

00:01:02.620 The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is now underway as both sides remain in a stalemate over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

00:01:10.620 A federal judge throwing out President Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on that infamous alleged Jeffrey Epstein birthday letter.

00:01:20.420 I am happy to see that justice is really working in this country.

00:01:25.940 They had no evidence and they had no choice but to release it.

00:01:29.480 Bahamian authorities releasing the husband of missing American woman Lynette Hooker yesterday

00:01:34.620 without bringing charges related to her disappearance.

00:01:38.600 All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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00:02:43.540 A pair of congressmen announcing their departures last night amid mounting scandal and political

00:02:51.400 pressure on Capitol Hill. Congressman Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, resigning

00:02:56.340 from his House seat following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations. The most serious coming

00:03:01.940 from a former congressional staffer who claims Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2019 and 2024,

00:03:08.280 saying the encounters occurred while she was intoxicated and could not consent,

00:03:12.160 though she acknowledges remaining in contact with him and inviting him out for drinks the

00:03:17.560 evening of the second incident, no police report was ever filed. Swalwell suspending his campaign

00:03:23.800 for California governor Sunday night as political support quickly evaporated. On the Hill yesterday,

00:03:29.780 pressure ramping up throughout the day, the House Ethics Committee launching a formal probe into the

00:03:34.420 allegations, a process that would have allowed the committee to recommend potential disciplinary

00:03:38.720 action to the full House. But before that process could play out, and with a vote to expel him

00:03:44.400 looming, and having suspended his campaign for California governor the evening before,

00:03:50.240 Swalwell announcing Monday afternoon he would step down from his House seat.

00:03:55.680 In a statement, the congressman writing, quote, I am deeply sorry to my family, staff,

00:03:59.960 and constituents for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. I will fight the serious,

00:04:05.440 false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership

00:04:10.000 for the mistakes I did make. He went on to write that while he believes expulsion without due

00:04:15.400 process would be wrong, it would also be wrong for his constituents to be represented by someone

00:04:20.400 distracted by the controversy. The resignation coming just minutes after Democrat Senator from

00:04:26.060 Arizona Ruben Gallego, allegedly one of Swalwell's closest friends, publicly breaking with Swalwell

00:04:32.300 on X, posting, quote, Swalwell is no longer fit to be a member of Congress. He should be expelled.

00:04:39.240 Gallego also stating he had, quote, no knowledge of the allegations of assault, harassment,

00:04:44.020 and predatory behavior against Eric Swalwell. Meanwhile, Fox News reporting another accuser

00:04:49.660 is expected to speak publicly at a press conference in Beverly Hills today. About an hour after

00:04:55.420 Swalwell's announcement, Congressman Tony Gonzalez, Republican of Texas, also announcing

00:05:00.780 that he will step down amid personal scandals of his own.

00:05:04.780 Gonzalez, writing on X, quote,

00:05:06.340 there is a season for everything

00:05:07.640 and God has a plan for us all.

00:05:10.220 When Congress returns tomorrow,

00:05:11.740 I will file my retirement from office.

00:05:14.380 It has been my privilege

00:05:15.400 to serve the great people of Texas.

00:05:18.020 How dare he include a reference to God in this.

00:05:21.920 Gonzalez, married with six children,

00:05:24.760 had already announced he would not seek reelection

00:05:26.700 after admitting to an affair

00:05:28.620 with a young, married staffer who later died by suicide.

00:05:33.580 She set herself on fire.

00:05:36.000 The San Antonio Express reporting earlier this year on lewd texts by the congressman

00:05:40.920 to the staffer shared with the outlet by her irate late husband.

00:05:46.500 That matter had also been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee,

00:05:50.040 though Gonzalez has denied any responsibility for the woman's death.

00:05:54.820 The San Antonio Express last week reporting on text messages

00:05:58.080 allegedly showing the congressman soliciting sex and nude photos from another staffer.

00:06:04.560 What is it with these lawmakers?

00:06:07.220 With a pair of resignations, the balance of power in the House is expected to remain unchanged.

00:06:12.940 Let's hope the same's not true of these two men's morality.

00:06:17.620 The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports along the Strait of Hormuz going into effect yesterday at 10 a.m.

