With the passage of the Jeffrey Epstein Files Transparency Act in Congress, new questions over whether a fresh DOJ probe could limit what s revealed. Elon Musk returns to the White House as President Trump throws a ritzy dinner for the Saudi crown prince. The criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey hangs in the balance following a dramatic moment in court. And a story about an elderly man swept up in the illegal immigration crackdowns is not as the media would like you to think. All that and more coming up in a moment on Your AM Update.
00:02:36.740Yesterday morning, the Senate officially sending the Epstein Files Transparency Act to the White House for President Trump's signature.
00:02:45.500Mr. Trump signing the bill into law on Wednesday.
00:02:48.240After months of resistance, President Trump changing his mind last weekend, calling on Congress to pass the bill.
00:02:56.480In an effort to move on from the case he calls a, quote, Democrat hoax, and an attempt to deflect from the White House's success.
00:03:06.040Whether the passage of the bill will have that effect remains to be seen.
00:03:10.020With the president's signature, the DOJ will have 30 days to turn over all Jeffrey Epstein-related materials, with the exception of classified information, child sex abuse material, and information identifying victims, and anything tied to an ongoing investigation.
00:03:28.160Earlier this month, President Trump ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's connections to Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and tech billionaire Reid Hoffman.
00:03:39.200A.G. Bondi, in turn, assigning the probe to U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in the Southern District of New York.
00:03:46.860Yesterday, at a press conference, A.G. Bondi questioned on whether the DOJ will withhold any materials.
00:03:53.540The Epstein files, does the new investigation by the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney prevent the department from releasing all of the remaining files?
00:04:02.800So, we have released 33,000, over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we'll continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency.
00:04:15.720Also, we will always encourage all victims to come forward.
00:04:19.460When you say follow the law, Attorney General, do you mean that you will provide all the files by 30 days?
00:04:26.620We will follow the law. The law passed both chambers last evening. It has not yet been signed.
00:04:33.660But we will continue to follow the law, again, while protecting victims, but also providing maximum transparency.
00:04:41.340The bill requiring the DOJ to explain any redactions or withheld materials in a report within 15 days of the files being released,
00:04:51.020barring the exclusion of any materials, quote,
00:04:53.840on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.
00:05:03.760President Trump yesterday speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in D.C.,
00:05:10.660one day after hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House,
00:05:16.160part of a broader effort to redefine U.S. relations with the Middle East.
00:05:20.760The prince visiting the White House for the first time in seven years,
00:05:24.540his last visit coming before the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018.
00:05:32.240President Trump's strategy in the region underscored during a diplomatic swing through the Middle East earlier this year,
00:05:39.460mending fraught relationships through business deals and investments.
00:05:43.580At the White House yesterday, MBS announcing Saudi investment into the U.S. will rise to $1 trillion.
00:05:51.160President Trump yesterday at the Kennedy Center touting a global wave of investment into the U.S.
00:05:57.120My message to all of the leaders and investors with us today, and they are the best in the world, is very simple.
00:06:04.040Under the Trump administration, America is back and America is open for business.
00:06:08.940In four long years, Joe Biden secured less than $1 trillion.
00:06:15.300In nine short months, I've secured $18 trillion to rebuild our factories, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and bring back those beautiful words made in America.
00:06:29.900So think of that. He did less than a trillion in four years.
00:06:34.520And in nine months, we've done more than $18 trillion.
00:06:38.300On Tuesday, President Trump and MBS signing several major agreements, including the sale of tanks and F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
00:06:51.640Mr. Trump also elevating the Saudis to major non-NATO ally status, a designation streamlining arms transfers and deepening security cooperation.
00:07:01.680Later that evening, President Trump hosting a formal dinner in honor of MBS, attended by dozens of high-profile guests, including Elon Musk, marking Musk's first visit back to the White House since his public split with Mr. Trump earlier this year.
00:07:18.260Also in attendance, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wang, Apple CEO Tim Cook, sales forces Mark Benioff, and Wall Street heavyweights, including Bill Ackman and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman.
00:07:30.620And of all the power players in the room, the biggest burst of attention landing on global soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays professionally in Saudi Arabia and is the most followed person on Instagram with 668 million followers.
00:07:48.100President Trump giving him a special shout out.
00:07:50.440This room is loaded up with the biggest leaders in the world, business, sports.
00:07:55.100You know, my son is a big fan of Ronaldo, wherever Ronaldo is here, where Ronaldo and Barron got to meet him.
