There's tons of news today, obviously, when pretty much all of the members of the national security team of Team Trump end up in a Signal chat with a journalist accidentally. We'll get to that momentarily, but first, your reminder, Episode 3 of The Case for Derek Chauvin is on today's episode. In the middle of the show, we'll also get to the economy and everything else. Also, we've recently received several tips related to the case, and we're actively tracking down all of those leads. Stay tuned.
00:00:02.000Obviously, a huge blow-up when pretty much all the members of the national security team of Team Trump end up in a signal chat with a journalist accidentally.
00:00:27.000We may have some breaking news on the Chauvin case very soon.
00:00:29.000If you do have a tip, send it our way.
00:00:31.000Include my name along with Derek Chauvin in the subject line and ensure it reaches my team immediately.
00:00:36.000You'll find the submission link in this episode's description.
00:00:39.000Okay, so big bombshell story yesterday dropped by Jeffrey Goldberg, the execrable editor of The Atlantic.
00:00:44.000Jeffrey Goldberg is basically a stand-in for Barack Obama's foreign policy team.
00:00:48.000And he breaks this story that he was accidentally included in a signal chat that basically included everybody who was a top member of Team Trump in the national security sphere, ranging from the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to the Vice President of the United States J.D. Vance to Stephen Miller, a top advisor to President Trump.
00:01:07.000All of them were on a signal chat, and they were talking about the upcoming military strike on the Houthis.
00:01:13.000And somebody, it appears to have been Mike Waltz, accidentally included, Jeffrey Goldberg in this Signal chat.
00:01:22.000The answer is almost certainly that he meant to include the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamie Singh Greer.
00:01:27.000If you ever use Signal, Signal is an encrypted messaging service that is supposed to be basically uncrackable by outside sources.
00:01:34.000And one of the things that happens when you use Signal chat, I'm on Signal, I have a bunch of Signal chats.
00:01:39.000When you are on Signal, you can choose how your name appears in its sort of identity line.
00:01:44.000You can either pick your full name or you can pick the initials.
00:01:47.000My assumption is that Jamison Greer had JG as his initials on Signal and that Waltz or whomever else put together the chat, one of his aides, whoever did it, hit instead Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic.
00:01:58.000This does not mean, as per so many folks who do not like Mike Waltz, that he was regularly chatting with Jeffrey Goldberg.
00:02:04.000It just means that Jeffrey Goldberg was in sort of a list of contacts that included Jamison Greer and both of them had the initials JG and he hit the wrong one.
00:02:12.000Okay, so in any case, what ends up happening is that there is a very detailed discussion that's quite fascinating.
00:02:17.000about the strike against the Houthis that happened March 15th.
00:02:23.000Jeffrey Goldberg has a long piece in The Atlantic about this, and here's what he says.
00:02:27.000This is the world found out shortly before 2 p.m. Eastern time on March 15th.
00:02:30.000The United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
00:02:32.000I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming.
00:02:36.000The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, had texted me the war plan at 11 at 44 a.m.
00:02:41.000The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
00:02:45.000This is going to require some explaining.
00:02:48.000So he says the story technically begins shortly after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel in October of 2023.
00:02:54.000The Houthis, an Iran-backed terrorist organization whose motto is God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam, which as I've said before is a very wordy slogan.
00:03:05.000They had launched attacks on Israel and international shipping created havoc for global trade.
00:03:10.000Throughout 2024, the Biden administration was ineffective in countering those Houthi attacks.
00:03:14.000The incoming administration promised a tougher response.
00:03:16.000This is where Pete Hegseth and I come in.
00:03:18.000On Tuesday, March 11th, writes Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz.
00:03:24.000First of all, a connection request means that Waltz was not actively in contact with Goldberg before.
00:03:29.000Just for those who are not conversant in how Signal works.
00:03:31.000If I want to connect with you on Signal, I have to make a connection request.
00:03:34.000So the idea that they were regularly using Signal to chat with one another is not true.
00:03:38.000Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text messaging services are capable of delivering.
00:03:45.000I assumed the Michael Walton question was President Donald Trump's national security advisor.
00:03:48.000I did not assume, however, the request was from the actual Michael Waltz.
00:03:51.000I've met him in the past, and though I didn't find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it's somewhat unusual given the Trump administration's contentious relationship with journalists and Trump's periodic fixation on me specifically.
00:04:01.000It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading his walls in order to somehow entrap me.
00:04:06.000It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
00:04:11.000This is Jeffrey Goldberg writing for The Atlantic.
00:04:13.000I accepted the connection request, hoping this was the actual national security advisor, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine or Iran or some other important matter.
00:04:19.000Two days later, Thursday, 428 p.m., I received a notice I was to be included in a signal chat group.
00:04:24.000It was called the Houthi PC Small Group.
00:04:27.000A message to the group from Michael Walsh read as follows, quote, Team, establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours.
00:04:34.000My deputy Alex Wong is pulling Thanks. So, as Goldberg points out, a principles committee generally refers to a group of senior-most national security officials, and that includes Secretaries of Defense, State, Treasury, the Director of the CIA.
00:05:02.000He said he obviously was not meant to be on this group, certainly not on a commercial messaging app.
00:05:08.000One minute later, a person identified only as MAR, which presumably is Marco Rubio, wrote Mike Needham for State, apparently designating the current counselor of the State Department as his representative.