00:06:24.800 President Trump ordering the maneuver after peace talks in Pakistan failed over the weekend.

00:06:29.980 Vice President J.D. Vance on Fox News last night explaining the scope of the blockade.

00:06:34.680 Not just Iranian flagged vessels, Brett, but any vessel that we know is going to Iranian ports or has come from Iranian ports,

00:06:41.720 you're probably going to see some vessels try to re-flag themselves.

00:06:44.780 But of course, we're going to know because we have very good intelligence which ships are going in and which ships are coming out that are connected to Iran.

00:06:51.820 They haven't been able to prosecute the case when it comes to weapons of war. 0.74

00:06:57.520 What they have done is engage in this act of economic terrorism against the entire world.

00:07:02.020 They basically threatened any ship that's moving through the Straits of Hormuz.

00:07:05.860 Well, as the president of the United States showed, two can play at that game. 0.84

00:07:08.540 And if the Iranians are going to try to engage in economic terrorism, 0.83

00:07:11.600 we're going to abide by a simple principle that no Iranian ships are getting out either.

00:07:16.460 The U.S. backing the effort with significant firepower,

00:07:19.540 at least 15 Navy ships now positioned across the region, including an aircraft carrier and

00:07:24.920 multiple destroyers, according to CNN. Data showing just one sanctioned tanker making its

00:07:30.620 way through the strait, while others immediately turning around. According to Reuters, two vessels

00:07:36.020 reversing course within minutes of approaching the waterway after the blockade took effect.

00:07:41.140 As for where things stand diplomatically, Iran's president, Massoud Pazeshkian,

00:07:46.300 signaling Tehran is still open to negotiations while warning that pressure on the Strait of

00:07:51.500 Hormuz could have global consequences. According to the New York Times, the U.S. is pushing a

00:07:56.660 20-year halt to Iranian uranium enrichment and the removal of Iran's nuclear material from the

00:08:03.620 country. Iranian negotiators countering with a five-year suspension and insisting on keeping

00:08:09.620 the material, offering to dilute it. The gap reflecting a deeper sticking point,

00:08:14.640 with the U.S. pushing toward zero enrichment, a demand Iran has long rejected as a non-starter.

00:08:21.060 More from the vice president last night on Fox.

00:08:23.880 What some people call the dust, which is the enriched uranium that the Iranians currently 0.97

00:08:29.780 possess. We have said that we want that to come out of their country and we would like to take 1.00

00:08:35.500 possession of it. That access, that material was actually buried underground by Operation

00:08:40.260 Midnight Hammer. But if you think about this over the long haul, the president doesn't want to leave

00:08:44.380 the next president or the president after that to be worrying about this program. And so we would

00:08:48.840 like to get that material out of the country completely so that the United States has control

00:08:54.020 of it. That's number one. And the second thing is that, again, to this point about verification,

00:08:58.620 it's one thing for the Iranians to say that they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.

00:09:02.900 It's another thing for us to put in place the mechanism to ensure that's not going to happen.

00:09:07.680 No new talks have been scheduled, though both sides are signaling they could return to the

00:09:11.760 table. The tenuous ceasefire set to expire in just over a week. Coming up, a federal judge sides with

00:09:19.820 the Wall Street Journal tossing out President Trump's defamation lawsuit over the birthday

00:09:24.440 letter Mr. Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein decades ago. And the husband of missing American

00:09:30.720 woman Lynette Hooker, who appears to have been lost at sea in the Bahamas, released from jail last night.

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00:11:24.140 a licensed insurance agency. A federal judge yesterday tossing out President Trump's $10

00:11:30.960 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a birthday

00:11:35.960 letter allegedly sent by Mr. Trump to Jeffrey Epstein more than 20 years ago. In July 2025,

00:11:42.420 the journal publishing a story headlined, quote, Jeffrey Epstein's friends sent him

00:11:46.820 bawdy letters for a 50th birthday album. One was from Donald Trump. According to the report,

00:11:53.180 in 2003, Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell compiling letters from dozens of Epstein's

00:11:58.620 friends and associates years before investigations into the disgraced financier that would

00:12:03.340 ultimately lead to his conviction on two state charges, solicitation of prostitution and

00:12:08.820 solicitation of prostitution with a minor. The journal describing the letter, which it says

00:12:13.580 it reviewed, as containing several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a

00:12:18.700 naked woman, with Mr. Trump's signature appearing below the waist, and concluding, quote,

00:12:24.340 Happy birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret.

