Why did the FBI release one of the most notorious Russian cyber criminals? Why did they release him? And what did they get in exchange for releasing him? Special Agent in Charge of the Joint Improving Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency, James J.J. Cole, answers these questions and much more in this special episode of the Daily Caller's new podcast, The Swamp Dweller. The Swamp Thing is a new segment on the Swamp Thing, hosted by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GAETZ), where he talks about the swamp, the deep state, and everything else going on in Washington. Join us as we discuss the swamp and everything that goes on in it, including the latest on Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and the Democratic National Committee, and much, much more! Subscribe and comment to stay up to date on all things Swamp Thing! Subscribe to Swamp Thing and let us know what you thought of this episode and the rest of our other Swamp Thing episodes! You can also join our FB group Swamp Thing: and use the hashtag Swamp Thing on to help spread the word! about Swamp Thing on social media! and if you like Swamp Thing. and want to support Swamp Thing? we are looking for more Swamp Thing content? Subscribe, share, and tell us what Swamp Thing you think of Swamp Thing stuff? we'll be giving out some great Swamp Thing material in the next episode! Thank you! If you like it, tag us in the comments section! ! tag or so we can spread it around the Swamp . and spread it everywhere else! Thanks for listening and spreading it everywhere! Love ya! Timestamps thank you, bye bye! Cheers, bye Bye Bye, bye, bye - Tim! Your continued support, your continued support is much appreciated! - Your support is so much appreciated, your support is greatly appreciated! - Timestar - Molly, Caitlyn, Ralden, Sarah, R. - M.A. & R.S. . . . - R.J., R. M. & Sarah, M. ( ) - K. (A. ( ) . . ( ) - J. ( ), & Sarah ( ) ? , , and R. ( ).
00:04:59.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:05:06.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
00:05:09.000He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws.
00:05:12.000So we're going to keep running the stories to keep hurting him.
00:05:16.000If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:53.000It's the biggest story in the world right now.
00:05:56.000Hunter Biden's laptop submitted to the Congress, submitted to the Judiciary Committee, and everybody's wondering how did we get the laptop?
00:06:05.000And I've got the guy right here who brought the laptop to me, and he's going to walk through all that information and answer all of your questions.
00:06:14.000We've got major updates regarding Hillary Clinton, the DNC, the fines they've had to pay, new toys from the FBI, how they're potentially using them.
00:06:25.000But first, I thought everybody would want to know that the Biden administration has recently released one of the worst Russian cyber criminals that we knew about.
00:06:55.000Now, here are the key points on this particular cyber criminal that the Russians got back.
00:06:59.000In 2019, the Trump administration secured his extradition to the United States.
00:07:06.000He was pursued for years on hacking charges, identity theft, wire fraud, computer intrusion, money laundering.
00:07:13.000He had a website called Card Planet that sold credit card and debit card information, 20 million in fraud purchases.
00:07:21.000And then in August 2021, the Biden administration released him from federal custody.
00:07:27.000Our good friend, the leading Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, asked the FBI Cyber Chief about this decision from the Biden Administration.
00:08:03.000I mean, you've said Russia, your statements today, formidable foe, foremost adversary, and the threat is current.
00:08:09.000Mr. Burkoff has been described as an asset of supreme importance, one of the most connected, skilled, malicious hackers ever apprehended by U.S. authorities, and you don't know why we let him go?
00:08:19.000Sir, it's the Department of Justice question.
00:08:21.000But you're the Director of Cyber at the FBI and the Department of Justice.
00:08:25.000It's part of the Department of Justice, right?
00:08:26.000Sir, yes sir it is, but obviously we're our own agency.
00:08:29.000I read your bio, and other than the degree from Michigan, it's pretty impressive.
00:08:34.000You've worked at the FBI for like 20 years, right?
00:08:37.000You've held all kinds of positions, you're the Director of Cyber, and you can't tell me why we let the most notorious Russian hacker go, and you don't know what we got for it?
00:08:55.000You're the guy the administration sent here today to talk about cyber in light of the fact that last week President Biden said the threat from Russia is imminent.