00:08:03.780And I think he respects his father a little bit more now, just the fact that I introduced you.
00:08:08.920So I just want to thank you both for being here. Thank you very much.
00:08:12.480MBS closing out the remarks with this tribute to Mr. Trump.
00:08:17.580We think the horizon of the economical cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the South America, it's bigger and wider in many, in many areas.
00:08:24.960We've been signing a lot of agreement that's going to open the door to develop the relation deeper in many areas, and we're going to work on it.
00:08:40.360Coming up, the fate of former FBI Director James Comey's criminal case in question following a dramatic day in court.
00:08:49.740And a story about an elderly man caught up in the immigrant crackdown is not what the headlines make it seem.
00:09:00.200When customers are walking through the aisles of their local Walmart, they are not just picking up groceries or supplies.
00:09:06.680They are supporting American businesses and their communities.
00:09:10.360The real story is what's behind the label.
00:09:13.080With over two-thirds of the products Walmart buys made, grown, or assembled right here in the U.S., buying local is not just stocking shelves.
00:09:23.340Because of that commitment, Walmart invested $350 billion in U.S. manufacturing, helping American companies like Fisher and Weezer Specialty Foods,
00:09:31.460that's a local Texas business, expand their operations in Fredericksburg, Texas, to hire more people and bring their Texas-grown peach jam to a national market.
00:09:41.560Their story is just one example of how Walmart's U.S. manufacturing investment is supporting over 750,000 American jobs.
00:09:48.480Businesses across the country are empowered to sell more, hire more, and help their communities grow.
00:09:54.240From farms to factories to final shopping carts, learn how Walmart is fueling the future of U.S. manufacturing at walmart.com slash America at work.
00:10:03.840The criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey hanging in the balance as a federal judge questions whether Comey was properly indicted.
00:10:14.200The case brought by U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia, Comey's legal team, back in court yesterday,
00:10:22.520pursuing one of its multiple legal theories to get the case tossed.
00:10:26.500Earlier this month, Comey's team challenging Halligan's appointment and sought access to secret grand jury proceeding materials for evidence of potential prosecutorial misconduct.
00:10:39.240Yesterday, Comey's team arguing this case amounts to vindictive prosecution, a high legal bar as explained here by CNN legal analyst Ellie Honig.
00:10:48.060You essentially have to show that you've been chosen, singled out for prosecution, either because of your political views
00:10:54.740or because somebody in the government, in this case the president, hates you.
00:10:57.960Now, I've seen plenty of motions brought along these lines that are almost always rejected by judges.
00:11:03.480However, the case that Jim Comey has here is really the strongest one that I've seen in recent history for dismissal based on selective or vindictive prosecution.
00:11:13.760You can never predict that somebody's going to win on these motions, John, because they're always long shots.
00:11:18.260But Comey's got as good or better chances as anyone I've ever seen.
00:11:21.080Comey's attorney, Michael Dreeben, telling U.S. Judge Michael Nachmanoff the case against Comey stems from protected speech and President Trump's animosity toward him.
00:11:33.540Dreeben accusing President Trump of crossing a line using the, quote, full weight of the criminal justice system against Comey.
00:11:41.840Comey's team submitting more than 50 pages of comments made by President Trump about the former FBI director over the years as evidence of vindictive prosecution, including a September Truth social post addressing Attorney General Pam Bondi, quote,
00:11:55.780Pam, I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, same old story as last time, all talk, no action, nothing is being done.
00:12:05.240What about Comey, Adam, Shifty Schiff, Letitia?
00:12:08.640They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.
00:12:14.880DOJ prosecutor Tyler Lemons arguing there is no proof Halligan acted because of President Trump's truth social post.
00:12:22.400And the case was indeed brought because Comey lied to Congress.
00:12:26.880Judge Nachmanoff also pressing the DOJ on whether career officials initially recommended against prosecuting Comey.
00:12:35.100Lemons declining to answer, saying that information is privileged and could not be shared without permission from the higher-ups,
00:12:42.480although he acknowledged he had seen drafts of memos arguing for and against prosecuting Comey.
00:12:48.120Judge Nachmanoff pressing the DOJ on an emerging irregularity on how the indictment itself was secured.
00:12:55.440In September, Halligan presenting the case to a grand jury initially seeking three charges against Comey.
00:13:02.360The panel rejecting one of the charges and approving two.
00:13:06.860But today we learned that Halligan then revised the indictment to reflect the two approved charges,
00:13:12.180but she never brought it to the full grand jury for reapproval.
