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July 22, 2021 - Epoch Times
16:48
Judge Recuses Himself From 2020 Audit Case; New Maricopa County Judge Assigned | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
The portrait of President Trump that will hang in the National Portrait Gallery over at the Smithsonian has just been unveiled.
However, this is only part one.
Over in Arizona, the audit of the 2020 election has officially been underway for the last several days now.
However, in the background, the Arizona Democratic Party has been continuing to push a legal challenge to have it either paused or stopped altogether.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, according to the president of the European Commission, if you want to go and visit any country inside of the European Union starting this summer, you will need to show proof that you have been vaccinated.
And lastly, according to the results of the 2020 U.S. Census, several states that are Republican strongholds will gain congressional seats in Congress, meaning that next year during the midterm elections, it will be easier for the Republican Party to take back the House.
Let's go through these stories together.
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
Now let's begin today's discussion over at the Smithsonian.
The portrait of President Trump that will hang in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian has just been unveiled.
Take a look.
So this is actually not a painting that we're looking at.
This is a photograph of President Trump taken inside of his office back in 2019, the day before he officially announced that he would seek a second term.
In the background, you can see the flags reflecting the five branches of the military, as well as a portrait of President Andrew Jackson and a portrait of Benjamin Franklin.
Now, over at the gallery where this photo will be hanging, there will be a note next to the portrait which says in part that President Trump won office in 2016 after tapping into populist American sentiment and with a promotion of an American First agenda, delivering on major campaign promises like reducing illegal immigration, cutting unemployment, and appointing conservative judges.
Now if you would like to go and see this portrait for yourself over at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., you can do so starting May 14th.
Passes are free.
Now something worth noting here is that this photograph is not President Trump's permanent commissioned portrait.
We here at the Epoch Times, we asked the head of communications over at the Smithsonian, and he told us that the planning for the official painted portrait of President Trump is still in the conversation stages.
Now, if you would like to see a high-resolution version of that photo for yourself, the link to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And by the way, that is that same little description box that is right below that like button that I hope that you take a moment to smash.
Because videos that are like this, talking honestly about what is happening in this world, are routinely censored, throttled, or sometimes outright removed by big tech giants like YouTube.
However, when you smash that like button below this video, you are forcing the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people, letting the truth be known far and wide.
And also, by the way, in that description box, there will also be a link to Epic TV. It's our brand new platform.
It has no censorship on it, and you can watch all of our shows ad-free, like Larry Elder, Facts Matter with Roman, Crossroads with Josh, American Thought Leaders, and all the rest.
That link will be down below.
I hope you check it out.
And now let's talk a little bit about embezzlement.
A former senior advisor to President Barack Obama has just been arrested and charged by the FBI for allegedly stealing over $218,000 from charter schools that he himself helped to found.
Now the man in question, and now the man also in custody, is Mr.
Seth Andrew.
And he served under Barack Obama back in 2014 as a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Education.
But before taking on that White House position, he actually helped to found a chain of charter schools called Democracy Prep.
And they were actually founded initially in New York, but now they operate 21 schools across the entire country.
And according to federal prosecutors, Mr.
Andrews embezzled over $218,000 from these schools.
Why?
Well, they said that half of the allegedly stolen money was used to maintain his bank account at a certain threshold, which then enabled him to get a better interest rate on the mortgage for his multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment.
Here's what one official said.
Andrew is not only alleged to have stolen the school's money, but also to have used the stolen funds to obtain a savings on a mortgage for a multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment.
Thanks to the FBI's diligent work, Andrew now faces federal charges for his alleged scheme.
Now, specifically, according to the criminal complaint, Mr.
Andrew stole this money from the escrow accounts, which the state requires all charter schools to maintain in the event that the charter schools dissolve.
However, the cash in those escrow accounts is supposed to just sit there.
It's not supposed to be touched by anyone for almost under any circumstances.
And the kicker to all of this is that this money in this escrow account actually came exclusively from public funds.
And so, essentially, it came from you and me.
In fact, according to the criminal complaint, here's how Mr.
Andrew funded these escrow accounts.
Andrew was philosophically opposed to funding any of the schools in Democracy Prep with anything other than government funding.
And just remember, When they say government funding, that means taxpayer funding.
And so you and I, the American taxpayers, not only help to fund Democracy Now!, this branch of schools, but we also help to get Mr.
Andrew a lower interest rate on his multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment.