00:09:17.000Sir, I'm not in a position to comment on that.
00:09:21.000You always know when the FBI or DOJ or any other element of the national security apparatus say, not my department, not my purview, that there is something going on.
00:10:28.000We are so desperate for an Iran deal right now because Joe Biden knows that these crushing gas prices are going to result in a wipeout for Democrats in the midterms.
00:10:39.000So they're so desperate to lower oil and gas prices, and they've posted up the way they have vis-a-vis Russia, that they've now backed themselves into a corner where they have to do a deal with Iran.
00:10:51.000They're dying to do the Iran nuclear deal.
00:10:54.000That very deal that floods Iran with money to be able to not just continue their nuclear program, which they definitely still would, but also to engage in other malign influence not just throughout the Middle East but even here in the Western Hemisphere, especially in South America.
00:11:12.000While posting up on Russia over Ukraine, the Biden administration is giving the Russians their hacker back so that they can potentially get favorable treatment from Russia to try to back Iran into a nuclear deal because of those poor foreign policy choices.
00:11:27.000That is how Americans are at risk from these decisions.
00:11:31.000It is not just that we have a person who you saw Andy Biggs yesterday call a degenerating human in the Oval Office.
00:11:39.000It's that the decision-making process is Puts our financial system at risk, our critical infrastructure at risk, our businesses.
00:11:47.000Everything that Americans hold dear is endangered by the cacophony of strategic failures from the Biden administration giving back Alexei Burkoff, undeniably one of those failures.
00:12:01.000There is also breaking news regarding the 2016 election.
00:12:06.000Hillary Clinton's problems with fines and other issues, but really what I thought was quite telling about the spying and the lying came from my colleague Dan Bishop in the House Judiciary Committee.
00:12:18.000So we're all very well aware We've got these Durham indictments that specifically go into the methods that the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign used to engage in illegal spying.
00:12:32.000Remember, while they were accusing Donald Trump of being an agent of the Russian government, just take a listen from Dan Bishop to what they were up to.
00:12:40.000Director Vornham, has the FBI taken new steps since 2017 to ensure that private government contractors do not abuse access to sensitive U.S. government data stores for self-serving purposes, including political purposes?
00:12:59.000Sir, I'm not familiar with the background of your question.
00:13:02.000Well, the DOJ claims in court that Rodney Jaffe, a.k.a.
00:13:08.000Tech Executive One, exploited sensitive DNS data reflecting internet traffic to and from Trump Tower, to and from Donald Trump's personal residential apartment building, and the Executive Office of the President.
00:13:21.000He allegedly affiliated with Clinton campaign officials including Michael Sussman, who had been a cyber lawyer at the DOJ, And tech researchers at Georgia Tech to fabricate plausible-sounding but false allegations about connections between Trump and a Russian bank before the election in 2016 and then after the election about the use of a Russian-made phone.
00:13:52.000And the question is, has the FBI taken new steps since 2017 to see that These awesome stores of sensitive data that US has are not being exploited for political purposes by private contractors.
00:14:06.000Sir, I mean, compliance is obviously important to us and, you know, just taking a little bit broader view, we've obviously taken a lot of reform steps over the past couple years.
00:14:17.000Many of them have been in the public, whether it's FISA, WUD, 702. So, I can't speak specifically to your question, I don't know the answer, but the Bureau has taken a lot of reform steps through that time period that all have been discussed in public forums such as this and in the media.
00:14:32.000You mentioned FISA, Woods, 702. So I think you're talking about the Woods file abuse in the FISA applications.
00:14:40.000Can you think of any reforms that have been taken specifically to see to it that this kind of private contractor abuse of these data stores can't happen?
00:15:26.000I'm asking you what the implications are, the national security implications of intercepting data in and out of the White House and a private company having access to that.
00:15:41.000This article from the Wall Street Journal entitled, Durham Probe Reveals Government Access to Unregulated Data Streams, February 26, 2022. Have you seen that article?
00:15:52.000It relates that the latest developments in the high-profile criminal probe by Special Counsel John Durham show the extent to which the world's internet traffic is being monitored by a coterie of network researchers and security experts inside and outside of government.
