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Aug. 16, 2021 - Epoch Times
25:47
County Again REFUSES to Hand Over Routers; AG Officially Opens Investigation | Facts Matter
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Good evening, and boy do we have a lot of content to get through today.
To start with, over in Arizona, Maricopa County officials have once again refused to comply with a subpoena.
However, one of the top senators in the state, he just referred the case over to the Attorney General for possible criminal review.
Meanwhile, over in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio, he announced yesterday that only vaccinated people will be allowed to go to restaurants, gyms, and performances.
According to him, starting next month, if you are unvaccinated, you can just stay at home.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General of New York, she just dropped this report right here, which officially concluded that Governor Andrew Cuomo engaged in sexual harassment against 11 different women.
He's now facing serious calls to step down.
And lastly, I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Congressman Matt Gaetz in order to discuss the efforts which are currently underway to investigate the origins of this pandemic.
Let's go through it all together.
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
And now let's begin today's discussion over in Arizona.
But actually, just before we do, as a super quick aside, right there at the very top of the description box is a link to Epic TV, which is our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epic Times video content, such as The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus,
Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, Life and Times, and of course our show, Facts Matter, and on there we publish exclusive content that, We're good to go.
Specifically, besides the routers and the router images, they were also ordered to hand over the ballot envelopes, the voter records, as well as all the username and passwords for the election machines.
Furthermore, Maricopa County, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, they were also told to appear at the Arizona State Capitol for a hearing on August the 2nd, which was two days ago.
and they did not show up.
They have also yet to hand anything over, according to this new subpoena.
However, at Maricopa County, they did send back this letter to the Senate, and this is how it starts.
And this, by the way, is from Mr. Jack Sellers, who is the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
And this is what he writes, quote, It is now August of 2021.
The election of November 2020 is over.
If you haven't figured out that the election in Maricopa County was free, fair, and accurate yet, I'm not sure you ever will.
The reason you haven't finished your audit is because you hired people who have no experience and little understanding of how professional elections are run.
He then goes on to disparage different aspects of the audit and concludes by saying this, quote, Release your report and be prepared to defend any accusations of misdeeds in court.
It's time to move on.
So this was the first letter sent by the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
However, there was a second letter that was sent by a lawyer who's representing Maricopa County.
And in this letter, among several other things, the county lawyer states that Maricopa County will refuse to hand over any of the routers, the router images, or any of the logs because they claim that it's a security risk.
Here's specifically what the letter says on this front.
Quote, the Board of Supervisors will not produce its routers.
Maricopa County repeatedly has addressed the significant security risks posed by producing its routers.
We understand the Senate's interest in examining the routers relates to determining whether the tabulation equipment connected to the Internet at any point during the November 2020 election.
It did not.
No routers have ever been connected to the tabulation equipment or the election management system.
Two EAC-accredited professional elections technology companies confirmed that fact.
Now, given that these officials are refusing to comply with the subpoena, which a judge has ruled on a previous occasion is a lawful subpoena, one of the top state senators has just asked the state attorney general to begin a probe into the relevant Maricopa County officials who are refusing to comply.
Now, Sonny Borelli, who is the Senate Majority Whip in Arizona, he's a Republican, he's the one who submitted a formal request to the attorney general, and here's how he described the situation.
The supervisors are acting as if they are above the law, and it is an insult to the citizens of our state.
Enough is enough.
The level of disrespect and contempt from the supervisors toward Senate leadership and Arizona voters is appalling.
I respectfully announce the Attorney General investigated this clear violation of the law.
Arizonians expect no less.
Now, we were able to find the documents that made this official request.
You can see them there on screen.
And according to them, this senator is accusing the county officials of breaking state law by failing to comply with the subpoenas issued by the state legislature.
According to the request, the attorney general was directed to make a written report of his findings within the next 30 days.
And if he indeed finds that Maricopa County violated state law, then the county must either rectify their violation within 30 days from that ruling or face a loss of funding.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to both the county as well as to the office of the Attorney General for comment, but we have yet to hear back.
However, I just wanted to mention and give you kind of a broad overview of what's happening.