00:05:16.000At that same moment, a Signal user identified as J.D. Vance, wrote Andy Baker for VP.
00:05:21.000One minute after that, Tulsi Gabbard wrote Joe Kent for DNI.
00:05:24.000Nine minutes later, Scott B., apparently the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, or someone spoofing his identity, wrote Dan Katz for Treasury.
00:05:30.000And at 4.53 p.m., a user called Pete Hegseth wrote Dan Caldwell for DOD.
00:05:39.000And John Ratcliffe included the name of a CIA official, and Jeffrey Goldberg doesn't name that CIA official because that would be classified.
00:05:45.000The principals had apparently assembled.
00:05:47.000In all, 18 individuals were listed as members of the group, including various National Security Council officials, including Steve Witkoff, Susie Wiles, and Stephen Miller, presumably.
00:05:56.000That was the end of the Thursday text chain.
00:05:58.000After receiving the Walls text related to the Houthi PC Small Group, I consulted a number of colleagues, said Goldberg.
00:06:02.000We discussed the possibility these texts were part of a disinformation campaign initiated by either a foreign intelligence service or, more likely, a media gadfly organization, the sort of group that attempts to place journalists in embarrassing positions and sometimes succeeds.
00:06:14.000I had very strong doubts the text group was real because I couldn't believe the national security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans.
00:06:22.000I also could not believe the national security advisor to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials up to and including the vice president.
00:06:31.000The next day, says Jeffrey Goldberg, things got even stranger.
00:06:34.000At 8.05 a.m., Friday, March 14th, Waltz texted the group, quote, You should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the president's guidance this morning in your high-side inboxes.
00:06:43.000Now, this is important because a high-side inbox, high-side means classified.
00:06:48.000So, what he is saying is the stuff that we're talking about right here is not considered the sort of classified protected material that would be legally actionable if it were to disappear.
00:06:57.000High-side is typically the sort of inbox that is used for that classified material.
00:07:46.000We see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.
00:07:48.000I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself, but there is a strong argument for delaying this month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.
00:07:58.000Then Joe Kent, who's Trump's nominee to run the National Counterterrorism Center, wrote, There's nothing time-sensitive driving the timeline.
00:08:03.000We'll have the exact same options in a month.
00:08:06.000Then John Ratcliffe replied and contained information that might actually be interpreted as related to actual and current intelligence operations.
00:08:15.000I think Jeffrey Goldberg is just awful in every possible way, but he did refrain from actually including the classified information or information he thought might be classified.
00:08:25.000He refrained from putting that in the article itself.
00:08:27.000At 8.27, a message from Pete Hegseth said, quote, VP, I understand your concerns and fully support you raising with the president.
00:08:33.000Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out.
00:09:17.000Michael Waltz posted, quote, whether it's now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes.
00:09:22.000Per the president's request, we are working with DOD and state to determine how to compile the costs associated and levy them on the Europeans.
00:09:29.000J.D. Vance then replied, quote, if you think we should do it, let's go.
00:09:46.000"I feel like now is as good a time as any given "President's directive to reopen shipping lanes.
00:09:50.000"I think we should go, but POTUS still retains At this point, Stephen Miller joined the conversation, and he said, Pete Hegseth then replied,
00:10:15.000Agree. Okay, so, Goldberg waited, and then, at 11.44 a.m., on Saturday, March 15th, Hegseth posted in Signal a team update, which contained, apparently, information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.
00:10:35.000Vance then wrote, I will say a prayer for victory, and two other users subsequently added prayer emojis.
00:10:41.000And Goldberg then waited around to see what happened.
00:10:43.000And sure enough, at 155 Eastern Time, explosions were being heard in Sana'a, which is the capital city of Yemen.
00:10:51.000And Michael Waltz then replied, saying, amazing job.
00:10:54.000And John Ratcliffe wrote, a good start.
00:10:56.000And then Waltz responded with three emojis, a fist, an American flag, and fire.
00:11:00.000And then Secretary of State Rubio presumably wrote, good job, Pete and your team.
00:11:03.000And Susie Wiles texted, kudos to all of them, most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM.
00:11:09.000Well, this is obviously a negative story for the administration, but there's plenty of positive for the administration, including Doge continuing to surgically cut the fat from decades of bloated government spending and corruption.
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00:13:14.000So, again, the conversation itself is really fascinating.
00:14:14.000You're telling me about it for the first time.
00:14:18.000So, Trump denies knowledge, and of course he probably had no knowledge of this because it was literally everybody else in the administration who was on this particular chat.
00:14:26.000The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, was asked about this, and he tore into the Atlantic as well.
00:14:31.000So, you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited...
00:14:38.000So-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax, or suckers and losers hoax.
00:14:53.000So this is the guy that peddles in garbage.
00:14:58.000Okay, so, again, you know, Hegseth attacking the Atlantic.
00:15:20.000So there are people today who are attempting to claim that this was somehow violative of criminal law, that this is a breach of official records acts because Signal Chats have an auto-delete function that you can activate.
00:15:33.000As I mentioned when we went through the story, The use of terms, for example, in the piece, such as high side, suggests that there was an entire other thread that was going on inside the sort of classified government rooms that was preserved.
00:16:02.000Sure, it's a scandal when there's a screw-up this big.