00:16:09.000There are concerns, obviously, about the privacy implications of private cybersecurity companies being able to tap into the web traffic and then give that data to government at any particular level without warrants or court orders.
00:16:21.000In what ways does the FBI rely on this kind of data in their investigations?
00:16:28.000Sir, as I said earlier today, when you look at private sector broadly defined, but when you look at private sector a little bit more narrowly defined about who provides infrastructure for networks, servers, computers, etc., those network providers obviously see a lot of traffic.
00:17:05.000What this article relates is that a lot of that information can be accessed without warrant.
00:17:09.000And that's exactly the problem I'm talking about.
00:17:11.000You've spoken two times to the priority given to the FBI at the highest level to the imperative of protecting the rights of Americans, particularly First Amendment rights, Fourth Amendment rights.
00:17:20.000And I'm looking for some indication that those are more than empty words, more than just a platitude.
00:17:25.000I'm stunned that, above all the things we've talked about today, that you can't even speak to an abuse that is out in public based on allegations of the Department of Justice involving the use of cyber data.
00:17:39.000Is there anything that you can offer to the American people to improve their confidence that the FBI is indeed protecting their rights beyond just platitudes?
00:17:50.000Sir, you're very familiar with the legal process that we have to go through to obtain information from any number of companies or even from victims in certain cases.
00:18:00.000That is our baseline protocol of how we do business.
00:18:03.000I'm unfamiliar with the article, so I cannot speak to what it actually says in there.
00:18:08.000Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to submit, for the record, the article from the Wall Street Journal entitled, Durham Probe Reveals Government Access to Unregulated Data Streams.
00:18:20.000We're back live here in my house office in the Longworth office building.
00:18:25.000That was withering questioning from Congressman Dan Bishop of North Carolina.
00:18:29.000And it showed that these people were so hell-bent to get Trump that they were actually willing to jeopardize other critical data, other critical infrastructure, things that our country has to keep secure.
00:18:41.000But see, none of that mattered to them.
00:18:43.000They want to piously tell you that this is all about protecting our country.
00:18:48.000That's why they had to go after Trump.
00:18:49.000Trump was some great threat to the country.
00:18:51.000But now that we're getting the indictments, now that we're getting the information, we see that they were willing to endanger everyone just to appeal to their desire for power.
00:19:04.000And speaking of sickening, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the DMC, back in the news paying $118,000 in fines for lying about what they were doing all over the place to curate lies about President Trump.
00:19:24.000The Federal Election Commission is now fining Hillary Clinton and the Democrat National Committee over the way it paid a firm to produce the notorious Steele dossier.
00:19:34.000The Clinton campaign has been fined $8,000 and the DNC slapped with a $105,000 penalty after a 2016 letter revealed that they violated campaign finance rules.
00:19:47.000The FEC says both parties failed to properly report payments for opposition research and the production of the dossier, instead labeling the payments legal services.
00:19:56.000Former President Trump now asking, where do I get my reputation back?
00:20:02.000I'm joined back here in the Longworth office building by Vish Burra, and Vish is going to get into the Hunter Biden laptop.
00:20:10.000Some prior segments we've done on the show regarding what was going to happen, how these events were going to unfold.
00:20:16.000It was all very predictable, very predicted by this guy.
00:20:20.000But before we get into the laptop, the chain of custody questions that everyone in America is asking, you're a New York man.
00:20:27.000Hillary Clinton, I guess, is a New York woman, certainly not an Arkansas woman.
00:20:32.000I mean, what do you make, Vish, of this dynamic where when people like George Papadopoulos are accused of lying, they go to jail?
00:20:41.000You know, when people like Mike Flynn are accused of lying, and I don't even think he did.
00:20:50.000But when Hillary Clinton and the DNC, they didn't lie on some innocuous matter.
00:20:56.000They lied about how they were characterizing the private intelligence network that they had set up to go and bamboozle the media and the government and Nellie Orr and Bruce Orr at the DOJ. And you know what?
00:21:10.000Just pull out the checkbook, write a check, $118,000.
