The Megyn Kelly Show - Bombshell Report Debunks 2016 Russia Narratives, Trump vs. Dems on DOJ Nominees： AM Update 7⧸24

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00:00:30.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly.

00:00:35.600 It's Thursday, July 24th, 2025, and this is your AM update.

00:00:40.200 The implications of this are far-reaching and have to do with the integrity of our democratic republic.

00:00:46.860 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassifying more documents,

00:00:50.840 supporting her claim that President Obama and key staffers knowingly relied on bad intel

00:00:56.620 to create the Russia interference narrative.

00:00:59.400 And it's very clear that the Democrats are taking their sweet time in all these appointments.

00:01:02.860 And it really is cramping the ability of President Trump to run the government.

00:01:07.280 From Senate slow-walking to judicial curveballs, how the left is working to derail President Trump's nominees.

00:01:13.080 All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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00:02:19.700 The Russiagate document dump continues.

00:02:22.620 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday declassifying a previously unreleased

00:02:28.060 September 2020 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report.

00:02:32.860 Director Gabbard saying this report further outlines a plot by President Obama and other high-ranking

00:02:39.040 officials in his administration to manufacture the 2016 Russia interference narrative with

00:02:45.760 intelligence they knew to be unreliable, all in order to undermine the incoming Trump administration.

00:02:52.060 The newly released report analyzing the tradecraft used to compile a 2017 Intelligence Community

00:02:59.340 Assessment, or ICA, at the direction of President Obama.

00:03:03.820 It concluded, quote,

00:03:04.860 We also assess Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election

00:03:10.680 chances, when possible, by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably

00:03:17.400 to him.

00:03:18.260 This newly released 2020 intelligence report finding many serious flaws with the intelligence

00:03:24.760 and methods used to craft that ICA.

00:03:28.220 Launched by then-chairman of the committee, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes,

00:03:31.580 it was finished only after Democrats regained the majority in 2019, and under the new chairman,

00:03:38.060 Democrat Adam Schiff.

00:03:39.760 Surprisingly, it never saw the light of day.

00:03:42.600 Until now.

00:03:43.820 On Wednesday, Director Gabbard presenting to reporters some of what that buried report determined.

00:03:49.440 Then-CIA Director Brennan and the intelligence community mischaracterized intelligence and relied

00:03:54.040 on dubious substandard sources to create a contrived false narrative that Putin developed a

00:03:59.320 quote-unquote clear preference for Trump.

00:04:02.340 Brennan and the IC misled lawmakers by referencing the debunked Steele dossier to assess quote-unquote

00:04:08.500 Russia's plans and intentions, falsely suggesting that this dossier had intelligence value when

00:04:14.820 he knew that it was discredited.

00:04:16.220 The intelligence community excluded significant intelligence and ignored or selectively quoted

00:04:21.900 reliable intelligence that contradicted the intelligence community assessment's key

00:04:26.020 findings on Putin's alleged support for Trump.

00:04:29.160 The implications of this are far-reaching and have to do with the integrity of our democratic

00:04:35.320 republic.

00:04:36.080 It has to do with an outgoing president taking action to manufacture intelligence to undermine

00:04:43.340 and usurp the will of the American people in that election and launch what would be a

00:04:48.580 years-long coup against the incoming President of the United States, Donald Trump.

00:04:52.460 This latest disclosure providing even more color to the bombshell drop late last week, which

00:04:57.880 placed President Obama directly at the center of the plot to subvert the Trump administration.

00:05:03.420 In December 2016, the intel community was prepared to conclude that Russia did not use cyber attacks

00:05:09.180 on election infrastructure and any criminal activity from Russian-affiliated criminal actors

00:05:14.380 fail to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes.

00:05:19.720 There had been several other conclusions drawn by intel analysts that Russia's interference in

00:05:25.380 the 2016 election mirrored the minor interference it had done in many elections prior.

00:05:31.560 Director Gabbard providing a new possible explanation for why that presidential daily brief was pulled

00:05:37.080 before it went to President Obama.

00:05:39.200 The presidential daily brief, drafted on December 8th of 2016, stated that no Russian or criminal actors

00:05:46.960 impacted vote counts.

00:05:49.240 This document was pulled just hours before it was to be published due to quote-unquote new guidance.

00:05:55.460 If it had been published, it would have been briefed to both President Obama and President-elect

00:06:00.420 Donald Trump.