00:16:05.000If you accidentally include a journalist in a high-ranking discussion about precisely where you're bombing, that is a major problem, of course.
00:16:21.000This is one of the lines that the left is taking about all of this today, which is, you guys, you fussed all about Hillary Clinton and her emails and keeping those on her own private server.
00:16:32.000Number one, we should recognize that what Hillary Clinton did was very bad.
00:16:37.000And this right here is also quite bad.
00:16:39.000Inviting a journalist into a group chat, obviously, that involves high-ranking discussions of national security matters that are classified.
00:16:51.000And again, as much as I despise Jeffrey Goldberg as a human being, I think that Jeffrey Goldberg actually did the responsible thing in not printing, for example, We're good to go.
00:16:52.000And again, as much as I despise Jeffrey Goldberg as a human being, I think that Jeffrey Goldberg actually did the responsible thing in not printing, for example, operational details or blowing the operation beforehand, which he certainly could have done.
00:17:02.000With all of that said, the reason that everyone is so casual about the use of classified material these days, the reason all this is happening is because of the original sin of James Comey not prosecuting Hillary Clinton over her emails.
00:17:22.000If Hillary Clinton uses classified materials and she puts them on a private server, which...
00:17:28.000James Comey of the FBI openly acknowledged was likely accessed by foreign sources and then there's no prosecution that attends?
00:17:37.000Then how can that rule apply to anybody else?
00:17:39.000This is why it was so ridiculous when they tried to go after Trump for the classified documents mishandling at Mar-a-Lago at the same exact time that Joe Biden had a bunch of classified documents in his garage.
00:17:49.000This issue is largely played out in the sense that while something can be a giant screw-up, nobody takes it as a criminal.
00:17:57.000That was killed dead by the operation to let Hillary Clinton off the hook back in 2015-2016 for her email scandal.
00:18:06.000And so when the left says, we've now heard the end of but her emails, the reality is but her emails was the inciting event for an entire string of mishandling of classified materials on both sides of the aisle.
00:18:19.000Then there the Democrats are saying this could have cost lives.
00:18:48.000To have had somebody from the Atlantic on that chain.
00:18:52.000Without question was a serious mistake.
00:18:56.000And I hope the White House takes this seriously because the last thing you want to do when you're talking about war plans is to have a serious leak like this that could undermine the war plans but also jeopardize lives.
00:19:19.000I agree that it should be taken seriously.
00:19:21.000The idea that this was like jeopardizing massive amounts of life because Jeffrey Goldberg was included, that's an exaggeration.
00:19:27.000It's also worth noting that many of the same people who are very upset with this particular situation would have been perfectly happy if the war plans had been leaked by an insider at the Trump administration to the front page of the New York Times.
00:19:37.000That sort of stuff happened all the time in the first Trump administration.
00:19:44.000Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday, this is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time.
00:19:50.000House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York called Hegseth, quote, the most unqualified person to ever lead the Pentagon in American history.
00:19:57.000Now, do we think that any of this is going to pay off in a major way?
00:20:02.000One of the things that is fascinating is not the Democratic attacks on Republicans, on Waltz, on Rubio, on Hegseth, on any of the rest of this.
00:20:12.000The part that's really fascinating is the mobilization on one side of the Republican aisle against Waltz in particular.
00:20:19.000Because there are really two issues that are of note with regard to this leak.
00:20:23.000One is the leak itself, which obviously is deeply noteworthy.
00:20:26.000And the administration should make sure obviously nothing like this ever happens again.
00:20:31.000And then there is the second issue, which is what was actually said in the leak.
00:20:35.000And one of the things that I'm noticing is that partisans of J.D. Vance are coming out saying that the real story here is the leak.
00:20:41.000And partisans of Mike Waltz are coming out and saying that the real story here is what was said in the chat.
00:20:47.000Both of these things are actual real stories and neither should be obscured.
00:20:51.000Politico is reporting that Waltz could theoretically be on the chopping block, that President Trump is upset because he doesn't like bad headlines.
00:20:59.000The president has a right to be upset.
00:21:01.000A senior administration official told Politico on Monday afternoon they're involved in multiple text threads with other administration staffers on what to do with Walls following that bombshell report.
00:21:09.000One official said, quote, half of them saying he's never going to survive or he shouldn't survive.
00:21:13.000It was reckless not to check who's on the thread.
00:21:15.000It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal.
00:21:17.000You can't have recklessness as the national security advisor.
00:21:20.000If you're saying it was reckless to include Jeffrey Goldberg, obviously true.
00:21:24.000If the idea is that it was reckless to have the conversation on Signal, half of the conversations on planet Earth about national security are being had on Signal because it is encrypted.
00:21:36.000That's why when I have sensitive conversations, those happen on Signal.
00:21:39.000And if you're talking about recklessness to be involved, now you have to fire the entire team because literally everyone on the team was on that Signal chat.
00:21:46.000We'll get to the rest of this story momentarily.
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00:22:57.000Conservatives won huge in November, but the fight is far from over.
00:23:52.000One issue, obviously, is Walt and what are the consequences for the screw-up.
00:23:57.000But the other issue, and this is the one that, again, I'm seeing a lot of misdirection by people who are fans of the vice president away from the thing that J.D. Vance actually was saying in the chat, which to me is another fascinating aspect of this, right?