00:21:15.000Well, I think it's very important to take the signal out of all these actions that were taken by the FEC. The idea here is not necessarily to even be punitive directly to the parties involved.
00:21:30.000These are signals to the apparatus that would get involved in the future.
00:21:34.000If you go and work for Donald Trump and help him in any sort of way, we're going to bring down the House in how we penalize you and how we go after you.
00:21:45.000Now, if you help Hillary and the DNC break the law, just make sure you have a checkbook ready.
00:21:50.000Yeah, so if you purposefully jeopardize our data, like Congressman Dan Bishop demonstrated, if you purposefully go and hire a private intelligence network, hire the wife of a senior DOJ official to shuttle your nonsense through DOJ leaks to the New York Times and whoever else, if you do all that stuff, The consequences of fine.
00:22:14.000And then, you know, look at the people who on January 6th showed up with no intent to break any laws or do any violence to anyone, but because barricades were taken down, they get booby-trapped in the Capitol.
00:22:25.000And we still do have Americans as a consequence of January 6th who have been convicted of no crime.
00:22:39.000You think that all of this is a coordinated effort to say that if you are kind of on the populist right of the political spectrum, the entire apparatus will be weaponized against you.
00:22:49.000And even when you get busted doing the will of the regime, being a shill for the Clintons, hey, nothing, 100,000 and change can't solve.
00:23:01.000This is the example when you work for a populist president, and then this is the example when you work for the regime-approved candidate.
00:23:10.000When the punitive measures are dropped, this is the disparity, and they are signaling that openly so that the apparatus and apparatchiks around here know that for the future so they can feel comfortable doing these things in the future.
00:23:23.000It's infuriating, but honestly, Vish, I've got to tell you, I was surprised the FEC even did it.
00:23:28.000I mean, how low do our expectations have to be that when you're like, oh, my goodness, Hillary Clinton and the DNC had to pay a $118,000 fine, you're actually glad that at least it's documented that we were telling the truth and that they were lying.
00:23:42.000I mean, when I said that it wasn't Trump colluding with the Russian Federation, it was the Clinton campaign shuttling and nurturing and fostering these lies with their own lying distribution network.
00:23:55.000I mean, people said that I should put a tinfoil hat on.
00:23:58.000That should be removed from the Judiciary Committee.
00:24:00.000And at least now, even though the punishment isn't there, the fact pattern is there.
00:24:04.000And the question is, when Republicans get power back, are we going to be able to bring sufficient accountability?
00:24:19.000What's your confidence level that Republicans will be able to administer accountability for the facts that we are seeing come out now?
00:24:26.000Well, I would hope that the Republicans, when they take back control, that they would pursue these matters of accountability, especially amongst our investigative agencies, where we want to believe that when they are taking actions against folks, that those actions are backed up with integrity and logic and facts.
00:24:46.000We have lost faith in that many times over.
00:24:50.000Can we just think about the juxtaposition of the Steele dossier story compared to the Hunter Biden laptop story?
00:24:58.000The Steele dossier story was sprung out of...
00:25:44.000That when they get lies, those lies get wrapped up and packaged up as truth, and that when we have the truth, that gets suppressed, deplatformed, and siloed away from the national conversation that we have about these important things.
00:26:14.000I'm particularly glad that we got Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene with us on that legislation as well, in addition to a number of members of the House Judiciary Committee.
00:26:22.000I'm joined here by Vish Burra, former investigative journalist at The War Room Podcast, producer there, used to direct this show, Firebrand, Former member of our congressional staff and Vish Burra plays a key role in this entire laptop saga.
00:26:38.000We're going to get to that, but I want to give you all the background.
00:26:40.000I want to make sure you understand what went down this week in the House Judiciary Committee that set up the biggest story in the world.
00:26:50.000At the risk of making some enemies on this committee, I'll draw a comparison between the FBI's role in the cyber ecosystem and an event I attended 30 years ago yesterday When Duke beat Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA Men's Eastern Regional Final.
00:27:04.000Sometimes we're Grant Hill throwing the pass, and sometimes we're Christian Laettner taking the shot.