Not bad.
Regardless, Mr.
Andrew was arrested on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, as well as making false statements to a financial institution.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to his lawyer, who told us that Mr.
Andrew will be entering a plea of not guilty in a Manhattan federal court.
Here's what he wrote to us in an email.
Seth will enter a plea of not guilty.
We're reviewing the papers that were just unsealed this morning.
And at this moment, Mr.
Andrew is actually out on a $500,000 bond with the stipulation that he cannot leave Vermont, which is where he lives at this moment.
Now, in terms of the school, here is an email that the CEO, the current CEO of Democracy Now!
sent out to all the students and the parents.
Seth left our network in 2013.
His alleged actions are a profound betrayal of all that we stand for and to you and your children, the scholars and families that we serve.
To be clear, at no time did the alleged crimes pose any risk to our students, staff or operations in any way.
Now, if you would like to read more about the details in this case, the link to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now, before we move on over to Arizona and discuss the audit of the 2020 election that's taking place there, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth.
That's right.
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So the link to them will be in the description box below, or you can give them a call at 866-242-2352, or you can text Roman to 65532.
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And American Heart for Gold, thank you so much for sponsoring our episode.
Now Roman in the studio, back to you.
And now, let's move on over to Arizona.
As we already discussed in a previous episode, the Arizona State Senate is currently conducting a very large audit of the 2020 election, which includes recounting 2.1 million ballots by hand, looking for IT breaches that might have occurred, and testing close to 400 voting machines.
But in the background of all of this, the Arizona Democrat Party is continuing to push a legal challenge Which aims to either stop or at least pause this audit.
Now if you remember, last Thursday, right before the audit was set to begin, at the very last minute, the state Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in order to get the audit stopped.
Now the next day, which was Friday, they were actually granted a pause for the audit if they were able to come up with a million dollar bond.
Now the Arizona Democrats declined to come up with that bond, and so the audit was never paused, and it continued without any delay.
However, over the weekend, there was a development.
The judge who actually made that order, who is a Maricopa County Superior Court judge named Christopher Curry, he recused himself from the case.
Now he did so because the attorney who is defending the Cyber Ninjas, which is the firm that is leading the audit, that attorney actually used to work for Christopher Curry in his office.
That created at least the impression of a conflict of interest, and therefore the judge recused himself from the case.
Now when that happened, the Arizona State Senate released this statement.
We look forward to the assignment of a new judge and a rescheduled hearing as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the audit continues.
Now on Monday, which is two days ago, a new judge was assigned to the case.
His name is Judge Daniel Martin, and yesterday, which was on Tuesday, he oversaw another hearing and made the decision that the election audit can continue, at least for now.
Now, if you're watching this, you might be wondering what exactly is the legal argument that the Democrats are making in order to have this audit stopped?
Well, they are claiming that the contractors which were hired by the Arizona Senate were not properly securing the ballots or the equipment.
Essentially, they're saying that both the ballots and the equipment were in danger of being either tampered or stolen.
Now, there are a few things to unpack here that I'd like to go through with you.
First of all, under normal circumstances, the machines and ballots are kept in a secure county facility, which is maintained by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
That location is so secure, in fact, that it's actually nicknamed The Vault.
However, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, they actually refused to allow the state senate to use that location for the audit.
And therefore, the Arizona state senate, they actually had to rent the Phoenix Coliseum.
Now secondly, the Democrats are citing a report by a local Arizona newspaper, which says that before the audit began, on four consecutive days, one of their reporters was able to walk around this coliseum where the audit is taking place, and he was even able to get close to both the tabulating machines as well as the ballots.
Here's what part of that report said.
But on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the Arizona's family investigates team gained access to the Coliseum, its hallways, staircases, and the main floor, where the computer equipment will be used by the auditors.
The team was able to get close to the actual ballots and county computer equipment.
At no time did anyone at the site ask the team to leave.
At no time did the team enter through any doorway or entry that contained a no trespassing or restricted access sign.
Now, although that report sounds troubling, it doesn't say that there was no security at all.
It does not say that they were actually able to touch the ballots or the machines.
It just says that they were able to get close to them, although it doesn't actually say how close.
Now, in responding to these criticisms, the Arizona Senate president, she made this comment.
The ballots are protected by bonded and certified 24-hour security forces, kept in locked cages, and a public live stream is on 24 hours a day.
