Secret Service Leak Investigation, Meta’s $18B Settlement, Deadly Flooding in Nepal: AM Update 8/27

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0:50These changes are better than what we would have received had we have won in court. Metta agreeing to pay$18 billion and fundamentally changed the social media experience for young users, settling claims its platforms were deliberately designed to keep them addicted. It is my opinion within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Ms. Clancy was criminally responsible. The prosecution, resting its rebuttal in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, after its final expert points to the phone call he says revealed she knew exactly what she was doing. And a wall of water, mud, and rock tearing through the Himalayan border between Nepal and Tibet, killing at least 160 people as dozens of Americans remain missing.

1:35All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:22Text the letters MK to the number 989898 and get a free info kit and some solid information. The midterms will be here before you know it. Don't wait. Text MK to 989898 now. Three employees in the U.S. Secret Service Communications Office reportedly escorted from the agency's Washington headquarters Monday amid an investigation into the possible disclosure of classified or sensitive information to the press. RealClearPolitics reporting the employees were removed from their positions, stripped of their security clearances, and designated, quote, do not admit, barring them from Secret Service facilities.

3:00The group reportedly including Anthony Guglielmi, the agency's top spokesman since 2022, and public face throughout the fallout from the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service only confirming that three non-law enforcement employees have been placed on administrative leave while its Office of Professional Responsibility conducts a review. The agency not identifying the employees or revealing the focus of the investigation. RealClearPolitics reporting the FBI and CIA are also involved. Administrative leave and the suspension of security clearances are standard during an investigation and do not establish that any of the employees engaged in wrongdoing.

3:39We spoke with RealClearPolitics national political correspondent Susan Crabtree, who broke this story. Crabtree reporting what the investigators are likely trying to uncover. My sources are telling me that it has everything to do with the media leak investigation into the reports about Donald Trump using the decoy plane to leave Turkey and not using the Qatari gifted Air Force One. because the Qatar-gifted F-1 did not have some of the highest security protocols that could counter a surface-to-air missile that was part of the intelligence that based Iran threat, that the Secret Service got that intelligence from what I understand and what's been reported as Israeli sources.

4:32That remarkable operation unfolding earlier this year, President Trump reportedly hiding inside a catering truck before sneaking aboard a decoy aircraft and slipping out of Turkey. The covert switch keeping him off Air Force One amid intelligence warning of a possible Iranian surface-to-air missile threat. The reported involvement of the FBI and CIA separating this investigation from the agency's typical internal disciplinary process. usually the either inspector general of the department of homeland security is investigating after the secret service itself its office of professional responsibility investigates but now it's coming from what i understand is the white house generated wanted to get to the bottom of who talked to these reporters the washington post first reported about the decoy plane the event leaving Turkey, how President Trump was escorted in a different plane than Air Force One.

5:32So the fact that the FBI and the CIA are involved means that it's a far more serious investigation into the leak of classified material that has to do with President Trump's movements and security. The suspension of security clearances, reportedly standard during an investigation, although Crabtree says Guglielmi's inclusion is highly unusual. It's not an unusual treatment for Secret Service agents accused of misconduct, but it is really bizarre for the comms director to be one of those people, to be suspended and have their security clearance revoked or suspended. Guglielmi serving as the agency's chief public defender through the intense scrutiny following the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler.

6:22Anthony Guglielmi, the communications director, is part of this, has been suspended because obviously he works with reporters all the time, but he's been more of a company man and he's defended the agency in an aggressive way during his time under Kimberly Cheadle's leadership at the Secret Service. She's since resigned after the Butler assassination attempt against Donald Trump because of her congressional testimony and all of the ridiculous claims about they didn't have the building secured, the AGR building secured, where Thomas Crooks got the shots off because it was a sloped roof. We all know that that was absolutely a ridiculous explanation.

7:06Crabtree encountering that aggressive defense firsthand after reporting on the distribution of security resources in Pennsylvania on the day of the Butler rally. Anthony Guglielmi, as the communications director, was very aggressively defending the performance of the Secret Service at Butler and denying some of the initial reports, including some of my own, and directly saying in a very aggressive way that I found unusual at the time that this reporting was wrong. my reporting about Jill Biden having more security assets at her dinner the same night in Pittsburgh than the Butler rally. I reported that the day after the assassination attempt in Butler against Donald Trump, and Anthony Guglielmi direct tweeted at me that that was very, very wrong.