00:27:09.000Having said that, for the FBI to continue supporting our partners and executing successful operations ourselves, we need your support, even the Kentucky and North Carolina fans amongst you.
00:27:21.000As one of our key oversight committees and allies, your backing is crucial for our continued growth of authorities and resources.
00:27:51.000Has FBI cyber assessed whether or not Hunter Biden's laptop could be a point of vulnerability, allowing America's enemies to hurt our country?
00:28:01.000Sir, the FBI cyber program is based off of what's codified in Title 18, or Title 18, Section 1030, a code which talks about computer intrusions, right, using nefarious intent...
00:28:14.000Well, you've talked about passwords here.
00:28:16.000I mean, Hunter Biden's password on his laptop was Hunter02.
00:28:22.000I'm holding the receipt from Max Computer Repair, where in December 2019, they turned over this laptop to the FBI. And what now you're telling me right here is that as the Assistant Director of FBI Cyber, you don't know where this is after it was turned over to you three years ago.
00:28:44.000How are Americans supposed to trust that you can protect us from the next colonial pipeline if it seems that you can't locate a laptop that was given to you three years ago from the first family, potentially creating vulnerabilities for our country?
00:28:58.000Sir, it's not in the purview of my investigative responsibilities.
00:29:02.000But that is shocking that you wouldn't, as the Assistant Director of Cyber, know whether or not there are international business deals, kickbacks, shakedowns.
00:29:13.000That are on this laptop that would make the first family suspect to some sort of compromise.
00:29:19.000Mr. Assistant Director, have you assessed whether or not the first family is compromised as a result of the Hunter Biden laptop?
00:29:26.000Sir, as a representative of the FBI cyber program, it is not in the realm of my responsibilities to deal with the questions that you're asking me.
00:29:34.000Has anyone at FBI cyber been asked to make assessments whether or not the laptop creates a point of vulnerability?
00:29:42.000Sir, we have multiple lines of investigative responsibility in the FBI. They're all available in public source.
00:29:50.000I mean, I would think that if the president's son, who does international business deals, referencing the now president with the Chinese, with Ukrainians, I mean, have you assessed whether or not the Hunter Biden laptop gives Russia the ability to harm our country?
00:30:06.000Sir, again, We can do this back and forth for the next couple of minutes.
00:30:12.000I don't have any information about the Hunter Biden laptop or the...
00:30:58.000You're gonna have to give us briefings thanks to Mr. Lew and Mr. Massey's question about whether or not the FBI was taking a five million dollar test drive on the Pegasus system that was being used to target People in politics, people in government, people in the media, people in American life.
00:31:12.000So will you commit to give us a briefing as the Assistant Director of FBI Cyber as to where the laptop is, whether or not it's a point of vulnerability, whether or not the American people should wonder whether or not the first family is compromised?
00:31:25.000Sir, I'd be happy to take your request back to our office.
00:31:29.000Gosh, I mean, will you advocate for that briefing?
00:32:01.000If there are passwords, if there are business deals, if there are References to things that could harm our country.
00:32:08.000Like, you can't even sit here right now and say that you know that there's not a point of vulnerability.
00:32:13.000Maybe there are other crimes, maybe there are tax issues or whatever.
00:32:16.000But as it relates to, I mean, is the first family sufficient cyber infrastructure to protect?
00:32:22.000You don't even know if they're compromised.
00:32:24.000Tell you what, Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record of this committee the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which I'm in possession of.
00:33:34.000After a consultation with majority staff, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record of this committee content from, files from, and copies from the Hunter Biden laptop.
00:33:49.000And everybody started asking how in the world Hunter Biden's laptop contents on a disk drive ended up in the House Judiciary Committee and now has ended up as part of the permanent record of Congress.
00:34:02.000So we're going to get into what happens next with the laptop, how its contents are going to be Probably utilized in other congressional hearings.
00:34:11.000But first, Vish, take us from that laptop getting dropped off by Hunter Biden to its contents showing up in the House Judiciary Committee.
00:34:45.000Now, once John Paul McIsaac says, okay, I'll fix it, He hands Hunter a form.
