Cornell gang rape investigation reopens; Trump hosts AI leaders at White House

A case back under scrutiny. Why a prosecutor is reopening the Cornell gang rape investigation two years later. Plus, Jack Smith heads to the Hill. The former special counsel faces Republicans today over his investigations into President Trump and AI's biggest names head to the White House. The tech leaders warning AI could outsmart humans now sitting down with a president who calls those fears a hoax

the stories that matter the facts you can trust from across the country to around the world

this is unbiased updates from straight arrow hey everybody i'm christian bryant hope your

morning is off to a great start let's get you caught up with what you need to know right now

we begin at cornell university where a new york prosecutor is opening an investigation into

allegations that a student was gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024. The move comes after

the woman filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month. The woman, identified as Jane Doe, says

seven members of the Chi-5 fraternity sexually assaulted her in October of 2024. Her lawsuit

alleges she was pressured to snort ketamine, smoke weed, and drink alcohol, eventually becoming

incapacitated. The case is now drawing new scrutiny over how both Cornell and local prosecutors

handled the allegations. The woman did go to campus police at the time, but Tompkins County

District Attorney Matthew Van Houten says her initial sworn statement did not include allegations

that she had been gang raped or drugged. He says she reported having consensual sex with two men

but had trouble remembering parts of what happened after other men entered the room

Van Houten is now defending his office's decision not to pursue criminal charges in 2024

The question that we yzed was, did Jane Doe consent to what happened

And the law in New York State is clear that if you are voluntary intoxicated or under the influence of drugs

such that your judgment is impaired, that does not legally, under the penal law, constitute your inability to consent

Van Houten now says his office will present evidence to a grand jury this fall

Cornell says it supports the decision to reopen the investigation. The university says its own Title IX investigation led to a range of sanctions including expulsions and suspensions Cornell also closed the Chi chapter in 2024 and says it remains barred from

campus. And in announcing the new investigation Monday, Van Houten said, quote, seeking justice

sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence

Today, some of the biggest names in tech are heading to the White House

President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are meeting with top AI executives as Washington

debates how and how much to regulate the technology. Expected at the meeting, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Palantir

CEO Alex Karp, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown is also expected to attend. Johnson says the goal is to find what he calls the right balance between regulation and innovation

Instead of just smothering this with red tape, which is always the government's reflex

and I think would be wrong and frankly dangerous to national security if we did it here. We want to continue the innovation

We want to keep America's lead over China and all of our other competitors, but we want to make sure that it's being done in a safe way

So a little oversight, a little transparency, I think would go a long way here. The meeting comes just two days after Trump had a private dinner with Anthropics CEO Dario Amadei

Amadei has been pushing for a slowdown in AI development and more safeguards

Trump is taking a very different view, rejecting calls to slow development and calling fears that AI could threaten humanity a hoax

A few hours from now, former special counsel Jack Smith will be back on Capitol Hill

sitting across from some of the Republican senators who say his investigation targeted

them. Smith is the only witness at this morning's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing

He led the two federal investigations that resulted in charges against President Trump

one over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the other overclassified documents

found at Mar-a-Lago. Both cases were dismissed after Trump won re-election. Republicans are expected to focus on how Smith's team gathered information during those investigations

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley calls it, quote, "...rampant abuse of authority and political targeting.

Reports released by Grassley and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan back in July

say Smith investigation obtained texts and messages involving 44 lawmakers A separate House Judiciary report says investigators subpoenaed phone records from more than a dozen Republican members of Congress

Democrats say Republicans are using the hearing to defend Trump and attack the investigation

Senator Peter Welch told Roll Call, quote, well, they're in denial. They think that President

Trump won the 2020 election and it is consistent with that fiction. Smith has defended his decision

to prosecute Trump, saying he would have brought the same cases regardless of whether the president

was a Republican or Democrat. For the first time in more than 200 years, Tennessee is set to execute

a woman. Krista Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, is set to die by lethal injection

for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer tomorrow, unless the Supreme

court halts it today. Pike was 18 at the time. She and two other teenagers lured Slimmer into

the woods in Knoxville where she was tortured and killed. Pike was convicted of first-degree

murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. In the decades since, her attorneys have pointed to

evidence of severe childhood abuse, sexual assault, and mental illness, arguing the jury

did not hear the full extent of that history. They've pushed to stop her execution, but Tennessee

Governor Bill Lee has now denied her request for clemency. Pike still has an appeal before the U.S

Supreme Court. Unless the court intervenes, she will be executed tomorrow morning

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is stepping away from a major climate change case just one

week before the justices are set to hear it. The court announced Alito's recusal Monday but didn't

say why. The letter is just one line saying Alito, quote, has determined that he will not continue

to participate in this case. The case pits ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy against Boulder

Colorado. Boulder sued the companies in 2018, accusing them of contributing to climate change

while concealing or misrepresenting the dangers of fossil fuels. The city and county are seeking

billions of dollars in damages. Alito does not own stock in Exxon or Suncor, according to CBS

but his 2025 financial disclosure shows investments in two other energy companies

ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. In May, a coalition of left-leaning watchdog groups

urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Alito involvement in this case citing his oil and gas holdings At the time a Supreme Court spokeswoman said Alito had no financial interest in any party

and had been advised by the court's legal counsel that recusal was not required

The court is still set to hear arguments next Monday, the first day of its new term

Finally this morning, while a lot of you were watching Monday Night Football

the Senate was making a big move on the future of college sports

The Protect College Sports Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 77-22. Supporters say the bill is designed to bring some order to a college sports system reshaped by player pay and the transfer portal

If it becomes law, it would set a five-year eligibility window, put new limits on transfers, and further regulate name, image, and likeness deals

The bill's sponsor, Senator Ted Cruz, says the changes would protect college athletes while preserving the future of college sports

President Trump and the NCAA both push for the bill. Opponents argue it goes too far, restricting players' ability to make money and limiting their leverage with schools and conferences

Now it heads to the House, but there's a timing problem. The House isn't scheduled to return until after the midterms, leaving the bill's next steps unclear

Before we head out, here's what we're tracking today. This morning, the Maha Summit kicks off in Washington

Vice President Vance and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. close out the day

At 9, Lindsey Clancy returns to court for the first time since her murder trial ended in a mistrial

Her attorneys are pushing to block a second trial. Also at 9, former Special Counsel Jack Smith faces the Senate Judiciary Committee

And at 1230, President Trump meets with those tech leaders for a closed-door lunch focused on what the White House now calls superintelligence

intelligence. By the way, have you signed up for the Unbiased Updates newsletter? It's delivered

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you think or just say hello. That's Unbiased Updates for this Tuesday. We'll see you here

tomorrow for the unbiased updates team and all of us at straight arrow. I'm Christian Bryant. Have a great one

We'll see you again soon