Fox News: Trump's Legal Problems, the Hur Report, and the Arrest of an FBI Informant
A condensed overview of 19 hours of Fox News for the week ending 2/18/24
A lot went down on Fox News last week as the network aired uninterrupted live coverage of a hearing involving Fani Willis, the district attorney prosecuting Trump in Fulton Country, Georgia. Special counsel David Weiss announced charges against an FBI informant for lying about the Biden’s business dealings, and Donald J. Trump was hit with a massive $355 million penalty in the civil fraud trial in New York.
All of this went down in a matter of 72 hours while Fox was busy promoting its usual hysteria about the border crisis, and repeating the lie that the Hur report stated that Biden was mentally unfit to stand trial.
The network only dedicated 1% of its coverage to the Israel-Hamas war while 7% of programming on The PBS NewsHour was focused on the conflict.
Anyone watching Fox News exclusively last week would have missed out on several developments in the Israel-Hamas war and the war in Ukraine, a bipartisan bill to increase rail safety that is stalled in Congress and continued political unrest in Pakistan.
Shows I covered last week:
Fox & Friends
The Five
Hannity
Jesse Watters Primetime - Tuesday and Friday
Special Report with Bret Baier, The Ingraham Angle - Friday only
Jesse Watters Suddenly Thinks It’s Bad to Date Co-workers
Last September a grand jury issued a report recommending criminal indictments for Trump and several of this associates for their attempts to overturn the presidential election in Georgia.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, issued RICO charges against Trump and 18 other defendants some of whom have already pleaded guilty.
Willis is now under investigation for having a consensual affair with Nathan Wade, an outside lawyer who was hired to help with the prosecution in the RICO case against Trump and his co-defendants.
Her critics have claimed she may have broken the law or acted unethically when she received gifts or had travel expenses paid by Wade. Willis has defended herself in part by saying she reimbursed Wade in some cases with cash for costs incurred during vacations they took together.
On Thursday on “The Five,” Jesse Watters lambasted Fani Willis for becoming romantically involved with a co-worker.
“You're not allowed to hire the person you're having sex with and then not disclose it and then pay him a bunch of money and then he takes you on vacation and you claim you gave them cash.”
This is especially ridiculous considered Watters had an affair with a low-level employee while he was married. He also notoriously ‘joked’ that he let the air out of his co-worker’s tires so she would be forced to ask him for a ride home.
I put the word joke in quotes because Watters and Greg Gutfeld both accused me of editing the clip where Watters said this in a deceptive way. I responded by posting a longer clip with more context. Watters did not say he was joking.
I remembered an old clip from last September where Watters tried to advocate for office romances even as his co-hosts tried to shut him up.
“What about office romance? Without returning to the office, you have no office romance. We need families in this country. We need children.”
While he was speaking his co-host screamed “That’s the third rail,” “You need to stop now before you get into trouble,” and “You need to stop now.”
Before cutting to commercial Judge Pirro looked right into the camera and declared,
“The Fastest is coming up next because Jesse doesn’t need to talk.”
Jessica Tarlov breaks Down the Fani Willis Hearing
On Thursday on “The Five,” while her co-hosts acted as if the Fani Willis hearing was the trial of the century Jessica Tarlov broke it down.
“I know people who keep cash at home. No. People who walk around with cash their entire lives cannot run that way in a legitimate fashion. And this is exactly the result that the president, the former president, and his supporters want from this, because we're going to spend two or three days of news cycles talking about how ridiculous this courtroom scene is and lose track of the seriousness of the case that has been put forward. We're not even talking about the fact that Donald Trump was not indicted by Fani Willis and Nathan Wade. He was indicted by a grand jury,” said Tarlov.
Watters interrupted her.
“Remember the forewoman the giggly Wiccan. That foreperson. She’s another great character I this drama.”
Tarlov responded.
“Anyone who sits on a grand jury and indicts Donald Trump, you impugn their character,” said Tarlov.
“Remember the googly eyes Jessica? She’s a Wiccan!” said Watters.
“Wiccans are real people too,” said Tarlov.
Allina Habba Thinks Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are Children
On Friday Hannity invited Alina Habba, one of Trump’s civil attorneys, to discuss the civil fraud trial judgment.
I collected just a few of her more alarming quotes from the segment.
“They will not get away with it. We will come at them. We will come hard, and we will literally fight until the truth comes out . . .Everything Trump, including his children, his company, employees that are working for him, doing their job. That is the desperation of our country at this moment, which is about to go into World War,” said Habba.
I’m not sure what she was talking about in terms of a World War or why it would have any relevance on a civil fraud trial. She continued.
“Imagine you're dragging children through this.”