This move, this move to refer the case over to the attorney general, is pretty much the only move that the state senate could have actually made in this scenario.
The other possibility would have been to have a vote on holding Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors in contempt for refusing to comply with the subpoenas.
However, there is a Republican state senator who blocked that vote.
And so now the only remedy available to the state senate is to have the attorney general come in and determine whether they are breaking state law by failing to comply with the subpoena.
And then if they are, their funding can be cut.
Now Karen Phan, who is the Arizona senate president, she described this new development very succinctly.
That is progress, and the final audit report will be better because of it.
Now, if you would like to go deeper into what is happening over in Arizona, I'll throw all the relevant links into the description box below this video, including the links to these two letters right here.
They're pretty short, but they'll give you an overview of what's happening.
Again, all those links will be down in the description box below this video.
And now, before we move on over and discuss what's happening over in New York City, how a new vaccine passport system is being implemented...
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Now, Roman in the studio, back to you.
And now let's move on over to New York City.
Do you remember how a few weeks ago we here on our program were discussing the possibility of vaccine passports being implemented here in America and how that might create a two-tiered society with different rights and privileges for the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated?
Well, those were the good old days, because there is nothing further to discuss.
Just yesterday, New York became the first city in America which will set up a vaccine passport system.
They will mandate that you show proof of vaccination in order to go to the restaurant, a gym, or a performance.
Let me just repeat that.
In order for you, a New Yorker, to go to a restaurant, a gym, or a performance here in the city, you will need to show proof that you have been vaccinated.
And unlike similar schemes that were set up over in France or in Italy, here in New York, you cannot show a negative COVID test.
That doesn't count.
You're either vaccinated or you just don't enter.
Now, in announcing his decision, Bill de Blasio, who is the mayor of New York, he's a Democrat, here's how he described his rationale.
It will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining, in indoor fitness facilities, indoor entertainment facilities.
The only way to patronize these businesses indoors is if you're vaccinated.
If you want to participate in society fully, you've got to get vaccinated.
In that same statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio then went on to dub his plan the key to New York City pass and said that it will be rolled out starting this month in August and then the actual enforcement will begin next month in mid-September.
And so, starting on September the 13th, entry to all these type of establishments will be denied to anyone without vaccination.
Now thus far, it's not exactly clear whether this pass will extend to other venues as well, such as supermarkets or places that sell essential items.
In fact, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the mayor's office for clarification, but we have yet to hear back.
Regardless, starting in September, residents here in New York City will have to present either their Excelsior pass, which is New York City's digital vaccine passport, or they can show a physical vaccine card issued by the CDC. Now, for your reference, by the way, when similar measures were implemented in Europe, for instance, when the French Parliament passed its health pass law, thousands of people took to the streets in protest.
There were also mass protests over in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and Germany over similar COVID mandates as well.
And so, we'll just have to wait and see whether such protests also come here to New York City.
And for your reference, by the way, according to data that was provided by city officials, about 66% of New Yorkers have been vaccinated, as of today at least.
Now what's interesting is that back in April, Nancy Pelosi herself made the case that the government cannot either enforce vaccinations and due to privacy concerns, can't even ask an individual as to whether they've gotten the shot or not.
Here's specifically what she said during a press briefing back in April when she was speaking about members of the House.
Here's the thing.
We cannot require someone to be vaccinated.
That's just not what we can do.
It is a matter of privacy to know who is or who isn't.
I can't go to the capital physician and say, give me the names of people who aren't vaccinated so I can go encourage them or make it known to others to encourage them to be vaccinated.
So we can't do that.
And yet, interestingly enough, that appears to be exactly what the New York City government is doing, although they're taking a bit of a circuitous route.
They are asking the businesses to check vaccination status rather than having the government itself do it.
It's very interesting, and I'm looking forward to what will happen with the invariable lawsuits that will come from this new policy.
Now, during a recent press briefing, Joe Biden was asked whether he thinks that other cities should follow in New York City's footsteps.
And here's what he said.
Do you think more cities and states should institute rules like that?
I do.