00:06:01.720 Instead, the following day, President Obama ordered the creation of a new assessment with a

00:06:07.020 predetermined narrative that contradicted what career intel analysts believed.

00:06:12.160 The 2020 House Intelligence Committee report, locked away until now, finding, quote,

00:06:17.300 production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the president and senior political

00:06:23.280 appointees, and particularly the director of the CIA, John Brennan.

00:06:27.640 The draft was not properly coordinated with CIA or the intelligence community, ensuring it would

00:06:33.360 be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.

00:06:37.020 Perhaps the most important revelation from the declassified intelligence report, finding

00:06:41.960 the ICA's key judgment that Putin developed a, quote, clear preference for candidate Trump

00:06:47.160 and aspired to help him win, did not meet tradecraft standards and was based on, quote, information

00:06:53.940 that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible.

00:06:58.880 Again, they hid this report, finding all of this from us, for five years.

00:07:04.360 According to the buried and newly released report, the only classified information cited to conclude

00:07:09.400 President Putin, quote, aspired to help Mr. Trump's chances of victory was based on, get this, quote,

00:07:15.700 one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from a single human report.

00:07:22.320 In fact, two of the five CIA analysts, handpicked by John Brennan, told him, quote,

00:07:29.160 we don't have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected.

00:07:33.700 He overruled them.

00:07:35.300 When analysts then objected to the discredited Steele dossier being used to support this flimsy

00:07:41.260 premise, Brennan reportedly said yes, but doesn't it ring true?

00:07:45.640 The just-released 2020 House Intelligence Committee's report also flagging that the

00:07:50.620 Russians had much more damaging information on Secretary Clinton than what was leaked in

00:07:55.120 the DNC email hack, but did not release it, even as the polling tightened in the final

00:08:00.840 weeks of the 2016 election, directly undermining the key judgment that Mr. Putin, quote, aspired

00:08:07.160 to help Trump.

00:08:08.580 If that were true, why didn't he release the damaging information on Secretary Clinton?

00:08:12.660 And Director Gabbard laying out some of the dirt the Russians allegedly had on the Secretary.

00:08:18.220 The report goes into great detail about the information that Russia and Putin had on Hillary

00:08:23.420 Clinton, which included possible criminal acts like secret meetings with multiple named

00:08:28.280 U.S. religious organizations in which State Department officials offered, in exchange for

00:08:34.300 supporting Secretary Clinton's campaign for the presidency, significant increases in financing

00:08:39.740 from the State Department.

00:08:40.800 They also had documents that showed the patronage of the State Department to State Department

00:08:46.640 employees who would go and support Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

00:08:50.900 There were high-level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary's, quote, psycho-emotional

00:08:55.900 problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness, and that then-Secretary Clinton

00:09:02.720 was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers.

00:09:05.980 Another damning piece of information the Russians held back was an email from the head of the

00:09:12.200 DNC claiming that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, whose FBI was investigating the Hillary 0.99

00:09:19.060 email scandal, was working to control James Comey and keeping a named member of the Clinton

00:09:25.580 campaign informed on what the FBI was doing in that email investigation.

00:09:31.120 MK Media star, after-party host Emily Jaschinski, from the new media seat in the White House press

00:09:36.920 room, asking Director Gabbard if these allegations rise to criminality.

00:09:41.180 Do you believe that any of this new information implicates former President Obama in criminal

00:09:47.380 behavior?

00:09:48.640 We have referred and will continue to refer all of these documents to the Department of Justice

00:09:53.360 and the FBI to investigate the criminal implications of this.

00:09:57.520 For even former President Obama?

00:09:58.860 The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama

00:10:06.540 leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment.

00:10:10.880 There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.

00:10:15.620 On Wednesday evening, the DOJ announcing the creation of a strike force to, quote,

00:10:19.900 assess the evidence publicized by DNI Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps,

00:10:25.520 which might stem from those disclosures.

00:10:28.860 Coming up, stalling in Washington, maneuvering in the courts, a deep dive into the battle

00:10:34.220 to keep President Trump's prosecutors out of power.

00:10:41.360 As President Trump is settling into his new administration, one of the top Democrats in

00:10:45.640 Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.

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00:11:14.500 And you could consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of

00:11:19.280 your credit card before it's too late.