00:13:15.800Instead, Halligan had the revised charging document signed by the foreperson in the presence of just one other grand juror.
00:13:24.800Halligan confirming to the judge that the revised indictment had not been seen by the full grand jury.
00:13:31.440CNN reporter Caitlin Polantz, who was in the courtroom, describing the significance of that moment.
00:13:36.980I've been in a lot of these hearings in politically charged cases over the years.
00:13:43.400This was gobsmacking. It was absolute silence.
00:13:47.000I've said before in this case that there have been moments where people gasped, but this was you could see the entire room shift.
00:13:54.220And from then on, this was the only thing that was that was mattering in that case.
00:13:59.540This is the only thing that the judge and that others were talking about.
00:14:03.600The DOJ's lemons arguing the revised indictment was necessary because of the declined charge on the initial document.
00:14:11.060Quote, they really had no other way to return it.
00:14:14.940Comey's attorney pouncing on the moment, telling the court, quote, there is no indictment and pointing out the statute of limitations is now expired.
00:14:24.740Judge Nachmanoff ending the hearing without a ruling, requesting more information from the DOJ about Halligan's handling of the indictment.
00:14:33.000The DOJ responding in a Wednesday evening filing, quote, the grand jury foreperson as the representative of the grand jury endorsed the revised two count indictment by signing it and explaining on the record in open court that the indictment reflected the vote of the grand jury.
00:14:50.680The constitutional function and purpose of the grand jury in all possible respects was achieved and respected in this indictment.
00:15:03.000A sympathetic news report out of Florida drawing scrutiny.
00:15:06.680The Orlando Sentinel publishing a lengthy feature portraying a 79-year-old man as an innocent victim of President Trump's illegal immigration crackdown, while downplaying a criminal history including a rape conviction.
00:15:20.920The piece begins with Paul John Boyerski, born in a German refugee camp to Polish parents one year after the end of World War II, legally moving to the U.S. with his family when he was five.
00:15:33.300Quote, more than seven decades later, the 79-year-old Sanford, Florida grandfather, still a man without a country, found himself in legal limbo in the Alligator Alcatraz detention camp in the Everglades, picked up on a decades-old deportation order authorities had previously chosen not to enforce.
00:15:52.200Boyerski later transferred from Alligator Alcatraz to another holding facility in Miami, the Sentinel highlighting Boyerski's health struggles, complaints about treatment from guards, and lack of hot meals.
00:16:06.140The toll of Boyerski's family also featured prominently, his stepdaughter moving back in with her elderly mother to help her through the ordeal.
00:16:16.020The piece carefully documents Boyerski's long record of check-ins with immigration officials.
00:16:20.980According to the Sentinel, in July, ICE telling Boyerski that if he did not voluntarily leave the country, he would be deported, quote,
00:16:29.080but he could not make such plans as he has no passport and no country to return to.
00:16:34.360It is true that Boyerski's birth circumstances are unusual, but the Sentinel does not describe any steps taken by him or his attorney to comply with ICE's explicit instruction to self-deport.
00:16:46.580But why is Boyerski, who came here legally, under a deportation order to begin with?
00:16:51.560By scrolling all the way down, the reader learns in paragraph 28 that Boyerski was arrested in 1966 for larceny and again in 1967 for receiving stolen goods, leading to a deportation order in 1968.
00:17:10.040Boyerski was released from prison and permitted to apply for work authorization because West Germany, where he was born, and Poland, where his parents are from, refused to take him.
00:17:20.980Just a few years later, in 1972, Boyerski was convicted of rape, sentenced to three years in prison, his wife telling the Sentinel he was innocent and swept up in a case involving other young men.
00:17:35.000The Sentinel offering no independent corroboration and does not address the conviction beyond her claim.
00:17:42.120Boyerski's lawyer now challenging the detention, requesting his client's release on bond while pursuing additional avenues to secure legal status.
00:17:50.980Judge Romy Lerner on Tuesday, declining to make a decision, saying she needed more time to consider the complex case.
00:17:59.160Boyerski remains in the Miami detention facility for now.
00:18:03.300The timeline on the judge's decision is unclear.
00:18:06.460A DHS official telling the court if Boyerski's current deportation is declared no longer valid, the government will issue a new one, seeking deportation to a third country.
00:18:20.960I'm Emily Drashinsky, host of After Party.
00:18:23.600Catch the Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megynkelly and all podcast platforms.
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