I assume she was referring to Eric Trump, 40, and Donald Trump Jr., 46. Both of Trump’s sons were in charge of running the Trump Organization while their father was President. Both Donald and Eric share the title of executive vice president and trustee of the Trump Organization.
This is how Eric Trump describes his role in the Trump Organization on the website for the company.
“Eric Trump is the Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and oversees all aspects of management and operation of the global real estate empire, including new project acquisition, development and construction.”
Donald Jr. and Eric Trump are both adults with high ranking roles in the company.
Habba continued.
“That's the desperation we're at. Allen Weisselberg, Jeff McConney people that did their jobs and did nothing wrong, and that is how desperate they are because they're going to lose.”
Habba then made a pivot to the Attorney General of New York, Letitia James.
“James had her shoes off in court. Let's not forget that I called it out in the closing argument, but it's true. She had a Starbucks coffee in her hand. She wasn't doing work. She wasn't sitting at the counsel table. She was in the back with her shoes off and a coffee. And at the end of the day, we're sitting there looking at this, going, this is the state of our country.”
I’m not a lawyer but bringing up the shoes and coffee choice of the attorney general during her closing argument might have not been the best angle for Trump’s case.
How Fox and PBS covered the Trump Civil Fraud Penalty.
On Friday, on “Hannity,” the Fox News host insisted that former President Donald J. Trump had done nothing wrong in the way he’d run the Trump Organization in New York State.
“So, I ask again, where's the victim here? That's right. There isn't a victim. There's never been a case like this. A totally victimless political witch hunt, which a civil trial, as they called it. This is what we mean when we talk about a dual justice system, the weaponization of our legal system in America. They had to dig back years to bring all their claims forward. And now here we are. Years later, Letitia James feels the need to bring the case against the runaway favorite for the Republican nomination, heading right into an election season. How convenient is that? Now, leftists in America, they're probably celebrating what happens if one day they come for you?” said Hannity.
The same night on “The PBS NewsHour,” PBS correspondent William Brangham broke down some crucial elements of the case.
“For example, they tripled the square footage of a luxury penthouse. They said that real estate projects that were not completed were completed. They said they had millions of dollars in cash on hand that they could control when they didn't. And Judge Engoron in his ruling today was withering towards the former president and his companies saying that they were unwilling to acknowledge this fraud and that they were certainly not willing to vow to do differently going forward. In his ruling, he wrote, quote,
‘Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They were accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet the defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.’
And so, Judge Engoron in his ruling, issued this enormous financial judgment against them and barred them from doing work in New York State for years to come.”
David Brooks Sums up the Trump Fraud Case in Less than 30 seconds
On Friday during the “Brooks & Capehart” segment of the PBS NewsHour David Brooks, New York Times Opinion columnist, summarized the Trump civil fraud trial in less than 15 seconds.
“He had three sets of books. He had the banker's books where he inflated his assets in the IRS, books, where he deflated his assets, and then theoretically, he must have had the real books. And so, people don't understand that that's just fraud. That's just being a con artist.”
Of course, Brooks is oversimplifying the case but his overall assessment is correct.
How Fox News and PBS Covered the Same Story about an FBI Informant
On Friday, on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Watters addressed a story about an FBI informant who was charged with lying about the Biden’s business dealings.
“The FBI informant who said Ukraine bribed the Bidens. Joe and Hunter five million apiece. Biden's Justice Department just arrested him. Special counsel David Weiss, the Delaware prosecutor, who you remember tried to cut a sweetheart deal to keep Hunter out of prison, announced charges against Alexander Smirnov. Smirnov is a trusted and credible informant that the FBI has had on the payroll for years. Even Democrats said the FBI informant was credible,” said Watters.
Watters then cut to an undated media clip of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) discussing Smirnov.
“And there's a confidential human source that the FBI works with who is proven to be very credible, who recorded a conversation with someone else,” said Raskin.
Watters did not provide any additional context about the quote.
“But he was too credible. The Biden administration is charging the FBI informant with obstruction and making a false statement. Remember, he informed the FBI that there were audio recordings of Joe Biden and Hunter shaking down a Ukrainian CEO for bribes. And coincidentally, after arresting the FBI informant who fingered him for bribes. Biden says it's time to drop the impeachment inquiry,” said Watters.
The Fox News host left out quite a bit in his brief statement about the case. The FBI had said that Smirnov’s claims were not verified since the House Oversight Committee members first requested to view the FD-1023 unclassified document that contained the accusation against the President and his son.
The House members were so aggressive about viewing the form that they threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if he did not agree to their demands.
The form did not include any evidence that the claims were true. No copies of audio recordings were ever located, and no other witnesses corroborated the story.