And by the way, if you yourself would like to take a look at what's happening in this Coliseum right now, that public live stream, which is on 24 hours a day, you can access it for yourself by going to azaudit.org.
The link to it will be in the description box below if you want to check it out.
Which actually brings me to my last point, which is that regardless of these legal challenges which are happening in the background and which will continue to happen in the foreseeable future, the audit has now been officially underway for the last several days now.
And as we hear any developments from this audit, we will let you know right away.
And if you would like to read more about this audit or about the legal proceedings happening in the background, the links to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now let's talk a bit about the U.S. Census results.
According to the change in U.S. population, based on the most recent 2020 Census, six states will actually be gaining congressional seats, while seven other states will actually be losing congressional seats.
And one of the reasons that this is so important is that the way these changes are taking place boosts the chances of Republicans to recapture the House of Representatives in the next year's midterm elections.
Now let's look at these changes together.
On this map that we're looking at here, the states marked in blue have lost a seat, while the states marked in red have gained at least one seat.
And so if you take a look, California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York have each lost one seat.
While Oregon, Montana, Colorado, North Carolina, and Florida have each gained one seat.
And Texas appears to be the big winner, with an additional two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
And by the way, some of these changes came down to razor-thin margins.
For example, over in New York, if New York had just 89 more people in the census count, it would have actually kept their seat.
Think about that.
Now, an election analyst at the University of Virginia said it this way, I'd expect, just from reapportionment, the Republicans to win a few seats.
And for your reference, by the way, the Republican Party only needs to flip five seats in order to retake the House next year.
Now, besides the reapportionment aspect, the latest census also found that the current U.S. population stands at this number right here.
331,449,281, which is a 7.4% increase over 2010.
Now, that might sound like a lot, but it's actually one of the slowest growth decades on record.
In fact, the only time that the country grew slower was during the Great Depression.
And two of the reasons that this might be so is, for one, the birth rate in this country has been steadily declining over the years.
And secondly, overall migration into the U.S. has decreased, likely due to the hardline policies of the Trump administration over the last four years.
Now, if you would like to comb through this census data for yourself, the link to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now let's talk a bit about vaccine passports.
According to the president of the European Commission, if you would like to go and visit any country inside of the European Union starting this summer, you will need to show proof of vaccination.
Reportedly, American and European officials have been in talks on how to create vaccine certificates to clear citizens for international travel for several months now.
Here's what the president of the European Commission told the New York Times.
All 27 member states will accept unconditionally all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by the EMA, which is the European Medicines Agency.
And for your reference, by the way, all three of the vaccines that are currently being used in the U.S., the ones from Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson& Johnson, have been approved by the EMA. According to that report, details and how exactly travelers to Europe will prove that they're vaccinated is still being worked out, with some officials over in Brussels saying that it's possible that a low-tech solution might be used in the near future, something like maybe a physical card.
Now, this of course ties into a broader debate about these passports altogether, which critics say has the potential to create a two-tier society, with one set of rights and privileges for the vaccinated and a whole other set for the unvaccinated.
Now, about a month ago, the Biden administration publicly stated that America will not have any government-issued vaccine passports for domestic activities.
However, a vaccine passport for international travel has been talked about as a possibility for months now by countries in Europe as well as Israel, China, and several others.
Regardless, if you would like to read more about the details of this new rule out in Europe, the link to that article will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now lastly, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program.
So now we can no longer run any ads before, during, or after Facts Matter, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled.
They are essentially trying to snuff out our independent journalism through demonetization.
However, we here at the Epoch Times have launched something very cool.
It's called Epic TV, and it is a no-censorship platform where you can watch all of our programs, such as the Larry Elder show, my show Facts Matter, The Crossroads with Joshua Phillips, American Thought Leaders, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, China in Focus with Tiffany Meyer, and all the rest.
It is an awesome platform where you can get access to real, honest journalism that doesn't even think about censorship.
We don't even have the thought of, oh, can we put this on YouTube or not?
It's an awesome platform.
The link to it will be in the description box below this video.
It doesn't cost much, just a few dollars every month.
But by subscribing, not only will you be supporting independent journalism, you will get unfettered access to all of these programs that you know are not being censored on their way to your screen.
Again, that link will be in the description box below this video.
I hope you click on it.
I hope you check it out.
And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this world through honest journalism based in truth and tradition.
Now lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm, subscribe to this YouTube channel in order to get honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while you still can.
And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.
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