00:24:09.000You now have a window into the sort of open foreign policy debates that are happening inside the Trump administration.
00:24:15.000So you have the president, and he says, listen, we are going to reopen freedom of trade and freedom of the seas.
00:24:54.000Striking the Houthis is not inconsistent with messaging on Europe.
00:24:57.000By the way, the argument that 3% of U.S. trades runs through the Suez, but 40% of European trade does, and thus it doesn't matter for the United States if trade moves through the Suez Canal, that's incredibly silly because trade is intertwined.
00:25:10.000If you raise the price of goods massively in Europe, that is going to raise the price of goods in the United States because we trade with Europe.
00:25:17.000So, to me, what that bespeaks is an entirely different geopolitical strategy that Vice President Vance is suggesting here than what the Trump administration as a whole has been promoting.
00:25:27.000When you look past the actual leak issue to the actual content here, Walt, Hegseth, Miller are all reflecting the priorities of the President of the United States, and Vice President Vance...
00:25:48.000And he also understands how global trade works.
00:25:51.000What that really suggests is that the Vice President has a very different view of foreign policy, a view that he expressed pretty clearly before he was Vice President.
00:25:58.000When he said he didn't care whether Russia took Ukraine, for example, that is certainly a view.
00:26:04.000Bespeaks a foreign policy of spheres of influence, essentially.
00:26:07.000That Russia should have its own sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, stretching all the way down into the Middle East.
00:26:12.000That the United States should essentially remove itself from the world, which may or may not mean a broader sphere of influence for the Chinese.
00:26:22.000Vice President Vance, again, he has a very different foreign policy than the Trump foreign policy.
00:26:30.000When he says there's a strong argument for delaying this month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.
00:26:36.000The reality is the chance of a serious oil price spike from hitting the Houthis actually was incredibly low.
00:26:43.000Because the Saudis don't like the Houthis either.
00:26:54.000So I think that the Vice President, when he says that this is really just about bailing out Europe, it's bad to bail out Europe.
00:26:59.000The United States has an interest in freedom of the seas.
00:27:02.000Our shipping does go through the Suez Canal.
00:27:04.000Global shipping goes through the Suez Canal.
00:27:06.000We trade with all of the countries that have shipping going through the Suez Canal.
00:27:10.000Beyond which, the United States does have an interest in backing our Saudi and Israeli allies in striking the Houthis, who have already been responsible, by the way, for the death of Americans.
00:27:18.000So, you know, when the Vice President says the sort of stuff that openly conflicts with what the President of the United States is saying, that is another story.
00:27:26.000So there are two sort of dueling narratives, and it'll be interesting to see how it shakes down.
00:27:31.000As the Wall Street Journal points out, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was a voice for U.S. leadership and for carrying out the President's policy.
00:27:37.000Vice President J.D. Vance was a voice for U.S. retreat even when Mr. Trump directed otherwise.
00:27:41.000And again, it'll be interesting that there are a lot of competing voices inside the Trump administration.
00:27:45.000It'll be fascinating to see which voices end up taking the four and what President Trump actually does.
00:27:52.000What should be the consequences for this sort of breach of security?
00:27:56.000I think this all blows over within 48 hours, frankly.
00:28:02.000I think, unfortunately, leaks happen all the time.
00:28:04.000A kind of self-goal and own goal like this, where you create the leak, is obviously a massive problem.
00:28:10.000I'm sure Mike Wallace will be called on the carpet by the President of the United States, as will other members of the administration, who apparently never checked to see who else was in chat before they started having these high-level discussions.
00:28:22.000To me, the much more consequential matter...
00:28:25.000The much more consequential matter is what does the foreign policy of the Trump administration look like and who gets to shape it?
00:28:30.000Because that is an ongoing battle inside the Trump administration pretty much every day on every issue, ranging from what we do in Ukraine to what happens in the Middle East.
00:28:38.000And that, to me, is a fascinating discussion that's going to continue on into the future no matter what happens with this particular issue.
00:28:44.000Alrighty, now, as you know, we've been calling for the pardon of Derek Chauvin.
00:28:48.000We have an ongoing series here, the case for Derek Chauvin.
00:28:51.000It is time for part three of that case we're going to examine.
00:29:02.000Unfortunately, we've had to edit out some important information because big tech won't let us say that sort of thing.
00:29:06.000To listen to the full uncut show, go to dailywire.com slash subscribe.
00:29:11.000Just last week, in an interview with David Weigel of Semaphore, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, while campaigning across state lines in Wisconsin for a Supreme Court candidate, decided to call those of us advocating for justice in the Derek Chauvin case racist.
00:29:23.000Governor Walz's response is exactly what we've come to expect from the left.
00:29:26.000When confronted with evidence, they simply yell racism and hope nobody notices the complete absence of substantive rebuttal.
00:29:32.000The facts are clear and well-documented.
00:29:37.000This is the same governor who apparently doesn't realize Minnesota inmates like Chauvin typically serve just two-thirds of their sentences under his state's own laws, much like he was caught unaware that the state pension fund he oversees holds Tesla stock while he publicly celebrated the company's stock decline.
