Evening Wire: Jack Smith Is Grilled on Capital Hill & Fraud Crackdown Targets Billionaires | 9.29.26

Okay, first before we give you the facts of the day, run Hyde Fight Infadels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the 80s and 90s. There is even a love story which nobody expected. And you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch. Go check it out. The Fraud crackdown continues as several billionaires scammers are named. Marco Rubio says a foreign actor was involved in the UK terror plot and the Senate moves to overhaul college sports. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Tuesday, September 29. This is Even Wire. Senator Joni Ernst released a report this week spotlighting billions of dollars in fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce has more. Ernst's report is titled The New Robert Barons and is based off of prior reporting from Daily Wire's own Lou Groziak. And it details how eight scammers have billed the federal government roughly one billion dollars each. The fraudsters even include an illegal immigrant who submitted $1.3 billion in fraudulent claims and is still at large. Others include a Kansas man who has paid out half a billion dollars before he was convicted in May. And a biotech executive at the center of a conspiracy that cost taxpayers $614 million before it was shut down. Medicare and Medicaid spending equals well over $1.6 trillion a year with so much cash flowing through those programs and with just 450 investigators responsible for catching fraud. Experts estimate that at least $100 billion a year stolen from taxpayers if not more. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared on Capitol Hill today to defend his investigations into President Trump against skeptical lawmakers. Reporter Drew Burkmeyer has the story. Smith testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning in a hearing pointedly titled "Oversight of Jack Smith's Abuse of Authority and Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters." Smith had investigated Trump for over two years beginning in 2022. And he accused the President of crimes related to the 2020 election and keeping classified documents in Mar-a-Lago. In the hearing room Smith defended his actions. Listen to that now. It out, regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. Democrats stood by Smith and accused Republicans of partisan attacks against a public servant. On the other hand, Republican senators said Smith betrayed his partisan agenda by targeting the finances and phone records of GOP lawmakers. Not always with judicial approval. Here's that now. When you went to Judge Boasberg, you didn't even tell him you were seeking the phone records of members of Congress, did you? Because you knew he wouldn't agree. He would say, "Hey, Counselor, anybody who knows a law book from a J-Core catalogue knows that this violates the Constitution, but you didn't tell him, did you?" We saw it non-disclosure orders from the court. You didn't tell him, did you? In seeking non-disclosure orders, we did not. He didn't tell him, but you're unbiased. You have no personal feelings. You make me want to throw up in my mouth. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on the weekend incident at RAF Fairford, a British airbase used by U.S. bombers and strikes against Iran, and he signaled his personal involvement with the investigation. Well, let me preface by saying that I have to be careful. There's some things I cannot say on the air for a lot of different reasons. Suffice it to say that what happened, what almost happened, what could have happened in the UK over the weekend is a very serious situation. It's one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor. I know a lot of people are disturbed by the news that some of these people have been released on bail, as it was some of the people who are being investigated, and obviously we're engaging with them on all of that. After a two-hour jury deliberation, former American Idol contestant in Ohio pastor Caleb Flynn was found guilty today of murdering his wife Ashley Flynn. Prosecutors said Flynn shot the mother of his two daughters twice in the back of the head in February to pursue his mistress, then staged a break-in and tampered with evidence. They cited more than 100,000 messages between Flynn and his mistress, including a text sent hours before the killing in which he wrote, quote, "I choose you. I'm free." There's also evidence that he removed security cameras and tried to delete messages. Flynn had reported an intruder shooting his wife and pleaded not guilty, while his defense argued prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence. The judge revoked his bond and scheduled synodcing for October 5th. A trans-identifying New York Times executive Jonathan McKinsey was shot to death on Saturday afternoon at a suburban sports park near San Francisco. Investigated reporter Meg Brock has the story. Police have arrested and charged the 76-year-old parents of McKinsey's estranged wife in the shooting. McKinsey was a female who claimed to be a transgender man, and at the time of the shooting was in the middle of a divorce and custody dispute with her wife. McKinsey was charged with child abuse and, according to police, had admitted to slapping one of her children. Police also charged McKinsey was endangering another. In a court filing last year, McKinsey's wife alleged that McKinsey had threatened to kill her and their children. Meanwhile, McKinsey claimed in a court filing that her wife and in laws had deemed and threatened her because of her identity. The 76-year-old couple are expected to appear in court Wednesday. 