Iran prisoner swap deal, Ukraine scandal, Indiana AG sues, Hunter Biden: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: USA TODAY Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer breaks down a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Iran. Ukraine fires all six deputy defense ministers as a corruption scandal continues to unfurl. The Indiana attorney general is suing a hospital system over the privacy of an Ohio girl who traveled for abortion. USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen explains why Hunter Biden is suing the IRS. Michigan State will fire head football coach Mel Tucker after a sexual harassment complaint.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday the 19th of September 2023.

Today. Americans have been released from Iran after a prisoner swap deal. Plus, Ukraine keeps shaking up its defense leadership amid corruption scandals. And Hunter Biden is suing the IRS.

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Five Americans imprisoned in Iran were released yesterday as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration. Three of the American prisoners, all dual US-Iran citizens, are Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz. While the identities of the two other Americans were not immediately released. I spoke with USA Today Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer for more on their release and what this moment means for US-Iran relations going forward. Josh, welcome back to 5 Things.

Josh Meyer:

Thanks, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

Iran has released five Americans in a prisoner swap deal. How smoothly did this exchange go and how did it come to be?

Josh Meyer:

Yesterday morning at pre-dawn, the five Americans and two of their family members left Iran on a Qatari Airways flight to Qatar and then they were on their way to the United States. So that part of this didn't take very long at all, but it was two years at least in the making in terms of negotiations, deliberations, discussions, summit meetings and so forth between the Biden administration and Iranian officials. So basically the Biden administration since they first got into office, I think, or maybe a little after, started negotiating for the release of these five Americans who they say were wrongly held on trumped-up charges in Iran's notorious Evin Prison, which is a real kind of a hellhole, a really bad place. And in exchange we are freeing up $6 billion in money that's been held in South Korea from oil sales from Iran that were sanctioned and we're also releasing five Iranians or Iranian Americans that were held in US prisons on what the Biden administration says were nonviolent criminal charges. They were either convicted or charged and not tried yet.

Taylor Wilson:

You mentioned the $6 billion involved here, Josh, what were the special restrictions that are tied to that money for Iran?

Josh Meyer:

Well, they're only supposed to be used, Taylor, for humanitarian purposes, and by that they mean food and medical supplies, medical equipment, things like that, that basically Iran needs and that the global community has felt they shouldn't be sanctioned for. So the $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil revenues will be used mostly for that, for medical issues, for food, things like that. There are concerns, however, among critics, including a lot of Republicans, that the money's fungible and if we give them $6 billion for that, they're just going to move some of that money over to some of the other things that Iran does that we don't like, including supporting terrorist activity around the world, fighting in Yemen and things like that.

Taylor Wilson:

And what does this deal mean for US-Iran relations going forward?

Josh Meyer:

It's hard to say whether this is going to do anything. I mean, I think one of the top Iranian officials, I think the president said that this shows a lot of goodwill on the part of the United States, but nobody is saying that this is going to rekindle or certainly get back on track the negotiations over the Iran Nuclear Deal in which we are trying to get them to stop production of a nuclear weapons program and the enrichment of uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Taylor Wilson:

Some Republicans were quick to criticize this move. Can you get to the heart of some of their critiques, Josh?

Josh Meyer:

There's a lot of critics including a lot of Republicans in Congress who were saying that the Biden administration has just spent $6 billion in ransom money to Iran and that it'll only encourage them to take more hostages, including Americans and keep them on trumped-up charges as negotiating tools in order to get more concessions from the United States. The Biden administration of course says that's not the case, that none of the $6 billion is actually US taxpayer money, but frozen Iranian oil revenues. But whatever the case, Iran is getting $6 billion as a result of this deal.

Taylor Wilson:

Josh Meyer covers domestic security for USA Today. Thank you, Josh.

Josh Meyer:

My pleasure as always.

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Taylor Wilson:

All six of Ukraine's deputy defense ministers were fired yesterday. It's the latest move amid a wave of corruption scandals that led to the dismissal of the defense minister two weeks ago. It's not immediately clear whether these latest firings were directed by new Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or both. Corruption involving weapons procurement has rocked the government in recent weeks. Zelenskyy was quick to assure allies sending billions in cash and weapons to Ukraine that the scandal did not involve international funds. But as the war grinds on, the US and other supporters have begun demanding closer accounting of how the money is being spent. The latest firings came days before Zelenskyy is scheduled to visit Washington and lobby for President Joe Biden's plan to provide up to $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has sued the state's largest hospital system. The suit claims it violated patient privacy when a doctor publicly shared the story of an Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion. The suit filed Friday against IU Health and IU Healthcare Associates alleges that the healthcare organization violated HIPAA and state law after a doctor made global news last year when she shared the story of a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state for an abortion.