00:34:51.000And this is standard practice in Delaware.
00:34:54.000And I think it's actually legally described in Delaware.
00:34:59.000but standard practice in this industry where the laptop repair shop owner will take the laptop and repair it, And then once he tries to return it to the owner and seeks payment for the services, if that laptop repair shop owner tries to get paid and after 90 days doesn't hear back or doesn't get a response for the repair property, if that laptop repair shop owner tries to get paid and after 90 days doesn't hear back or doesn't
00:35:32.000So the ownership of the laptop actually changes according to Delaware law based on non-payment by Hunter Biden for the repairs and based on the duration of time between when that was dropped off and ultimately was in the ownership legally of McIsaac.
00:36:39.000So, until the Democrats kicked the hornet's nest with this phony Ukraine impeachment, I mean, this laptop was just collecting dust in a repair shop.
00:38:15.000The faith in our institutions was already so detrimental at that time that John McIsaac isn't even sure if he turns over this laptop that it's going to be okay.
00:38:31.000By the way, if McIsaac doesn't make those copies, we might still be hearing what you heard at the beginning of that question series, you know, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
00:38:45.000He just, some suspicion, some doubt, he says, let me make a few copies.
00:38:52.000So in December 2019, he turns over the original, has the receipt that you held up during the committee hearing, and the FBI takes it, doesn't hear back from them again.
00:39:04.000And then he's still seeing the buzz going on, and not only that, he's seeing Rudy's getting slammed in the media over this Ukraine stuff, and Burisma stuff, and Hunter stuff.
00:39:24.000I'm going to turn over a copy of this to Rudy himself.
00:39:28.000And that is when John Paul McIsaac reaches out to Rudy's lawyer Rob Costello, hands it over to Rob Costello, one of the copies, gives the proper documentation as well, the chain of custody documentation from Hunter, from the FBI, everything, turns it over to Robert Costello, gives the consent to use it as they see fit.
00:39:52.000Then Rudy comes and seeks out Steve Bannon because Rudy's a great legal mind but doesn't really understand the environment of the Chinese companies and the Chinese players and a lot of these other characters that pop up on the laptop.
00:40:05.000So he goes to Steve Bannon, who's doing the War Room at the time, and I'm the producer there for Steve.
00:40:27.000So as part of the war room journalism, talk to me about how you and Bannon get a hold of this thing.
00:40:33.000So we get a hold of it in conjunction with Rudy, and Steve hands me the laptop and says, I need you to go through this thing, make it your best friend, know where everything is.
00:41:04.000And so we're going through all this stuff, and then I learned how to make a copy there in that process.
00:41:11.000And once I learned how to make the copies, then I started making copies for whoever was asking, and that knowledge stuck with me to this day.
00:41:18.000So you guys weren't trying to hold this information close?
00:41:33.000So, I mean, I don't think I need to really explain it, but just to go over, it was immediately, you know, nuked by Twitter, where you couldn't even share the story through DMs, right?
00:43:00.000All working together to deprive you of the truth.
00:43:04.000To be the arbiters of the truth themselves, and then you get McIsaac, to Giuliani, to Bannon, to Burra, to Gates, to now all of America.
00:43:16.000But you know, Vish, when you were working in this congressional office, you kind of called this.
00:43:22.000I mean, we went through some of the features of the laptop substantively that really concerned us.
00:43:29.000So if you're interested in some of the specific deals on the laptop that gave Vish concern as he was going through this, you can go back and watch the episode of Firebrand called The Hunter Files.
00:43:41.000But when it comes to what you're now seeing today in the media as a reaction to our work earlier this week, this is what Vish told you was going to happen.
00:43:52.000Have we heard the last of Hunter Biden?
00:44:15.000And now people are looking for ways to make their own bones now, now that, you know, they don't have to worry about being the pariah.
00:44:22.000And so the interest level has gone up in the Hunter Biden laptop since.
00:44:27.000And I believe you will start seeing more mainstream outlets verifying this thing and coming out and saying that, you know, this thing is real and these are things that have to be addressed.
