Moscow Peace Negotiations & Mangione Contests Evidence | 12.2.25

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Trump's special envoy heads to the Kremlin as the president says a war-ending deal could be within reach. Any questions you'd like to see it in?

I know Ukraine would like to see it in. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley.
It's Tuesday, December 2nd, and this is Morningwire.

Luigi Mangioni, the alleged killer of United Healthcare's CEO, is back in court as his legal team seeks to have key evidence thrown out.

It's a strong case in large part because of what's in this backpack. Ultimately, I think the judge will rule it's admissible.

And the Supreme Court weighs a high-stakes case that could redefine who's responsible for piracy online. We are being put to two extremes here.

How do we announce a rule that deals with those two extremes? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
We have the news you need to know.

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U.S. diplomats are in Moscow today to meet with Vladimir Putin as the White House faces growing scrutiny over its drug crackdown in the Caribbean.

Daily Wire senior senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest. So Cabot, let's first start with the war in Ukraine.
President Trump has been working to secure a deal, maybe making some progress.

Where do things stand? Well, a lot of moving pieces here, so we'll go chronologically. Remember, last week, a draft of the U.S.

peace plan for ending the war was leaked, and it included major concessions from Ukraine.

After outrage from Zelensky and virtually every European head of state, the White House spent the following days sitting down with Ukrainian officials who lobbied hard for more favorable favorable terms.

Specifically, they wanted to remove portions of the text that handed over large swaths of land in the east and also capped their military in the future to 600,000 personnel.

And perhaps most importantly, they wanted clear guarantees that if Russia does invade again in the future, the U.S. and NATO would have their back.

Those talks concluded Sunday in Miami, where three of Zelensky's top advisors came to the U.S. to huddle with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
And this time, again, the vibes were much better.

Ukraine's Secretary of National Security, for example, called the meetings productive and said, quote, the U.S. is hearing us, supporting us, and walking beside us.

It's very different than what we heard last week. And now the next step is to take that revised plan to Russia.
Right.

So special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, along with more folks from the administration, are now in Moscow for an expected sit-down with Vladimir Putin.

And it seems he's unlikely to sign on to this current deal if it does not allow him to seize those large portions of land in the east. And that includes some territory that's still in Ukrainian hands.

Speaking last week, he warned that, quote, when Ukrainian troops leave the territories they hold, then the fighting will stop. If they don't, then we'll achieve that through military means.

But the reality is there are still significant legal hurdles. Under the Ukrainian Constitution, any change to the country's borders must be approved by voters through a nationwide referendum.

So the U.S. peace delegation certainly has their work cut out for them.
Now, let's get to the other big foreign policy story.

That's President Trump's strikes in the Caribbean and potential strikes on Venezuela. Where do things stand there?

Yeah, as we mentioned yesterday, the administration is still facing increased scrutiny over allegations that Secretary of War Pete Hegsteth ordered a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel after at least two people survived an initial strike.

On Monday, Democrats continued to slam Hegseth and President Trump, accusing them of committing war crimes. And now Congress is stepping in.

with the Republican-led armed service committees in the House and Senate vowing to conduct, quote, vigorous oversight oversight and a full accounting of the alleged incident.

So they want to get to the bottom of this. President Trump was asked Sunday night about whether he would have supported a second strike to kill wounded smugglers.
Here's what he had to say.

Listen closely. Young Don, I don't know that that happened.
And Pete said he did not want them. He didn't even know what people were talking about.
So

we'll look into it. But no, I wouldn't have wanted that.
Not a second strike.

The first strike was very legal. It was fine.
But then on Monday, the White House stepped in and had Heckset's back. First, White House comms director Stephen Chung called the story fake news.

And then Press Secretary Caroline Levitt essentially said, even if the story were true, that Trump acted within his powers.

Presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war.

The president has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America.

Now, before you go, the third big political story, at least in the U.S., is this election in Tennessee for the congressional seat that's now being vacated. What's going on?

Yeah, big stories abroad, but Trump is keeping a very close eye on our home city here in Nashville. The seventh congressional district is up for grabs.

Trump won this district by 22 points last year, but far-left candidate Afton Bain has capitalized on Democratic enthusiasm. And Republicans have taken notice.
This could be a close race.

President Trump held a tele rally last night with TOP nominee Matt Van Epps. And Speaker Mike Johnson also hit the trail with him this week.

So Republicans looking to hold on to their slim majority in the House. This race could tell us a lot about the state of things ahead of the midterms.

Well, people here in Nashville have seen tons of Afton ads for sure. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
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Luigi Mangioni, the man charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appeared in a New York City courtroom this week for key pretrial hearings.

Here are the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. Hey, Amanda.
So some important hearings this week in this Mangioni case.

Briefly, give us some background on the case and tell us the latest developments. Sure.

So Mangioni, a 27-year-old Ivy League grad, he's been charged with stalking and murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson back in December of 2024.

Thompson, a father of two, was shot from behind while he was walking into a New York City hotel to attend a corporate investor conference for United Healthcare.

Prosecution says that he was targeted over the suspect's grievances with the health insurance industry, citing a manifesto. Also recovered shell casings, had the inscriptions delay, deny, and depose.

Mangioni is facing life in prison for the state case and potentially the death penalty if he's convicted in the federal case. Mangioni has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Now, as for the latest developments in the state case against him, Mangioni appeared at a New York City court on Monday to kick off a pre-trial evidentiary hearing.

His lawyers are asking that some key evidence be suppressed in the trial, arguing that this evidence was found on Mangioni without a warrant and before Mangioni was read his Miranda rights.

The evidence in question is crucial to the case, including a nine millimeter handgun that allegedly matches the murder weapon and a notebook that prosecutors say contains writings revealing Mangioni's motive for the assassination.