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The Senate passed a sweeping overhaul of college sports as fans have become increasingly fed up with runaway spending by the richest schools. The Protect College Sports Act grants the NCAA an antitrust exemption to enforce a salary cap, limit player transfers, and nearly double what schools can directly pay student athletes. The bill leaves intact the state bans on trans-identifying male athletes in women's sports. Texas Republican Senator Cruz, who co-led the bipartisan bill, said President Trump is eager to sign this legislation. The bill now heads to the House, which will not vote until after the midterm elections, and must pass the bill before the new Congress takes over in January, otherwise the process starts over. FBI Director Cash Patel has released updates on the Bureau's anti-scamer crusade called Operation Blackout. Patel announced this week that the FBI had seized roughly $17 billion in assets tied to scammer operations. The operation tracked scammers back to massive compounds across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where targeting Americans with fraud has become a business model. Patel described the compounds as nearly city-sized operations. He said, quote, "These are actual villages with structures where they force people into forced labor." He also revealed details of an operation last month involving a 200-acre scam compound in Cambodia. While Operation Blackout also seeks to provide information and aid to victims of scams, the FBI has made their mission clear to hit scammers where they operate. The Daily Wire has exclusively obtained undercover video of Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talleriko, admitting that his views on transgender issues, quote, "heaven changed." reporter Jacob Wheeler has the story. Talleriko told Fox News he would oppose that transgender athletes competing in girls of sports. But days after the Senate Democratic nominee told an individual posing as a supporter that his passionate support for transgender kids in the Texas legislature will carry into the Senate. In the September 13th recording, Tawariko was muted. voting voters at Houston's Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, when a woman asked the Democrat whether she could count on him to defend her, quote, "neas" who was trans and her ability to compete in women's sports. Towerico responded, quote, "Always, the way I fought for trans kids in the legislature is how I will fight for them in the U.S. Senate and my position hasn't changed." Towerico then said he believes transgender sports policies should be decided locally and on a case-by-case basis. The Trump administration is expanding federal foster care prevention funding to help expect and parents prepare to raise their children, with the Department of Health and Human Services now recognizing unboring children as, quote, "candidates for foster care." Lifestyle reporter Lauren Baer has more. The move builds on the Family First Prevention Services Act, which allows states to receive federal reimbursement for services designed to prevent children from entering foster care, including mental health and substance abuse treatment, home visits, and parenting assistance. HHS says the funding can cover services not typically covered by Medicaid and is available regardless of income. Alex Adams, Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, says the goal is to stabilize families and keep children safe before foster care becomes necessary. A bipartisan group of 29 states had repeatedly asked the federal government to clarify whether pregnant mothers could qualify, as about one in five children entering foster care is under the age of one. And President Trump has launched America.gov, a new government chatbot designed to help Americans find federal services, search government records, and eventually complete tasks like Medicare Enrollment and Passport Renewals. The tool combines Google's Gemini and SpaceX AI's GROC, with the administration pitching it as a way to make government more accessible. The launch also drew attention when America.gov initially answered politically sensitive questions by affirming Biden's 2020 election victory and correcting Trump's claims about presidential salaries before the chatbot began refusing some political questions. The producers here on Morning Wire tried it out but found the bot fairly unresponsive giving instructions instead of answers to wait a few minutes or refresh the page. The administration says the tool is designed to simplify access to government information without requiring users to log in or storing their chats, so apparently a work in progress. Those are your dry poem updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And in case you missed it earlier today, we covered some major stories, including UK officials releasing the suspects in an alleged terror plot, SpaceX achieving orbit, and Iran coming back to the table with US officials. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire. (bell chiming)