00:44:39.000You know, as being from New York, I kind of see, like, what is happening with Biden could also sort of harken back to what happened with Cuomo, where at the right time he kind of needed to get rid of the guy, and that these stories would now be deployed to get somebody else in place.
00:44:57.000Ah, so they could be tools waiting in the wings.
00:45:18.000Well, look, I saw this cover four months ago, but I think that now would seem like the right time.
00:45:26.000I totally believe that the actions you took to enter it into the congressional record...
00:45:31.000Definitely raised the temperature up on the necessity to do what they did, which is verify or authenticate the laptop through mainstream sources.
00:45:42.000But I also think that there's a lot of malaise through the country right now about Joe Biden and his poll numbers are the lowest in his presidency right now.
00:45:53.000And so I think that all these things...
00:45:55.000The confluence of all these events now have led to this laptop being verified.
00:46:04.000Is it your statement that you believe that these things are coming to fruition now because there's a coordinated effort to take Joe Biden out?
00:46:24.000I believe that they are gaslighting their own protection of Joe and Hunter Biden.
00:46:29.000I don't think there's anybody at the DOJ or FBI thinking they're going to make their career out of convicting Hunter Biden of anything, short of like some little slap on the wrist to sort of inoculate him, right?
00:46:45.000I mean, I think that also, if you look closely at the Washington Post, the Washington Post did two stories.
00:46:50.000One of them was a story just about how they authenticated the laptop.
00:46:54.000And in that story, they tried to sow a lot of discord and confusion by saying that we can only authenticate some stuff.
00:47:02.000Can't authenticate the other stuff and what I think this is is an attempt to control the landing of how this case goes and basically make sure that whatever is prosecuted is whatever stories that they're okay with having prosecuted.
00:47:27.000In Florida, Lake Okeechobee sometimes gets so many pollutants in it that the people around there decide to release some water because the environment can absorb and clean those pollutants.
00:47:38.000You're describing the Lake Okeechobee factor politically through the DOJ and FBI as it relates to the Bidens.
00:47:43.000Yes, and I think also one of the ultimate— Well, that's not then to get him, right?
00:47:48.000Because the whole goal of that would be to preserve the Biden regime with just some low-level maybe charges or investigations of the Biden crime family, when if you really go back and look at the Hunter Files episode that we did previously, you're going to see gambling deals, deals with the Chinese— you're going to see gambling deals, deals with the Chinese— You're going to see all kinds of stuff that I think rises way beyond what you're hearing about on mainstream media right now.
00:48:12.000Honestly, I also think that this play that you're seeing now is an attempt to...
00:48:18.000I think that at the end of this, Hunter Biden will be pardoned by Joe Biden.
00:48:24.000I think that's what this is, is to get it into the mainstream.
00:49:09.000You know, and then want to say, oh, well, you know, after 20, we started this investigation in 2018, but then it fell off.
00:49:17.000But then all recently, it's picked up steam, you know?
00:49:20.000I think the only reason that this is picking up any steam is because we introduced those contents into the congressional record, and their authenticity is not going to be challenged.
00:49:32.000Eric Swalwell, Jerry Nadler, David Cicilline, Val Demings, Hank Johnson, none of these Democrats you know from the House Judiciary Committee even objected to me putting Hunter Biden's laptop into the congressional record.
00:49:44.000It went in under a unanimous consent of the Judiciary Committee.
00:49:48.000So we will not hear questions about the authenticity or viability.
00:49:53.000Now the sole question is what criminal conduct, what disqualifying conduct, What points of vulnerability are exposed as we see the contents of this laptop?
00:50:04.000Now, the number one question I get is, how'd you get this laptop?
00:50:09.000The number two question I get is, so what next?
00:50:12.000When can the great sleuths that are out there watching this program and really just advancing the cause of transparency throughout the country going to be able to look at this data, analyze it, When are we going to be able to have the information from this laptop available to ask questions in every committee, really?
00:50:31.000It's hard to think of a committee in Congress that wouldn't benefit off of probing potentially corrupt connections that go directly to the first family, directly to the White House.