Defense also wants some statements tossed that Mangioni made to police before they say he was read his Miranda rights. And now what's the prosecution saying about these claims?

Yeah, so they say that the search of Mangioni's backpack was lawful and not unreasonable since officers needed to search the suspect's bag for safety concerns.

To make sure that there were no weapons or dangerous items on Mangioni, this was when they found him at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania after that days-long national manhunt.

Now, as far as the statements Mangioni made before being read his Miranda rights, the state says that Mangioni spoke to them voluntarily and before he was formally in custody.

So, you know, the Miranda requirement doesn't apply.

They also note that the only statement they plan to use was when officers asked Manjoni for his name and he allegedly gave a false name in response.

Now, as we've reported, the assassination of Thompson has really disturbingly garnered support for Manjoni. We saw this both in the media and at past court appearances.

What was the scene like on Monday? Yeah, so again, we did see supporters outside of the courthouse yesterday. Even some camped out before the trial.

There were folks with pro-Luigi and anti-health insurance signs and a string of mostly young women funneling into the courthouse. Some of them waved to the cameras while others covered their faces.

The support is pretty jarring to see, but it did pale in comparison to the 100-plus supporters who showed up at a New York City courthouse after Mangioni was first arraigned last year.

Apparently, though, Mangioni is receiving endless mail in prison from supporters.

According to a recent Rolling Stone article, Mangioni receives as many as 115 letters or messages from supporters all around the world on any given day.

And he's apparently writing back to them and thanking them for support. Incredible.
So looking ahead, what's next for the suspect, for Mangioni?

Well, in the state case, pretrial hearings could last for several weeks.

I should also note that the two most serious charges against Mangioni were dismissed by a judge back in September, murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism.

The judge said that the evidence supporting the terrorism murder charges were not legally sufficient under New York State's definition of terrorism.

The most serious charge Mangioni is facing in the state case is second-degree murder. And if he's convicted on that, he's looking at 25 years to life.

Now, as for the federal case, the next court appearance is scheduled for Friday, and we might get a trial date there.

Prosecutors have notably filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in that case. All right, so the highest of stakes here, as many would argue, very appropriate in this case.

Amanda, thanks so much for reporting. You're welcome.

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The Supreme Court is stepping into a billion-dollar showdown that's pitting the music industry against internet giants. Cox Communications vs.

Sony Music will decide who's responsible for illegal downloading of copyrighted content and whether millions of Americans could lose their broadband access.

Joining us now to explain is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, this case has been brewing for years.

Can you walk us through what brought Sony Music and the other labels to the high court yesterday? Yeah, Georgia.

So the crux of this case is whether internet service providers can be held liable when a customer or a user uses their web access to illegally download or share copyrighted material.

So it's called secondary liability.

Now, this began back in 2018 when major record labels like Sony, Warner Bros., Universal first filed this bombshell lawsuit against Cox, which is the third largest broadband provider in the country.

So they accused Cox of turning a blind eye to rampant music piracy. This was primarily peer-to-peer file sharing via BitTorrent.
Think of those sites like the Pirate Bay.

So in 2019, a Virginia jury ruled against Cox and awarded the plaintiffs $1 billion for allowing habitual offenders to steal more than 10,000 works.

But clearly, because now it's in front of SCODIS, that verdict didn't stand, right? Right. That's correct.

So the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals tossed those damages so Cox didn't have to pay the $1 billion, but they did uphold the liability. And at that point, Cox appealed.

And so, yesterday, SCOTUS heard the first oral arguments in this case.

Now, the main question the justices focused on was whether Cox had an obligation to terminate broadband provision of content thieves once the music companies had informed them of the theft.

So, Justice Samuel Alito, in particular, wanted to know if there was any level of copyright infringement infringement that would have triggered Cox to terminate these contracts with users.

The copyright holder notifies the ISP that this particular account has, over the course of six months, has violated the copyright 50 times. At some point, would there be enough to infer a purpose?

Now, Cox's attorney argued that they can't set a standard for an isolated user like that because there would be no way to cut off service to this singular person if it was somebody, say, at a university or at a hospital or in a large office building.

Now, what are the stakes of this case? What would the ramifications be if it went one way or the other?

So, if the court sides with Cox, it would reaffirm broad protections for ISPs and possibly constrain how aggressively artists and content creators can pursue those copyright claims.

Not a lot of change.

But if the court sides with the record labels, that could have a huge impact on millions of Americans because it would establish a standard under which those internet service providers are required to police user activity and then to cut off anyone who's found illegally downloading content.

And to be clear, that's a lot of people. So what we know, for instance, is that there were nearly 19 billion illegal downloads just last year.

And if you live in a house with someone who was part of that illegal download, you could be cut off from service. So huge ramifications for regular people.
What were the key arguments from both sides?

Yeah. So Sony and the other labels argued that Cox didn't only know about the copyright infringement, but they were profiting from it.

So they say that they sent Cox tens of thousands of infringement notices under that Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and they flagged repeat downloaders.

And Cox only cut off services for 13 of those people, one, three. Meanwhile, they axed 62,000 people for failing to pay their bills.

Cox has painted itself as just a neutral pipeline, something like the phone company or FedEx. They say all they're doing is delivering these packets.
They're not looking inside of them.

So their attorney argued that liability should only apply if Cox purposely furthered the crime. And we need to keep in mind that this ruling would impact much more than music.

It would also likely affect how internet providers deal with copyright infringements on things like video games, digital images, software, all of that.

So certainly an impactful case if it goes that one way. Megan, thanks for reporting.
Yep, my pleasure. Thanks for waking up with us.

And if you're listening to the show, you can now watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.

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