00:29:50.000The irony of Tim Walz claiming that Chauvin's pardon would undermine faith in the system while simultaneously defending a prosecution marred by coerced medical testimony, politically motivated prosecutorial takeovers, his city and the entire country burning during deliberation, and careers threatened for those who dared question the predetermined narrative is apparently lost on him.
00:30:08.000If we're serious about justice, we should care more about whether the conviction was based on actual evidence than mob rule.
00:30:13.000But that would require intellectual honesty rather than just cheap political point scoring or willful ignorance.
00:30:18.000Governor Walz should leave the serious discussions about justice to the adults in the room.
00:30:22.000He should probably return to his true calling as an inflatable, waving tube band outside a Chevron gas station.
00:30:27.000If you would like to discuss this issue further, he's always welcome on the show.
00:30:32.000In the aftermath of George Floyd's death, there were two separate autopsies conducted.
00:30:35.000The official one, performed by Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, conducted by Dr. Andrew Baker, and a second, hired autopsy, commissioned by the Floyd family, performed by Dr. Michael Bodden and Dr. Alicia Wilson.
00:30:46.000These two autopsies reached notably different conclusions, and the distinctions between them are absolutely critical for understanding the miscarriage of justice in Chauvin's case.
00:30:54.000Let's begin with the official autopsy performed by Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker on May 26, 2020, the day after Floyd's death.
00:31:02.000Baker had been the county's chief medical examiner since 2004.
00:31:05.000He's a board-certified forensic pathologist.
00:31:07.000His findings were released in a 20-page report on June 1, 2020.
00:31:11.000The official autopsy listed the cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcements of dual restraint and neck compression.
00:31:18.000The manner of death was classified as homicide.
00:31:45.000The report documented various minor injuries, including cutaneous injuries to the forehead, face, upper lips, shoulders, hands, elbows, and legs.
00:31:50.000It noted mucosal injuries to the lips and patterned contusions of the wrists consistent with handcuffs.
00:31:55.000But the report further clarifies that there were no facial, oral, mucosal, or conjunctival patachia, which are the small spots of bleeding in the eyes that would typically be present in a case of asphyxiation.
00:32:05.000The report also found no injuries of anterior muscles of neck or laryngeal structures, meaning no damage to the throat, hyoid bone, trachea, or voice box.
00:32:14.000Notably, the report did not find any damage to Floyd's neck or cervical spine.
00:32:17.000Dr. Baker wrote that Floyd's neck was palpably stable and free of hemorrhage.
00:32:21.000There was not even visible bruising on Floyd's neck.
00:32:23.000In other words, despite the popular narrative that Chauvin choked Floyd's death, the actual autopsy found zero evidence of damage to Floyd's airway or throat structures.
00:32:31.000This critical fact has been almost entirely ignored in public discussion of the case.
00:32:35.000What the autopsy did find, however, was substantial evidence of severe pre-existing heart disease.
00:32:39.000The report describes arteriosclerotic heart disease, multifocal, severe, and hypertensive heart disease with cardiomegaly, which means Floyd had an enlarged heart, riddled with plaque and blocked arteries.
00:32:50.000The normal weight of a human heart varies based on factors like age, sex, and body size, but the typical average for men is between 280 and 340 grams.
00:33:00.000That is significantly above the normal range.
00:33:02.000His coronary arteries were 90% blocked.
00:33:05.000Two other arteries were 75% narrowed, an extremely dangerous condition that put him at high risk for sudden cardiac death.
00:33:11.000Dr. Baker explained that when someone with heart disease is physically restrained, quote, those events are going to cause stress hormones to pour out into your body and ask your heart to beat faster.
00:33:20.000Floyd's enlarged heart needed more oxygen than a normal heart and was therefore limited in its ability to provide that oxygen under stress.
00:33:26.000The most explosive part of the autopsy and the part that has been most aggressively downplayed by the media is the toxicology report.
00:33:32.000The official autopsy found multiple drugs in Floyd's system at the time of his death.
00:33:59.000Dr. Baker disclosed on his witness statement for the trial that, quote, if Floyd were found dead at home alone and no other apparent causes, this could be acceptable to call an OD overdose.
00:34:08.000Baker also noted that deaths have been certified as overdoses with levels as low as three nanograms per milliliter.
00:34:14.000Floyd's level was nearly four times that amount.
00:34:17.000Also central to the report is the shocking condition of George Floyd's swollen lungs, which weighed two to three times their normal weight due to fluid accumulation caused by the toxicity.
00:34:26.000According to CDC guidelines, ... routinely triggers pulmonary edema, quote, significantly reducing respiratory function and leading to hypoxia.
00:34:33.000Baker testified that Floyd's lungs contained serous fluid, which is consistent with drug-induced pulmonary failure, not physical trauma.
00:34:40.000Floyd's potentially lethal level in his system, along with methamphetamine, created an extremely dangerous combination that can cause respiratory depression, cardiac arrhythmia, and sudden death.
00:34:49.000In stark contrast to the official findings, the autopsy commissioned by the Floyd family reached very different conclusions.
00:34:54.000This examination was performed by Dr. Michael Bodden, a former New York City chief medical examiner, and Dr. Alicia Wilson, a pathologist from the University of Michigan.
00:35:01.000We should pause here to talk about Dr. Michael Bodden, the so-called celebrity pathologist who performed the independent autopsy for the Floyd family.
00:35:08.000Bodden has made an entire career out of contradicting official autopsy findings in politically charged cases.