He then further clarified that while the federal government will not instate a vaccine passport, he encouraged private businesses to do so in its stead.
And so, with federal backing like that, this New York City plan will likely be rolled out later this month, as expected.
Now, if you'd like to read more about this vaccine mandate here in New York City, I'll throw the link to it in the description box below this video for you to check out, which, by the way, is that same little description box that is right below that like button.
That I hope you take a moment to smash, because honestly, it goes without saying that videos that are like this, talking openly, honestly, and transparently about what is happening in this world, are routinely censored or throttled by big tech giants like YouTube.
However, when you smash that like button, it forces the YouTube algorithm to share these videos out to potentially thousands of more people, letting the truth be known far and wide.
And now, since we're discussing what's happening in New York, let's move on over and talk about Andrew Cuomo.
Just yesterday, Ms.
Letitia James, who is the New York Attorney General, she announced the findings of her office's independent investigation into Andrew Cuomo.
And according to her, Andrew Cuomo, who for your reference is the governor of New York, sexually harassed several women and retaliated against a former employee, violating both federal and state laws in the process.
Here's part of what she said in her statement.
The independent investigation has concluded.
That Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and in doing so violated federal and state law.
Then she went into detail about some of the specifics of her investigation's findings.
Here's what she said.
Specifically, the investigation found that Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed current and former New York State employees by engaging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching and making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women.
She then went on to say that the governor engaged in unwanted groping, kissing and hugging as well as making inappropriate remarks of a sexual nature.
The investigation also found that Cuomo harassed his own staff members, members of the public and even a state trooper that was assigned to protect him.
Now, after that press conference, the New York Attorney General's office, they released this report right here.
It's pretty big.
It's 165 pages, and it's the result of their five-month-long independent investigation.
And among other things, it includes interviews with over 170 witnesses, as well as a review of thousands of pages worth of documents.
And then, among several of the revelations that it includes, it says that one of Andrew Cuomo's aides, they actually admitted to fabricating his signature on a document that said that he completed a mandatory sexual harassment training.
Also, this report includes some screenshots, I'll show them up on screen, which confirm that Chris Cuomo, who is a host over on CNN, and he's also the brother of Andrew Cuomo, he was advising his brother on how to publicly handle these sexual harassment allegations.
In fact, you can see an email which was drafted by Chris Cuomo, which tries to explain these allegations, and then the copy of that email appears to be the exact same as the statement that was later released by Andrew Cuomo to the public.
Which is interesting, given that around that same time period, Chris Cuomo was conducting softball interviews with his brother over on CNN. Now, to back up a little bit, and to give you a bit of background on this whole affair with Andrew Cuomo, in case you don't know anything about it, earlier this year, around February or March of 2021, 11 women came forward and accused Andrew Cuomo of sexually harassing them.
Andrew Cuomo, he denied the allegations and said this back in March.
I never harassed anyone.
I never assaulted anyone.
I never abused anyone.
I'm not going to resign.
Furthermore, back in March, when Andrew Cuomo was asked about certain details of these allegations, he either made blanket statements or he said that he just couldn't recollect.
However, after five months of looking into it, the investigators behind this report, they wrote that what Andrew Cuomo said...
And this is a quote, quote, Now, after this report was released, Andrew Cuomo, he came out, and he once again, he rejected the findings of this report.
He rejected the calls to step down as governor, and he accused the investigators of being politically motivated.
Andrew Cuomo also released his own competing report on these allegations, and he said this...
Please take the time to read the facts and decide for yourself.
I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances.
And by the way, I'll throw both this report that was released by the Attorney General's office, as well as the competing report released by Andrew Cuomo, I'll throw them both into the description box below this video, so you can read them both and see which one you believe in.
And so, what exactly happens now?
Well, there are three possible paths ahead.
The first is a criminal investigation.
Because although this report is damning, it actually doesn't go so far as to suggest prosecution.
In fact, here's what a footnote in this report said.
While concluding that the governor engaged in unlawful sexual harassment, we do not reach in this report a conclusion as to whether the conduct amounts to or should be the subject of criminal prosecution.