00:11:21.780 President Trump's nominees for key U.S.

00:11:27.000 attorney positions facing resistance on multiple fronts, from what the DOJ calls judicial overreach

00:11:32.980 and Senate stonewalling.

00:11:35.300 Interim U.S.

00:11:36.080 Attorney General for the District of New Jersey, Alina Haba, set to reach the end of her 120-day

00:11:40.880 term later this week.

00:11:42.580 When there is no Senate-confirmed nominee, district judges are allowed to appoint a replacement.

00:11:47.300 The Trump administration lobbying the judges to reappoint Haba to the position, making her

00:11:52.320 role permanent as her nomination is currently stalled out in the Senate.

00:11:56.280 However, the judges instead taking the unusual, rare step of appointing her deputy, Desiree Lee

00:12:02.800 Grace, to take the top spot once Haba's term expires.

00:12:06.580 The DOJ firing back, removing Grace from her post, saying the DOJ does not tolerate rogue judges.

00:12:12.340 We spoke to senior counsel at the Article 3 project, Will Chamberlain, who says the judge's

00:12:17.220 decision smacks of political motivation.

00:12:19.920 First off, it's abnormal for judges to ever use this statute.

00:12:23.740 It's very, very rare.

00:12:25.020 We don't usually, usually because the Senate goes ahead and acts on U.S.

00:12:29.520 attorney appointments in an expeditious manner.

00:12:31.300 But the Senate, even with a Democrat minority, is being extremely obstructionist with all of

00:12:35.880 President Trump's appointees, including his U.S.

00:12:37.720 attorney appointees.

00:12:38.300 As a result, the vacancy statutes and the interim people are becoming much more important.

00:12:44.800 So that's why this is happening.

00:12:46.520 Now, there's a lot of questions here about what was the district court doing and were

00:12:50.680 these judges motivated by improper political factors?

00:12:53.400 Because Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House, actually posted that these judges

00:12:58.560 should go against Alina Haba.

00:13:00.620 And these judges have an ethical obligation not to engage in any sort of political conduct

00:13:04.680 whatsoever or to let political motivations influence their decision making.

00:13:08.100 So if these Democrat-appointed judges went along with a Democrat rep to thwart President

00:13:14.080 Trump's control of his own executive branch, that would be a serious problem.

00:13:17.280 Chamberlain says what happens next is unclear, but the Trump administration has several options

00:13:21.880 for restoring Haba to her position.

00:13:24.440 It's not clear exactly what's going to happen next, but most likely Haba is going to be reappointed

00:13:29.060 under in one of two ways.

00:13:31.520 First, she could be appointed as the first assistant U.S. 1.00

00:13:35.260 attorney in the District of New Jersey and under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

00:13:39.140 That would make her the acting U.S. 1.00

00:13:42.020 attorney.

00:13:42.540 So that's one way to accomplish this.

00:13:43.940 This was actually done already in the Northern District of New York with the U.S.

00:13:47.520 attorney there.

00:13:48.260 And then the second way is, theoretically, under the statute, they could just reappoint

00:13:52.240 Alina Haba.

00:13:53.380 Like, it's not clear that the statute stops Pambani from continually making these temporary

00:14:00.680 appointments and appointing the same person over and over again.

00:14:03.080 Chamberlain believes in a showdown between the New Jersey District Court and the Trump

00:14:06.600 administration, the Trump administration will win.

00:14:09.640 The president has the right to control who's in his executive branch, fundamentally.

00:14:13.680 Attempting to appoint a U.S.

00:14:15.740 attorney against the wishes of the Department of Justice is going rogue.

00:14:18.940 I mean, how are judges supposed to be able to appoint their own prosecutor?

00:14:22.060 It's Article 3 controlling Article 2.

00:14:23.820 I think that the judges can't win this battle, given the way that the Supreme Court is looking

00:14:28.380 at a lot of the removal statutes and, you know, a lot of these independent agencies.

00:14:32.760 The Supreme Court has already made clear that they think the president has the ability to

00:14:37.440 hire, to fire, for example, the head of the Office of Special Counsel.

00:14:41.520 And it seems very likely that Humphrey's executor, which is the case that created these sort

00:14:46.740 of independent agencies, that limited presidential removal powers, that those are all going to go.