How the PBS NewsHour covered the same story.
The day before on “The PBS NewsHour,” Laura Barrón-López, a White House correspondent, broke the story down.
PBS NewsHour co-anchor Geoff Bennett started the discussion.
“And the FBI, as I understand it, is now using memos that congressional Republicans released as part of their indictment against Alexander Smirnov. So what do you see as the other potential political fallout here?”
Barrón-López responded.
“Look, Democrats are seizing on this, essentially saying that the entire basis for the House Republican impeachment inquiry into President Biden is on shaky ground. They have no evidence whatsoever because one of their biggest pieces that they said was of evidence of a bribery scheme is now being called into severe question by the Justice Department saying that it was all a lie. Now, this also comes, Jeff, after witness after witness, including some of Hunter Biden's business associates have testified, have been deposed by the Oversight Committee and by the committee overseeing this, and have essentially said that there is no evidence that President Biden was involved in any of Hunter Biden's business dealings. And this also comes just a few weeks before Hunter Biden is set to testify to the committee.”
Barrón-López is correct. Despite years of investigations House Republicans still have no credible evidence against Hunter Biden or his father. Fox News hosts have repeatedly misrepresented the testimony given by several of Hunter Biden’s business associates.
The Hur Report is The Next But Her Emails…
On Thursday while a guest on “Hannity,” Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House directly compared the Hur report with the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
Even though special counsel Robert K. Hur did not recommend criminally charging President Biden for mishandling classified documents Fox News hosts have presented the report as a damning indictment of Biden’s memory and mental acuity.
“But look, the standard for all this was set by Hillary Clinton, who had staff take a hammer and physically, destroy the hard drive, who herself apparently deleted 32 or 33,000 emails. I mean, she is sort of the model for simply destroying the evidence. And as you know, they refused to prosecute her even though she clearly was guilty of very significant violations of law about dealing with those kind of documents,” said Gingrich.
Gingrich’s statement is a bit misleading.
Hillary Clinton’s cell phones and other electronic devices were destroyed years before the Department of Justice asked for them as evidence. Clinton’s staff destroyed the hard drives with hammers as an imperfect security measure to protect any sensitive information.
Gingrich is correct that Hillary’s attorney did delete roughly 33,000 personal emails after handing over roughly 55,000 printed pages of what she and her legal team believed were work related emails.
After multiple exhaustive investigations into any wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton, including one by Trump’s Department of Justice, no charges were ever filed against her.
Gingrich continued.
“So now you have the same thing happening. One of the challenges in our current totally one-sided legal system is that if you're a Democrat, you can assume that in fact, the Justice Department, the FBI, will protect you, favor you, do everything it can to avoid hurting you. And if you're a Republican, you can assume that they will do just exactly the opposite,” said Gingrich.
Alina Habba Reminded the Fox Audience That She’s a Terrible Lawyer
On Thursday while a guest on “Hannity,” Alina Habba, one of Trump’s civil attorneys brought up one of her spectacular legal failures.
During a discussion about Trump’s civil fraud trial Sean Hannity brought up Hillary Clinton.
“Actually, what we know about Hillary Clinton. No reasonable prosecutor would prosecute. Wow. If that's not a dual justice system, I don't know what is. We'll give you the final word,” said Hannity.
Habba answered.
“Yeah, it's 100% right. Don't forget, we went after Hillary Clinton for something that we know is true and the Russia hoax. And we got fined $1 million and sanctioned and the case got thrown out without me ever even meeting the judge. I never met the judge one time, never spoke to him, never walked into court. That is the state of our country right now.”
Habba was referring to a case where a federal judge in Florida tossed a lawsuit Trump filed against Hillary Clinton and a range of other perceived enemies whom Trump claimed engaged in racketeering and were part of a vast deep state conspiracy against him.
In September 2022, the judge, Donald M. Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida issued a harsh 19-page-ruling where he accused Trump of abusing the legal system.
Trump’s attorneys Alina Habba, Michael T. Madaio, Peter Ticktin and Jamie Alan Sasson were all fined $50,000 and ordered to cover about $16,000 in legal fees paid by one of the defendants.
In January 2023 the same judge ordered Trump and Habba to jointly pay nearly $1 million in penalties for pursuing a frivolous lawsuit.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour. The following list are stories PBS covered that Fox News did not.
Updates in the war in Ukraine
Ukraine said it sunk a Russian warship in the Red Sea outside of Russian occupied Crimea. If the sinking is confirmed it would be the 15th Russian ship sunk by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine and Russia traded missile attacks. At least seven people were killed in the Ukrainian cities Kyiv, Lviv and the eastern city of Zaporizhzhia. Russian authorities said that five people were killed and 18 injured in the Russian city of Belgorod a border city near northeast Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement with France after signing a similar agreement with Germany. The package includes $3.2 billion in military aid. Germany agreed to supply $1.2 billion in military aid.