00:35:13.000It's essentially his brand at this point.
00:35:17.000He served as chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassination's Forensic Pathology Panel investigating JFK's assassination, where he contradicted key aspects of the original Warren Commission findings.
00:35:25.000He was involved in reviewing evidence in the MLK Jr. assassination.
00:35:28.000He testified for the defense in the O.J. Simpson trial, disagreeing with the prosecution's timeline.
00:35:33.000In the Michael Brown case, he claimed shots were fired from further away than the official autopsy indicated.
00:35:39.000Dr. Michael Bodden was also hired by the Epstein family to conclude that Jeffrey Epstein did not die by suicide, but homicidal strangulation.
00:35:45.000Bodden has literally been fired Twice from medical examiner positions.
00:35:48.000One as chief medical examiner of New York City after complaints about sloppy record keeping, poor judgment, and lack of cooperation.
00:35:54.000And then again from running Suffolk County's medical examiner's office.
00:35:57.000New York Magazine skewered Baden for his disconnect between his fame, which he loved to discuss, and his accomplishments, which paled in comparison to his fame chasing.
00:36:05.000Dr. Baden and Dr. Wilson determined that Floyd died from asphyxia due to neck and back compression.
00:36:09.000They claimed that pressure on Floyd's neck impaired blood flow to the brain while weight on his back impeded his ability to breathe.
00:36:14.000Most controversially, they stated that Floyd had no underlying medical problems that caused or contributed to his death.
00:36:20.000They came to that conclusion without access to the toxicology reports, tissue samples, Floyd's medical records, or the body cam footage.
00:36:26.000So when their findings completely contradicted the official autopsy, should we really be surprised?
00:36:31.000Moreover, Dr. Biden's report ignores the heart disease documented in the official Hennepin County autopsy.
00:36:35.000Dr. Biden went so far as to say, quote, I wish I had the same coronary arteries that Mr. Floyd had that we saw at the autopsy.
00:36:43.000Given that the official autopsy found Floyd's coronary arteries 90% blocked and two others 75% narrowed.
00:36:49.000Excited delirium syndrome, recognized by the American College of Emergency Physicians in a 2009 report, is characterized by a combination of delirium, agitation, and hyperadrenergic autonomic dysfunction, also known as the flight or fight response, which typically occurs in the context of drug use or serious mental illness.
00:37:05.000During Chauvin's trial, defense attorney Robert Paul questioned Dr. Baker extensively about his experience with excited delirium.
00:37:11.000Baker acknowledged he had listed this condition as a cause of death on some death certificates during his career, but he didn't include it in his report on Floyd.
00:37:17.000Floyd exhibited several signs consistent with excited delirium during his encounter with police.
00:37:21.000Agitation, paranoia, strength that required multiple officers to restrain him, sweating, and statements indicating perceptual disturbances.
00:37:28.000Combined with the known presence of methamphetamine and f*** in his system, these behaviors raised serious questions about whether excited delirium played a role in his death.
00:37:35.000In the months following Floyd's death, one of the Minneapolis Police Department's grand gestures indicating their commitment to police reform included the removal of excited delirium from its training documents altogether.
00:37:44.000The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the term excited delirium was crossed out in Minneapolis Police Department training PowerPoint slides replaced with severe agitation with confusion and in parentheses, delirium, a clear political revision of a medical condition that had been recognized for decades.
00:37:59.000Another finding from the autopsy that has received almost no attention is that Floyd tested positive for COVID-19.
00:38:04.000A post-mortem nasal swab confirmed Floyd had COVID-19 at the time of his death.
00:38:07.000Floyd had previously tested positive on April 3rd, 2020, approximately seven weeks before While the autopsy notes that this most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent positivity from previous infection, the potential impact of COVID-19 on Floyd's cardiac and respiratory function, especially given severe underlying heart disease, can't be dismissed.
00:38:24.000It's also important to note the Department of Justice had the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's official autopsy results reviewed by the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, who agreed with Dr.
00:38:34.000However, they added that the police's, quote, subdual and restraint had elements of positional and mechanical asphyxia.
00:38:39.000This additional comment introduces yet another potential mechanism of death, positional asphyxia.
00:38:44.000In other words, the position of the body prevents adequate breathing.
00:38:47.000The concept of positional asphyxia is complex and controversial in forensic medicine.
00:38:50.000It's typically diagnosed by excluding other causes of death, rather than by identifying specific physical findings.
00:38:56.000In Floyd's case, given his severe heart disease, drug intoxication, and the stress of the encounter, attributing his death primarily to positional asphyxia requires making assumptions that are not supported by the physical evidence.
00:39:06.000Let's go back to those findings, which deserve more detailed examination.
00:39:10.000Is an extremely potent synthetic opioid, estimated to be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
00:39:15.000It is a central nervous system depressant that can cause respiratory depression, hypoxia, and death.
00:39:20.000The concentration of in Floyd's blood was 11 nanograms per milliliter.
00:39:24.000Related deaths have found that postmortem blood concentrations can rage widely.
00:39:28.000Levels above 3 nanograms per milliliter are potentially lethal.
00:39:32.000Dr. Baker's comment to federal investigators that Floyd's level could constitute an overdose, quote, if you are found dead at home alone and no other apparent causes, is extremely significant.