However, just yesterday, a prosecutor here in New York revealed the fact that his office is conducting a criminal investigation into Andrew Cuomo.
And so it might actually be the case that Andrew Cuomo might be charged for crimes in the near future.
The second thing that might happen is that Cuomo might get impeached.
And to that end, here's what Todd Kaminsky, he's a state senator in New York, he's a Democrat, here's what he said.
Governor Cuomo should have resigned in March.
He should resign now.
If he does not, he should be impeached.
If he is not, he should be defeated at the polls.
Likewise, Carl Heastie, who is New York's Assembly Speaker, he said this after leaving a legislative meeting just yesterday.
It is abundantly clear to me that the governor has lost the confidence of the Assembly Democratic majority and that he can no longer remain in office.
Once we receive all relevant documents and evidence from the Attorney General, we will move expeditiously and look to conclude our impeachment investigation as quickly as possible.
Now, according to New York's constitution, impeachment of public officers is allowed for misconduct or possible corrupt behavior while they're in office.
The way that it works in New York is very similar to the way that it works at the federal level.
Basically, the state assembly would start the process by introducing an impeachment resolution.
And then after they vote, if there is a simple 51% majority, then the resolution passes and the New York State Senate would hold an impeachment trial.
Now, the third option is that Andrew Cuomo might just resign.
He might just step down.
Because even though he has rejected the calls for him to resign previously, those calls seem to be getting stronger, and not just here in New York, even at the federal level.
For instance, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden, they have all called on him to step down.
For instance, here's what Joe Biden said just yesterday.
Are you now calling on him to resign?
Yes.
And so, with mounting pressure from all sides, let's see what ultimately happens to Andrew Cuomo in the coming days.
Although, we know what won't happen to Andrew Cuomo, and that is, he will not be investigated by the FBI for ordering COVID patients to be sent to nursing homes.
That's right, because while everyone is focusing on this large sexual harassment scandal, the Justice Department, they quietly kill the investigation into how Andrew Cuomo forced COVID patients into nursing homes and then hid all the documentation.
In fact, here is how Steve Scalise, who is a ranking member of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, here's how he described the FBI's decision.
It is outrageous that the Department of Justice refuses to investigate the deadly must-admit orders issued by governors in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan that resulted in the deaths of thousands of senior citizens.
Where is the justice for nursing home victims and their grieving families?
These deadly orders contradicted the CDC's guidance and needlessly endangered the most vulnerable among us to the deadly COVID-19 virus.
And so, you have the state attorney general's office spend five months investigating sexual harassment allegations, which are of course important.
However, at the same time, the Justice Department at the federal level, they choose to not investigate how New York underreported their nursing home deaths by 50%.
Regardless, we did reach out to the office of Andrew Cuomo for comment on all the matters that we've discussed thus far, but we have yet to hear back.
If you'd like to read more about what's happening here in New York in regards to Andrew Cuomo, I'll throw all those links into the description box below, including a link to this full PDF report that will be in the description box below, which again is that same little description box that's right below that like button, which I hope you take a quick moment to smash.
And now let's talk about the origins of the coronavirus.
You might remember that last year, House Republicans released a report titled Origins of COVID-19.
Here it is up on screen.
Well, two days ago, those same lawmakers released an addendum to their report.
I have it right here.
And according to this addendum, it concluded that the evidence is pointing to a leak from a Chinese lab as the source of the outbreak.
Now, Michael McCaul, who is a Republican from Texas, he sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
He's the one who actually released this updated report.
Here's how he described the findings.
As we continue to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe it's time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source of the outbreak.
Instead, as the report lays out, a preponderance of the evidence proves that all roads lead to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Now, this addendum to the original report cites multiple pieces of evidence in support of the conclusion that the virus leaked from a lab, including, for instance, actions which were taken by Chinese officials and scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to hide or to cover up the type of research that they were actually conducting at the facility.
The report also cites what it calls new and underreported information about the lax safety protocols over at the lab.
In fact, here is specifically what it says on that front.
Quote, The preponderance of evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory sometime prior to September 12, 2019.