00:14:52.200 So I suspect that President Trump is going to win this battle, just like he's been winning

00:14:56.560 almost all of his other court battles that give him the right to control the functioning

00:15:00.120 of his own executive branch.

00:15:01.760 U.S.

00:15:02.180 Senators from New Jersey, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, condemning the firing.

00:15:07.300 The chief judge, Renee Marie Blum, a George W.

00:15:10.180 Bush appointee, responding through an aide, quote,

00:15:12.740 the court will have no comment. A second Trump nominee, U.S.

00:15:16.580 Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Assaylee, covering L.A., Orange, Riverside,

00:15:22.220 San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties, stalled out due to lack

00:15:27.660 of support from the Democrat senators from California, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.

00:15:32.680 Chamberlain explains why these senators do not want Assaylee to remain in his position.

00:15:37.680 Assaylee is doing a remarkably good job. He and his office have been very clever in terms

00:15:42.600 of dealing with the recalcitrants from local authorities in Los Angeles who have been trying

00:15:47.280 to fight President Trump's immigration enforcement efforts. And one of the big things he did was he

00:15:52.060 found a way to work around the sanctuary city policies of Los Angeles by instead of having

00:15:59.260 ICE filed detainer requests for criminal aliens, he instead just indicted them for being in the country.

00:16:05.600 And by indicting them, local authorities are allowed to disregard an ICE retainer,

00:16:09.280 but they're not allowed to disregard a federal judicial warrant. So he's found a way to route

00:16:13.440 around the L.A. sanctuary city policies. One may wonder why a Republican nominee would need

00:16:19.120 the approval of two rival Democrat senators. Chamberlain explains. For U.S. attorneys and

00:16:25.140 district court and appellate judges in their states, traditionally the Senate has a history of

00:16:29.500 what's called the blue slip. This means that a judge or a U.S. attorney won't be appointed within

00:16:34.460 the jurisdiction of that senator unless the senator gives his approval. So it's a way for any individual

00:16:39.520 state senator to have a veto over the appointments in their own state. It kind of increases the power

00:16:43.700 of individual senators, which makes sense as to why the Senate would adopt this practice right there.

00:16:47.980 The Senate as a way of, you know, increasing the power of its members individually, it essentially

00:16:53.320 defers to them on the appointments that happen in their own state. Now, this isn't, this is just a rule

00:16:57.620 and a custom. It's not an absolute requirement, but the Senate tries to adhere to it as much as

00:17:03.120 possible. That said, here, I think that there's no reason to expect that Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla

00:17:08.940 would ever sign off on anybody that President Trump would consider acceptable in these offices.

00:17:13.860 So my hope is that the Senate ignores the blue slip requirement when it comes to California.

00:17:18.860 Assaylee's term is set to expire at the end of the month. It's not yet clear whether judges in his

00:17:23.460 district will attempt to follow suit with New Jersey judges in appointing their own preferred

00:17:28.020 U.S. attorney. Chamberlain says the Senate has bypassed blue slip approval in the past,

00:17:33.260 but more importantly, Republicans in the Senate need to move through nominations faster,

00:17:38.000 even if it means canceling or shortening the August recess.

00:17:41.580 It's not just U.S. attorneys, it's throughout the government. There are presidential appointees that

00:17:44.860 are having to wait very, very patiently in line. It's very clear that the Democrats are taking their

00:17:49.400 sweet time and forcing the maximum amount of debate on all these appointments.

00:17:52.140 And it really is cramping the ability of President Trump to run the government.

00:17:56.920 The Senate needs to stay. If Democrats are going to act like this, then John Thune shouldn't just

00:18:01.280 keep every senator in Washington, D.C. He should keep them there and have them be voting day and

00:18:06.640 night weekends. If the Democrats want this to be the way it works, then the Senate needs to just

00:18:12.020 stay in D.C. I apologize for those who have vacations that they're going to miss, but that's

00:18:16.480 the way the cookie crumbles.

00:18:17.960 Majority Leader Thune reportedly warning senators earlier this week to be ready to

00:18:21.780 possibly work through the first week of August.

00:18:26.100 And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show

00:18:30.520 live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly,

00:18:35.540 and on all podcast platforms.

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The Megyn Kelly Show - July 24, 2025

Bombshell Report Debunks 2016 Russia Narratives, Trump vs. Dems on DOJ Nominees： AM Update 7⧸24

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