00:50:44.000Right now, our office is working with IT professionals to get the PDFs done, to get the files perfected, and the House Judiciary Committee has an obligation to produce a report based on that hearing that we've been going over in today's episode with the FBI Cyber Chief.
00:51:01.000Now, they're not exactly limited on when they have to produce that report.
00:51:06.000I have to give some credit to the majority staff on the House Judiciary Committee in all of the workings that we've been just undertaking over the course of this week with our office and their offices.
00:51:20.000They are working with us to ensure so far That this is information that the public has access to.
00:51:27.000So if that changes, if there's any funny business, I'm going to come on this show.
00:51:49.000That's not just because Vish has a crystal ball.
00:51:52.000It's because I was the one who made the copy that ended up in the hands of Tom Hamburger over at the Washington Post.
00:52:01.000So that copy that he has that he used to verify and the Washington Post used to authenticate the laptop is the same copy that you just entered into the congressional record.
00:52:15.000Oh, but democracy dies in darkness, right?
00:52:18.000Yeah, well, if the democracy is in the Washington Post's hands, maybe.
00:52:22.000But thank God we have brave patriots like you on the Hill who are ready to put your name to your action and say, I'm going to put this in the congressional record.
00:52:33.000You're a brave patriot, too, for playing your role in this from an investigative journalism standpoint, from your service on our congressional staff, and certainly your efforts this week to get this information before the American people.
00:52:45.000And information is indeed the new domain of intelligence collection, warfare, so much of the conflict that we see.
00:52:55.000And so for a moment, just imagine a computer program that can hack into your phone Requiring a single click on your end.
00:54:37.000It's safe to say that Pegasus isn't being sold responsibly.
00:54:40.000It's certainly not being used responsibly.
00:54:43.000And now Israel won't sell the tech to Ukraine because they don't want to piss off the Russians, but they'll send it to a narco state on our southern border.
00:55:07.000If you don't do anything to stop the sale of this technology, it's not just going to be 50,000 targets, it's going to be 50 million targets, and it's going to happen much more quickly than any of us expect.
00:55:21.000The way we do that is to halt the trade around this technology.
00:55:40.000All you have to do is come to the attention of somebody with the money to pay any one of these companies for the tools to break into your phone.
00:55:51.000We know right off the bat that unfortunately we can't trust our own intelligence agencies.
00:55:57.000The FBI, NSA, CIA, ATF, and DEA have just a piss-poor track record when it comes to protecting individual liberties and respecting the Fourth Amendment that's supposed to bind them.
00:56:30.000And we can't really say for certain how the FBI has used this technology.
00:56:35.000But we know our allies and adversaries have used it.
00:56:40.000According to the Pegasus Project, which is an investigative initiative by Amnesty International, Forbidden Stories, and dozens of other news organizations, authoritarian governments have been using it, and we know, to surveil and kill anyone who doesn't fall in line.
00:56:55.000As many as 14 heads of state, countless government officials, journalists, they've all been targets of Pegasus.
00:59:18.000Have you detected the use of this software domestically?
00:59:23.000Sir, there's reporting in the media about Apple filing a lawsuit against NSO, and there's a lot of information in that article.
00:59:32.000I can't comment further on your question truly due to classification, but if that is of interest to you, we could consider a background briefing.
00:59:41.000Does the FBI itself exploit the SS7 flaw to access cell phone contents?
00:59:49.000Sir, I'm not in a position to answer that question.
01:00:09.000I mean, it's very important for me personally as a representative for the cyber program at the FBI to keep that as an open invitation in both directions between all of you and me, and from me to all of you, that whatever information that you would want access to, we would try to facilitate that.
01:00:29.000When Ted Lieu, not someone I quote often, asked the question of the FBI cyber chief whether or not federal law enforcement was breaking into people's phones, the answer was, gosh, he just doesn't know.
01:00:45.000The briefing that Congressman Massey and Congressman Ted Lieu just referenced is going to happen, and I'm going to have updates regarding legislation, changes in authorities that we might be taking following that briefing on Pegasus.
01:00:59.000Vish, thanks so much for joining me today on Firebrand Live.