00:39:40.000While Baker qualified this by saying, quote, I am not saying this killed him, the statement acknowledges that the concentration in Floyd's blood was, in isolation, potentially lethal.
00:39:48.000The combination of with methamphetamine creates what's known as a speedball effect.
00:39:52.000The stimulant, methamphetamine, masking some of the depressant effects of the opioid until the stimulant begins to wear off.
00:39:58.000At that point, the respiratory depression from the opioid can suddenly become overwhelming.
00:40:02.000This dangerous combination increases the risk of cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death.
00:40:06.000Given all these medical factors, let's consider the legal standard that should have been applied in Chauvin's trial, proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:40:12.000For a conviction on second-degree murder, the prosecution needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin's actions were a malicious causal factor in Floyd's death.
00:40:19.000As Coleman Hughes has pointed out in his analysis of this case, There were two different theories of what caused Floyd's death.
00:40:24.000The positional asphyxia theory and the adrenaline surge theory.
00:40:27.000As a juror, if you have two reasonable explanations for cause of death, one of which implicates the defendant and one of which does not, you are supposed to acquit.
00:40:33.000It is impossible to discuss this case without acknowledging the enormous political pressure surrounding it.
00:40:39.000The death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests and riots.
00:40:42.000Politicians, including President Biden and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, made public statements suggesting Chauvin's guilt before the trial even began.
00:40:49.000Dr. Baker testified that he and his staff received This intense pressure creates a context in which maintaining scientific objectivity can certainly become challenging.
00:41:00.000I was recently sent an American Spectator article by Jack Cashel that reveals how former D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Roger Mitchell, a politically connected activist and former D.C. Deputy Mayor, influenced the medical findings in the Floyd case.
00:41:11.000According to a memorandum of the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, in November 2020, Mitchell appears to have pressured Dr. Andrew Baker to alter his initial diagnosis.
00:41:19.000A document so significant, it should have immediately resulted in a new trial for Chauvin and the release of the other officers.
00:41:26.000Baker's initial autopsy was conducted May 26, 2020.
00:41:30.000His subsequent draft autopsy report found, quote, no physical evidence suggesting that Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation and no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation.
00:41:39.000In an unrelated Hennepin County deposition, Dr. Baker confided to Hennepin prosecutor Amy Sweezy, quote, What happens when the actual evidence doesn't match up with the public narrative that everyone's already decided on?
00:41:49.000This is the kind of case that ends careers.
00:41:51.000Then, Roger Mitchell enters the picture.
00:41:53.000According to the memorandum, Mitchell called Baker twice, ultimately threatening to publish a Washington Post op-ed critical of Baker's findings, telling him, quote, You don't want to be the medical examiner who tells everyone they didn't see what they saw.
00:42:03.000Mitchell concluded with a chilling ultimatum, quote, You don't want to be the smartest person in the room and be wrong.
00:42:08.000By the time Floyd's official autopsy report was released less than a week later on June 1, 2020, Dr. Baker had now added neck compression to his diagnosis, effectively transforming four police officers into murderers with the stroke of a pen.
00:42:19.000Worse yet, the Hennepin County prosecutors met with Dr. Baker to review his draft autopsy report without detectives or special agents present, violating protocol, and after being assigned to Chauvin's case by Governor Tim Walz one day prior, Minnesota AG Keith Ellison utilized the revised autopsy report to bring an additional second-degree murder charge against Chauvin.
00:42:37.000All of these revelations, despite qualifying as Brady material, were buried at trial and were never properly disclosed to Chauvin's defense.
00:42:43.000This is yet another reason why a presidential pardon and a new trial for Derek Chauvin is warranted on the state level.
00:42:48.000Chauvin was convicted in an atmosphere of intense political pressure with limited ability to present the full medical context of Floyd's death.
00:42:54.000The complex medical reality documented in the autopsy report was simplified and distorted to fit a predetermined narrative.
00:43:01.000Justice requires we consider all the evidence, not just the parts that support a particular political agenda.
00:43:06.000The detailed autopsy findings provide significant reasons to determine that Derek Chauvin did not receive a fair trial and his conviction for murder was not supported by the medical evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:43:15.000In our next episode, we'll examine the political and social context surrounding Chauvin's trial, including the $27 million settlement with Floyd's family announced during jury selection, the statements by public officials prejudging the case, and the threats of further unrest that created an atmosphere in which a fair trial was impossible.
00:43:31.000Before we wrap up today's episode, let me remind you to visit PardonDerek.com and sign our petition asking President Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin for his federal convictions.
00:43:39.000We'll also put up a website to donate to Derek Chauvin's legal defense fund in the description.
00:43:43.000This is about ensuring that justice is applied fairly and consistently without being swayed by political pressure or mob mentality.
00:43:50.000Okay, meanwhile, the economic news continues to be sort of mixed.
00:43:54.000Apparently an elevated chance of recession, some of that is being driven by tariff fears.
00:43:59.000President Trump continues to push forward with his tariff agenda, but there are some signs that maybe he's going to walk some of that back.
00:44:06.000According to The Wall Street Journal, President Trump said he might soften reciprocal tariffs he plans to impose on U.S.
00:44:10.000trading partners next month and that some nations might be completely exempt.
00:44:13.000He said, quote, I may give a lot of countries breaks.