8:02Meanwhile, fast forward a week, and Senator Grassley had done a report investigating it and found that there was more security assets at Jill Biden's, at least when it came to post standards, than at the Butler rally. Meta agreeing to pay around$18 billion and overhaul how Facebook and Instagram interact with children, settling allegations that the company deliberately built addictive products while misleading the public about the risks to young users. The settlement money coming through two agreements announced Wednesday, the larger proposed settlement requiring Meta to pay at least$12.1 billion and potentially as much as$17.1 billion over the next decade.

8:46The agreement resolving a federal case originally brought by 29 states, expanding the settlement to 51 attorneys general representing 47 states, Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories. Texas reaching a separate agreement with Metta worth more than$1 billion. The states accusing Metta of designing Facebook and Instagram to keep children compulsively engaged, allegedly contributing to mental health problems while violating state consumer protection laws. Meta denying the allegations and admitting no liability under the proposed agreement. The settlement effectively ending a bellwether trial that began last week in an Oakland federal courtroom.

9:23California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey leading the case on behalf of the original 29-state coalition, reportedly seeking roughly$200 billion from Meta before the agreement was reached. The trial suspended while Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers reviews the deal. Rogers reportedly indicating Wednesday that she is inclined to approve the settlement, but needs additional time to examine its terms. The announcement coming one day after Instagram head Adam Mosseri took the stand and before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify. State attorneys general arguing the agreement delivers protections that could have been difficult for a court to impose, even if the states prevailed at trial.

10:02Kentucky Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman discussing the scope of the changes Wednesday on Fox. These changes are better than what we would have received had we have won in court. That's the remarkable aspect of the settlement. And this is common sense stuff that parents are seeking, me as a parent seeking, common sense protections. Let's limit the amount of times our kids during school are getting pinged with notifications. Let's strip the ability of our kids to use these damaging cosmetic surgery filters. and, hey, let's limit the doom scrolling. Let's create productive pauses to encourage the kids to stop doom scrolling.

10:44This is stuff that is empowering parents, and that's the goal. The restrictions applying by default to users meta-identifies as younger than 18, including a daily two-hour time limit, blocking usage from midnight to 6 a.m., blocking notifications from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and creating a new method for teens to report harmful content, with the company promising to answer 90 % of those reports within six hours. California Democrat Attorney General Rob Bonta in a video posted to social media outlining more of the restrictions. Meta will set a default ban on displaying the number of likes or reactions to posts and a ban on cosmetic procedure filters, plastic surgery filters.

11:28And it will have an option for users to choose a non-personalized feed, meaning a feed that doesn't use an algorithm to target them with content aimed to keep them endlessly scrolling. The agreement, also requiring enhanced age verification, expanded parental controls and independent monitoring of Meta's compliance. The full financial settlement depending partly on whether Meta's competitors follow its lead. Meta guaranteeing the state's at least$12.1 billion, while another$5 billion reportedly becomes payable if companies including TikTok and YouTube reach comparable agreements and adopt similar protections.

12:02Meta's legal team reportedly arguing an industry-wide standard is necessary because teenagers may simply move to another platform when their access to one app is restricted. The company calling on TikTok and YouTube to accept the same limits, while describing the agreement as an extension of protections Meta says it is already introduced. The two deals bringing Meta's combined state settlements announced Wednesday above$18 billion, the agreement potentially reshaping thousands of remaining cases against Meta and other social media companies including lawsuits brought by school districts, parents, and young users.

12:36Legal analyst Jonathan Turley yesterday on Fox News predicting Meta's decision will increase pressure on the rest of the industry. Well, this is going to bring a lot more lawsuits against a lot more companies. You know, Meta was sort of the capital ship in this armada for social media companies, and it's going back to port. You know, so that's going to leave a lot of companies out there more vulnerable. We saw the same thing happen with the opioid litigation. When some of the key companies decided to settle, it created this cascading failure for these companies. It was harder for the remaining companies to litigate.

13:16And I think that you're going to see that. This is a very this is a rational choice for Metta. I mean, I think that Meta understood it had good legal arguments, but that they also understood that they had to change their products. Meta continuing to fight the remaining lawsuits while reportedly maintaining it can defeat additional personal injury claims. Meta shares rising about 1 % following yesterday's announcement. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer, who did not join the settlement, posting to X, quote, The payouts are peanuts compared to the profound harms met as profit-driven, addictive features inflicted on kids and a slap on the wrist for a trillion-dollar corp that'll pay more to lawyers than to the states.