The virus or the viral sequence that was genetically manipulated was likely collected in a cave in Yunnan province, People's Republic of China, between 2012 and 2015.
The report further says that researchers at the Wuhan lab, Chinese Communist Party officials, and potentially American citizens all, and this is a quote, directly engaged in efforts to obfuscate information related to the origins of the virus and to suppress public debate of a possible lab leak.
Now, if you'd like to read this full report that was released by House Republicans, I'll throw a link to it in the description box below this video so you can check it out.
However, since we're talking about House Republicans, I recently had a chance to sit down with Matt Gaetz, who is a congressman from Florida, and we discussed some of the mysteries surrounding Dr.
Yan, who is the Chinese virologist who recently fled to America.
Take a look.
So let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the origins of the coronavirus, which luckily, in my opinion, because we've been looking into it for a while, we published a documentary last year, even talking about the real possibility that it leaked from a lab.
Finally, we're even allowed to talk about it openly on social media, right?
Can you talk a bit about Dr.
Jan?
Yes.
So the Epoch Times was way on the front end of discovering How the coronavirus research was directly in concert with the Chinese military, that this wasn't some purely academic endeavor.
Dr.
Li Ming Yan is a fact witness, someone who was working for the Chinese Communist Party and defected to the United States to tell the truth.
Here's what's interesting about that.
When she got here in late April of 2020, she told the FBI in a meeting with them that this was In concert with the Chinese military and that it leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
And the FBI did functionally nothing to use that information to protect our fellow Americans.
And so I have been very persistent with FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Tell us why you didn't take the evidence brought to you by a defector, a fact witness, and why didn't you use that to help us hold China's feet to the fire, get these globalist organizations like the World Health Organization in line, And actually put the interests of our country and our people first.
The FBI really dropped the ball on this, and we have to make sure that we tell that story completely.
So what is his response when you say that to him?
So when I asked FBI Director Wray, why didn't you take Dr. Yan's pronouncement seriously, he said, oh, well, we never know what could be a counterintelligence threat.
And that's kind of weird because I didn't ask him in committee about a counterintelligence threat.
And what it showed is that when the FBI had a call to make about Dr. Lee Ming Yan, they blew the call.
They thought that she was bringing misinformation.
Why?
Because of this very ecosystem we just discussed that we saw the pattern from in the Russia hoax.
And that is that the investigative work is too often tied to the narratives that are being put out by the America Last Media.
And so because the media was critical of the view that the Chinese Communist Party was involved in the development of this vaccine at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, well, all of a sudden the FBI didn't run out every ground ball, they didn't follow every lead, and they did not protect Americans.
It would be great if you can give the viewers some hope, because now that, thankfully, the narrative has been opened up and shifted, what would be the next step, or what is the next step into actually figuring out where this virus ultimately came from?
What's in the works right now?
Well, you know, right now we are in such a state of denial that I don't think we are pursuing every lead because some people don't want the truth out there.
Like, it's very hard to get people who are trying to cover their own failures.
To come out and tell the truth.
And that's constantly where we have friction with the FBI on this particular subject.
So the next deadline is a deadline I've set for Christopher Wray to give us answers regarding their failures with Dr.
Yan and the collection of that intelligence by August 1st.
And if we don't get that information, then we're going to have to call Christopher Wray back to the Judiciary Committee.
Again, that's always a lot easier when the Republicans are in power.
By the way, if you would like to watch that full interview with Matt Gaetz, or if you would like to watch a phenomenal interview that we conducted with Dr. Yan herself, you can find that all over at Epic TV.
And in case you don't know, Epic TV is our brand new no-censorship video platform where we put all of the awesome Epic Times video programs like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, Life and Times, and on there is our show Facts Matter.
And once again, we publish episodes on there that are exclusive to Epic TV because frankly, the censorship here on YouTube is just too rampant.
The link to Epic TV will be right there at the top of the description box.
I hope you click on it.
I hope you check it out.
I hope you check out all the awesome content related to the origins of COVID-19 that we published on there.
And join us in this journey of exploring this beautiful world through honest journalism that's based in truth and tradition.
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