The Ukrainian military retreated from the eastern city of Avdiivka due to a lack of artillery munitions. President Biden blamed Congress for its inability to pass a bill that would help support Ukraine.
Updates in the Israel-Hamas War
A group of families of hostages taken from Israel, The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, visited the International Criminal Court at the United Nations and urged them to prosecute Hamas leadership.
The top UN court rejected South Africa’s request for urgent action to help safeguard the Rafah crossing in the southern end of Gaza near the Egyptian border. The court stressed that Israel must respect earlier measures imposed late last month at a preliminary stage in a landmark genocide case. Israel has identified Rafah as the last holdout for Hamas forces in Gaza and has urged civilians to evacuate before it launches an offensive against the area.
In Pakistan supporters of the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan protested the latest Parliamentary elections. Khan and his protesters are claiming the election was rigged. A coalition government led by former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to take power in the coming days.
The first ever State of the World’s Migratory Species Report by the United Nations found a 44% decline in migratory species. The two greatest threats to all migratory species are overexploitation and habitat loss due to human activity.
PBS produced a segment about former President Donald J. Trump’s radical plans for mass deportations of millions of people if he’s elected president later this year. Trump plans to federalize the national guard to help secure the border and deport undocumented immigrants in non-border states. The plan is seen as unconstitutional by many.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) declared he will not run for re-election at the end of his term. Gallagher refused to vote with fellow House Republicans to impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security
PBS produced a segment about the controversy surrounding children playing tackle football due to elevated risk of brain injuries. In some communities in the South the commitment to the sport remains strong. Overall participation in youth tackle football has decreased.
European leaders addressed former President Donald J. Trump’s recent comments about NATO. Trump said during a rally that under his watch that he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries not spending sufficiently on defense. Trump also misrepresented how NATO is funded.
Members of three separate unions representing flight attendants in the U.S. and U.K. staged a day-long walkout over low wages. Federal law makes it difficult for airline unions to conduct legal strikes.
The scaffolding surrounding the Notre Dame Cathedral is starting to come down in anticipation of its re-opening in December. The building was badly damaged in a fire five years ago.
Twenty leading technology companies agreed to limit the use of deceptive A.I. on social media platforms in the next election. The companies have vowed to restrict the use of A.I. in all platforms including those outside the United States.
The FDA issued a warning about the dangers of a supplement sold under the brand Neptune’s Fix which is also called gas station heroin. The FDA warning includes cases of severe adverse events after use of Neptune‘s Fix products, including seizures, loss of consciousness and death.
Controversial El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and his New Ideas party have won a supermajority in the last election. Critics say his crackdown on violent gangs have gone too far as thousands have been arrested for suspected gang activity despite evidence or a chance to plead their case in court. Tucker Carlson frequently championed the president’s governing style.
Harvey Weinstein’s legal team is appealing his rape conviction in New York State on the grounds that he didn’t get a fair trial. Weinstein, 71, was convicted of a criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He was also found guilty in Los Angeles and sentenced to 16 years on similar charges.
Uber and Lyft drivers staged a one-day strike on Valentine’s Day. Thousands of ride-hailing and delivery workers in the U.S. and the U.K. went on strike calling for higher pay and other changes to their working conditions.
Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, a former general linked to past human rights abuses, claimed victory in Indonesia’s presidential election last week. His victory raised concerns about the state of democracy in the country.
As part of her series America at a Crossroads Judy Woodruff traveled to Virginia to cover the MockCon where 2,000 college students hold a mock political convention.
Greece became the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same sex marriage.
Japan unexpectedly slipped into a recession at the end of last year. Germany is now officially the third largest economy as Japan has slipped to fourth place.
A private company launched a lunar lander from Cape Canaveral, Florida. If the mission is successful, it will be the first private company to land on the moon. The spacecraft does not include a human crew.
Even though Fox News spent significant airtime covering President Biden’s visit to East Palestine, Ohio the site of a train derailment and subsequent controlled burn of toxic chemicals, no one on the network brought up the bi-partisan rail safety bill that has stalled in Congress. PBS invited Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to speak at length about the bill and how it could help prevent disasters like the accident in East Palestine.
Bob Edwards, a longtime host of NPR’s “Morning Edition” and later of “All Things Considered” died at the age of 76. Edwards also went on to host his own interview show at Sirius XM Radio and continued to be heard on many public radio stations on “Bob Edwards Weekend.”