00:12:29.060 President Trump denying that he authored the letter, telling the journal, quote,

00:12:32.520 I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women. It's not my language. It's not

00:12:37.860 my words. Shortly after the article's publication, Mr. Trump's legal team filing a defamation lawsuit

00:12:43.780 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, naming the journal's

00:12:48.100 parent company, News Corp., founder Rupert Murdoch, CEO Robert Thompson, publisher Dow Jones,

00:12:54.040 and two reporters. Mr. Trump's lawyers arguing the report caused significant financial and

00:12:59.740 reputational harm, damages they said would only grow as the story spread. The journal's legal

00:13:05.260 team urging the court to dismiss the case, arguing the reporting was accurate, and that Mr. Trump

00:13:11.020 could not show the journal acted with actual malice in its reporting, the standard required

00:13:16.420 for public figures suing for defamation. Yesterday, Obama appointed U.S. District Judge

00:13:22.100 Darren Gales siding with the journal, dismissing the complaint without prejudice, meaning the

00:13:26.920 president is able to refile at a later date. Judge Gales finding Mr. Trump had not alleged

00:13:32.960 facts that could establish the journal acted with actual malice, a notoriously high legal

00:13:38.520 standard for defamation cases brought by public figures, which requires proof that a publisher

00:13:43.440 knew a claim was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Judge Gale's writing,

00:13:49.980 quote, to establish actual malice, a plaintiff must show the defendant deliberately avoided

00:13:55.380 investigating the veracity of the statement in order to evade learning the truth. The complaint

00:14:00.960 comes nowhere close to this standard, quite the opposite. Dow Jones responding in a statement,

00:14:06.320 quote, we are pleased with the judge's decision to dismiss this complaint.

00:14:10.300 We stand behind the reliability, rigor, and accuracy of the Wall Street Journal's reporting.

00:14:16.100 President Trump posting on Truth Social that his team intends to refile the case before April 27th.

00:14:23.820 Bahamian authorities releasing the husband of missing American woman,

00:14:27.540 55-year-old Lynette Hooker, from custody last night.

00:14:30.920 a magistrate previously approving an extension to keep 58-year-old Brian Hooker in lockup through

00:14:37.380 the weekend as investigators continued examining the case. But under Bahamian law, Hooker had to

00:14:43.320 be charged or released from jail by yesterday evening. Mr. Hooker taken into custody last

00:14:49.160 Wednesday, four days after he says his wife Lynette fell from their small dinghy into the water and

00:14:55.840 was then swept away by strong currents. Brian telling police Lynette was wearing the engine

00:15:01.300 key to the dinghy, causing the boat to lose power when she went overboard. Brian, with no power and

00:15:07.680 just a paddle in the small boat, says he drifted across the bay, eventually making landfall around

00:15:13.120 4 a.m. Sunday, roughly four miles from where he says Lynette went overboard. Once on land,

00:15:19.160 Brian encountering a security guard at a nearby boatyard, telling him Lynette had fallen into the

00:15:24.880 sea. He also reportedly said the two had been drinking before the incident. Key details in

00:15:30.680 Brian's account raising questions from both friends and family hear a longtime sailing friend

00:15:36.080 Daniel Danforth Saturday on Fox News. They were very, very experienced boaters. If you're an

00:15:42.240 actual boater and people that boat every day know that the story don't really add up. He said that

00:15:47.040 she fell out of the boat, the wind blew him away, that she was swimming back to the sailboat.

00:15:51.540 So he actually lacked like he didn't have a lot of concern, like, you know, she would have made

00:15:54.380 it to the sailboat without a problem and then when he got to land why didn't he immediately go back

00:15:58.000 to the sailboat to check and see if she had made it or if she did make it to the sailboat he would

00:16:02.100 expect for her to call out for help too you know seven eight hours is a long time that you don't

00:16:07.220 cross most time when we anchor our boat or anybody anchors you always anchor in a little group in a

00:16:11.080 protected cove you're not really out exposed to the open ocean on anchorage that you know you take

00:16:16.640 the proper captain you always take proper planning procedures ahead of time and you sure don't go out

00:16:20.960 a small dinghy in rough waters. That's usually just for going to land, back to your sailboat.