13:59We'll see them at trial, referring to a separate lawsuit in the Sunshine State. Coming up, the prosecution resting its rebuttal in the Lindsey Clancy murder trial as closing arguments are set to begin. and catastrophic flash flooding devastating the Himalayan border between Nepal and Tibet, killing at least 160 people and leaving hundreds more missing, including dozens of Americans.

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14:59Three weeks for just 17 bucks and 76 cents. Simply go to relieffactor.com or call 1-800-4-RELIEF. You will connect with their friendly local team and they will do everything they can to help. And maybe you will be sharing your relief factor story sometime soon as well. A major development as testimony ends in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. The judge allowing jurors to consider manslaughter as the prosecution rests its rebuttal case. The trial occurring more than three years after she strangled her three young children inside their Massachusetts home and then tried to take her own life. The final testimony coming from forensic psychiatrist Dr.

15:37Gregory Sathoff, who examined Clancy for the prosecution and concluded she was suffering from a mental disease or defect at the time of the killings, most likely bipolar 2 disorder. Sathoff, nevertheless telling jurors Clancy retained the ability to understand right from wrong and control her behavior. Sathoff emphasizing Clancy's decision to return her call from Patrick while he was running errands, as one of the clearest indications Clancy remained aware of what she was doing. When she received the phone call from her husband, she did not report to him that she was in distress, that she was having hallucinations, that she needed help.

16:20So with that phone, she, by calling her husband back and reassuring him by the fact that, yes, she knew the medication, whatever, that helped guarantee that he would continue on the errands. Had she not called him back, it would likely or it certainly was possible that he would be concerned enough that he would return home. And so I think the phone figures in just in terms of her awareness and conforming her behavior such that the strangling of her children could be concealed. It is my opinion within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Ms. Clancy was criminally responsible. Sathoff also disputing Clancy's account of a male voice ordering her to kill the children, noting she said the voice provided no instructions about how, where, or in what order to carry out the killings.

17:18Defense attorney Kevin Reddington using cross-examination to underscore the severity of Clancy's documented mental health crisis. Sathoff confirming Clancy repeatedly sought help, attended appointments, and called the suicide hotline twice while agreeing she was not, quote, doctor shopping in an effort to obtain drugs. Sathoff further acknowledging that testing found no indication Clancy was exaggerating or fabricating her symptoms and conceding the prosecution's description of her actions as a selfish choice minimized what she had been experiencing. Prosecutors resting after Sathoff stepped down, clearing the way for closing arguments and jury instructions this morning, followed by deliberations.

17:58During a conference after the jury left, Judge William Sullivan deciding he will provide a manslaughter instruction, but rejecting the defense's request to instruct jurors that they may consider an allegedly inadequate police investigation. At least 160 people reportedly killed and hundreds more missing after catastrophic flash flooding sent a wall of water, mud, and rock tearing through the Himalayan border region between Nepal and Tibet yesterday. The flooding striking several districts north of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, along the country's mountainous border with Tibet. Terrifying video capturing the moment the massive surge barrels down from the mountains, swallowing a border facility as people desperately run from its path.

18:42Other footage showing entire buildings collapsing into the current. Cars and homes, buried in mud and a metal bridge, ripped away by the force of the water. Witnesses telling Reuters the flooding consumed entire villages. The destruction extending south through several districts north of Kathmandu, washing out roads, cutting off communities, and disrupting more than 12 % of Nepal's hydropower capacity. Authorities and scientists reportedly tracing the initial surge to an enormous collapse of ice, rock, and mud into a river near the border. Nepali authorities reportedly recovering at least 157 bodies, with Chinese state media reporting another three deaths across the border in Tibet.

19:22Hundreds of people still unaccounted for, including foreign tourists and pilgrims traveling through the region on their way to Mount Kailash in Tibet. The New York Post board reporting at least 54 Americans among the missing, along with travelers from India, Australia, the UK, Canada, and more. The figures remaining preliminary as officials work to determine who was in the flood zone, the State Department confirming it is aware of Americans affected by the disaster, while declining to provide its own count or details about their condition. The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu saying it is working with Nepali authorities to account for American citizens, urging people to avoid the devastated region as rescue teams search by air and ground.

20:01Chinese President Xi Jinping ordering an all-out search and rescue operation across the border as officials warned the unstable terrain and blocked waterways could produce additional flooding or landslides. That'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of Afterparty. Go and check out more at afterpartyemily.com. Catch The Megyn Kelly Show later today, live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on YouTube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and all podcast platforms.

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