The Attorney General's Office earlier this year saw a legal victory when the state's medical licensing board found that obstetrician-gynecologist, Caitlin Bernard violated privacy laws in handling the abortion patient's information in a story published in The Indianapolis Star part of the USA Today network. But representatives of the medical community across the country don't think Bernard did anything illegal. And they say the decision could have a chilling effect on those involved with patient care.

Meanwhile, the Indiana Supreme Court's Disciplinary Commission filed a complaint yesterday against the state's Attorney General who's an anti-abortion Republican. It alleges that he violated professional conduct rules and statements he made about Dr. Bernard on a Fox News show last year. Specifically when the Attorney General referred to Bernard as an abortion activist acting as a doctor, with a history of failure to report. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Hunter Biden has filed a federal lawsuit against the IRS. I spoke with USA Today Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen for more. Bart, thanks for hopping on.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Hunter Biden has filed a federal lawsuit against the IRS. What's this suit centered on, Bart?

Bart Jansen:

Basically, it's an accusation that the agency violated his privacy by releasing information about his personal taxes. Now it's not really the agency itself releasing the information, it's that two of its agents who investigated Biden spoke to a congressional committee and talked about what they looked for and they called themselves whistle-blowers because they said the Justice Department had hindered their investigation and they thought that perhaps more should have been examined both about Hunter and his father, President Joe Biden. But in addition to the congressional testimony, those two guys, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, gave a series of media interviews on networks like Fox News and CBS News in which they also talked about their investigation. And so Hunter Biden's lawyer has filed this lawsuit saying basically they violated federal law by talking about what should have been confidential personal information about Biden's taxes.

Taylor Wilson:

And Hunter Biden had this plea agreement on tax charges earlier this summer, it fell apart. Why did this plea deal collapse?

Bart Jansen:

Hunter Biden was investigated for more than five years about taxes and also a potential gun charge. A plea agreement was reached with him where he was going to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges about not paying his taxes in 2017 and 2018 for a few million dollars worth of earnings. In addition, he was going to get an agreement about a potential gun charge that would've led him into a pretrial program and eventually resulted in the dismissal of the gun charge if he fulfilled those obligations. The judge in that case refused to accept the plea bargain in July saying that there appeared to be disagreements between prosecutors and Biden's attorneys about what the terms meant.

And basically a lot of the fuss was about whether he was immune from potential future prosecutions about charges we don't know about yet. And so the deal falls apart, we've been waiting to see whether any of those charges could be refiled. Gun charges have been refiled against Hunter Biden now, he faces three charges about the possession of a firearm, buying and lying on a federal form allegedly and possessing a firearm, a pistol, while he was addicted to drugs during 2018. That charge is pending, it's just getting started. In terms of those two misdemeanor tax charges that have been dismissed, we're still waiting to see whether the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, David Weiss, might refile charges on the taxes as he did with the gun charges. That has not happened yet, but we're continuing to monitor it.

Taylor Wilson:

And Bart, in addition to the federal lawsuit, Hunter Biden's legal team is also taking issue with a house committee on this. What can you tell us here?

Bart Jansen:

Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, also filed a letter with the House Ways and Means Committee. This is the panel that oversees tax regulations. And it said that basically the testimony from the two IRS agents and from the chairman of that committee was mistaken in how it's characterized Biden's status with paying his taxes. Biden paid back the taxes before charges were ever filed against him and the amounts apparently in the testimony were not quite accurate according to Lowell. And so he has alerted the committee that they are mistaken about even the numbers that we're dealing with. So there'll be a lot to watch here as committees continue to investigate Hunter Biden.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart Jansen covers the Justice Department for USA Today. Thank you, Bart.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

Michigan State University plans to fire head football coach Mel Tucker. The decision comes a week after an investigation into a sexual harassment complaint from a rape survivor was reported by USA Today. The university is investigating a complaint filed last year by Brenda Tracy, a national advocate for sexual assault survivors. A warning, the following is graphic. In the complaint, she said that Tucker made sexual comments and masturbated without her consent during a phone call last year. Tucker has denied sexually harassing Tracy, but he acknowledged masturbating on the phone and said it was consensual phone sex. Yesterday, Michigan State said that conduct he has already admitted to is sufficient to fire him. In his version of events, Tucker had sexual relations with a vendor who he had hired to provide sexual misconduct training to his team and who had an ongoing business relationship with the university. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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And today is National Voter Registration Day. It's a great time to make sure you're registered to vote. According to census data from 2020, up to one in four eligible Americans are not registered to vote. You can learn more at Nationalvoterregistrationday.org. Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at [email protected]. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA Today.