00:16:25.480 There's not really a boat made for commuting. Lynette's daughter, Carly Aylsworth, also raising

00:16:30.520 doubts, telling multiple outlets Brian typically operated the dinghy, making it unlikely Lynette

00:16:36.260 would have had the key. Aylsworth going public in the days after her mother's disappearance,

00:16:41.280 describing a volatile relationship between her mother and stepfather of more than two decades.

00:16:46.540 Lynette's mother, Darlene Hamlet, echoing those same concerns,

00:16:50.240 detailing a pattern of alleged abuse Friday on Ashley Banfield's Drop Dead Serious podcast.

00:16:56.160 There was a lot of good times and bad times in my daughter's relationship with her husband,

00:17:01.000 a lot of highs and a lot of lows. When it was fun, it was really fun. And when there were bad

00:17:06.780 times, there were bad times. And the fact that she had left him on numerous occasions before

00:17:13.400 and continued to go back even after she had been hurt was something that was very difficult for

00:17:21.680 me to understand. And I did a lot of crying and I had to prepare myself for what I thought was

00:17:28.020 someday going to happen unless she finally decided she had had enough. They, I think they loved each

00:17:34.660 other, but they were not good for each other. That's the best way I can say it. When Brian

00:17:40.380 drank, Brian could be mean, hateful, say unpleasant things. That pretty much describes him. He also

00:17:50.880 got physical. It's just like it just progressively got worse. And so this is where we're at now.

00:17:58.960 Michigan court records show Brian Hooker was acquitted of a child abuse charge back in 2006,

00:18:04.620 According to NBC News, in 2015, Lynette reportedly arrested on assault charges,

00:18:11.600 but a warrant was ultimately denied, with authorities citing insufficient evidence to

00:18:16.300 determine who initiated the incident. A Michigan police report from that night shows both Lynette

00:18:22.340 and Brian accused each other of assault. The search effort turning up very little so far.

00:18:28.520 Searchers reportedly recovering a flotation device Brian claims he threw to Lynette after

00:18:33.780 she fell from the dinghy. Lynette's mother telling Banfield her daughter's Apple Watch

00:18:38.620 was also uncovered in the search, though it is unclear to her where it was found.

00:18:43.960 A local charter captain telling Fox News the water ranges from about 4 to 10 feet deep depending on

00:18:50.020 the tide, and the seafloor is clearly visible. Lynette's daughter says Lynette is an experienced

00:18:55.860 swimmer. Brian Hooker denies all wrongdoing, his attorney Terrell Butler speaking to reporters

00:19:01.440 last night, moments before Brian's release. Great news, everyone. Mr. Brian Hooker has

00:19:08.320 been released. He should be walking out shortly. With any conditions? I'm not sure yet. I'm going

00:19:15.620 to have a quick word with him inside before he walks out, and we could go from there.

00:19:20.820 So you just got word he's going to be released? That is correct, yes. How are you feeling?

00:19:24.920 I am happy to see that justice is really working in this country.

00:19:30.780 They had no evidence and they had no choice but to release him.

00:19:34.600 It's unfortunate that they had to exhaust the entire investigative period to come to the conclusion.

00:19:44.380 Last week, the search and rescue operation for Lynette turned into search and recovery.

00:19:49.720 Investigators say no charges are being filed at this time, but the investigation continues.

00:19:54.920 CBS News reporting a search warrant for the hooker's boat has allowed authorities to take

00:19:59.620 a digital video recorder, digital tablets, and cell phone-related equipment. The search warrant

00:20:04.860 alleges these may contain material evidence relating to a missing person case.

00:20:12.140 And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The MK Show,

00:20:16.920 live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east,

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The Megyn Kelly Show - April 14, 2026

Swalwell and Gonzales Resign Amid Scandals, Husband Released in Lynette Hooker Case： AM Update 4⧸14

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