00:44:15.000He said reciprocal tariffs could stop short of his pledge to equalize U.S.
00:44:18.000duties with rates other nations charged.
00:44:20.000He said, I'm embarrassed to charge them what they have charged us.
00:44:24.000Markets then rallied on expectations that Trump is going to dial all of this back.
00:44:28.000That came hours after President Trump said the United States would impose a 25% tariff on any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela.
00:44:34.000Now again, that is driven by his concerns over illegal immigration and by the fact that Venezuela is run by a communist dictator.
00:44:41.000On Monday, the Treasury Department extended Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela through late May, however.
00:44:47.000President Trump is describing his move as a secondary tariff on Venezuela over the flow of migrants to the United States, including Tren del Agua.
00:44:55.000As I've said before, I have faith that President Trump has a good handle on the headlines and he doesn't want a recession.
00:45:01.000And so that means that he might try a policy and if the policy does not work the way he wants it to, he may back off of the policy.
00:45:08.000At the same time, President Trump is touting the benefits of tariffs.
00:45:11.000Here he was yesterday saying that $4 trillion in investment is going to come back thanks to tariffs.
00:45:16.000First of all, many companies are now moving into the United States.
00:45:27.000We have probably identified maybe $4 trillion worth of companies moving back or going to move back.
00:45:35.000Many of them have announced it's going to be tremendous jobs, high-paying jobs, too.
00:45:42.000So, again, if the basic idea here is that high-paying jobs will come back thanks to the tariffs...
00:45:48.000The reason high-paying jobs are coming back to the United States is actually because of the deregulatory environment that is being pushed by the Trump administration.
00:45:54.000Far bigger than the tariffs is the stuff that's happening under the hood.
00:45:57.000The sort of deregulation that's happening at, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency.
00:46:01.000Lee Zeldin, head of the EPA, he says the EPA has already canceled over $22 billion worth of contracts.
00:46:07.000Cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse is huge.
00:46:08.000Cutting the regulatory infrastructure that prevents people from building and innovating is the biggest thing that the Trump administration is doing here with Secretary Zeldin.
00:46:17.000EPA has now canceled over $22 billion worth of contracts.
00:46:22.000$2 billion going to this NGO that Stacey Abrams was tied to.
00:46:59.000You can see the fear in its eyes, the sort of governmental overweening relationship with various public sector unions, for example.
00:47:06.000Yesterday, the head of the National Education Association, President Becky Pringle, she was complaining that the Department of Education is going to be wildly downgraded, possibly dismantled by Congress.
00:47:17.000Again, the bureaucracy, the bureaucratic state, the administrative state that has a corrupt relationship with all of these public sector unions and public sector employees, that is the great beast that does need to be brought down to size.
00:47:29.000Here's the NEA president lamenting all of this.
00:47:32.000And then, of course, we have seen them saying that they're going to actually dismantle it.
00:47:39.000Now, we know that that is something that only Congress can do.
00:47:43.000So we know that this administration is overstepping its authority.
00:47:48.000And that is what our suit is about, that that authority rests in Congress.
00:47:57.000Yeah, again, this sort of last gasp attempt to save themselves, I do not think that it is going to work.
00:48:03.000And because of that regulatory infrastructure that is being undercut, because of the subsidization schemes the Biden administration signed into law that are now going to be undercut, all that makes for a much more sanguine business environment.
00:48:15.000If you're wondering why the stock market continues to sort of hang around despite the tariffs, the answer is most business people have more faith that Trump is not going to do the dumb thing than they did under Joe Biden.
00:48:29.000Today, we're delighted to report that Hyundai is announcing a major $5.8 billion investment in American manufacturing.
00:48:41.000In particular, Hyundai will be building a brand new steel plant in Louisiana, which will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of steel a year, creating more than 1,400 jobs.
00:48:52.000for American steelworkers, and then there'll be major expansion after that.
00:48:57.000This will be Hyundai's first ever steel mill in the United States, one of the largest companies in the world.
00:49:02.000Meanwhile, the President of the United States continues to charge forward on illegal immigration as well.
00:49:20.000The unified message from the administration is having an effect because we have the lowest levels of illegal immigration that we have had in recorded American history.
00:49:27.000Tom Homan, who again, straight from Central Casting Borders, he says, we're just going to keep doing these deportations.
00:49:34.000We're going to keep arresting TDA members.
00:49:36.000We're going to keep arresting MS-13 members.
00:49:37.000We're going to keep arresting public safety threats to all this nation.
00:49:40.000Now, when it comes to the Alien Enemies Act, you know, if we're going to remove them through that act, we're going to have to wait for litigation.
00:49:58.000But until then, we're going to keep doing what we're doing, taking these public safety threats, especially TDA and MS-13 members off the street.
00:50:07.000So, again, they're going to continue charging for it on all this.
00:50:10.000Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, she is openly saying, do not come here illegally.
00:50:15.000If you're trying to get in, do not do it.
00:50:17.000So we are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that's saying, if you are thinking about coming to America illegally and coming here, don't do it.
00:50:28.000We have a legal process to becoming a United States citizen, and there are consequences if you come here illegally, and America has changed because we're putting Americans first.
00:50:40.000All this is, in fact, having a massive impact.
00:50:43.000The successes of the Trump administration continue to stack up.