The Stone Zone ｜ 05-30-25
Episode Stats
Summary
Trump wants to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public. Will this be a good thing for the economy and the housing market? Will it be a bad thing? Is it time for the government to take control of these two companies?
Transcript
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The Stone Zone, on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell refuses to cut interest rates despite the fact that
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inflation is historically low. He says he's waiting for new data. We'll talk about that
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in a minute. The President, unfortunately, does not have the authority to fire a Federal
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Reserve Chairman. He can appoint a new chairman, which he will do next year. But he could, of
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course, support a move in Congress to repeal the Federal Reserve Act. Perhaps it's time to shut
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this bank down because they are trying to slow down the coming Trump boom. We've already seen the
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drop in energy prices, the drop in interest rates, the drop in food prices. We've also seen the
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surge in revenues from Trump's new tariff policy as much as $225 billion has poured into the country
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with far more expected. In the meantime, President Trump has made a monumental announcement concerning
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the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, and the Federal
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Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, informally known as Freddie Mac. This could not only bring the American
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taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, but it could also help lower interest rates and make housing
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more affordable. What we need in this country are homes, affordable homes, Trump homes, if you will.
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On True Social, President Trump wrote, our great mortgage agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provide a
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vital service to our nation by helping hardworking Americans reach the American dream, home ownership. I am working
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to make these amazing companies public. I will stay strong in my position on seeing them as president. These agencies are
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doing a very good job. They're doing very well, and they will help us make America great again. In another post, the
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president said, I'm giving various serious consideration to bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public. I'll be speaking to
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Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, among the president's very best appointees, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and the
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director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, among others. And we're making a decision in the very near future.
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of cash, and the time would seem to be right. Now, it's very
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important to recognize that the president also said that he would, let me use his exact words, our great
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mortgage agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provide a vital service to our nation by helping hardworking
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Americans reach the American dream of home ownership. I'm working on taking these amazing companies public,
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but, and this is the key, I want to make clear that the U.S. government will continue its complicit
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guarantees of all the mortgages, and I will stay strong in my position on seeing that that happens
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as president. These agencies are doing very well, can help us make America great again. What this guarantees
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is that the housing bond market will be unaffected by an effort to take them public. The president's ready
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to make these major reforms, it seems to me. The breakaway establishment beltway politicians who have
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maintained federal conservatorship of the two companies are going out of their minds. Trump is arguing that now
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would be the time for the U.S. to monetize the companies for taxpayers and take both companies
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public. It is important to note his guarantee. So it's interesting, Jim Parrott, owner of the housing
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finance consultancy Parrott-Ryan Advisors and a former economic advisor, President Barack Obama,
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said these comments represent a sea change in Republican thinking on Fannie and Freddie. These comments put on the
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table for the first time in recent memory the possibility the government may retain control of
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Fannie and Freddie, maybe permanently, and use their revenues to pay for other policy needs. Fannie Mae,
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by the way, earned $17 billion in net income in 2024, while Freddie Mac netted $11.9 billion in profits.
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If the government simply funneled these funds to Treasury, as it did from 2012 to 2019, these revenues
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projected forward could yield $289 billion over the next 10 years. This is money that could be applied
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to paying down our enormous deficit, which is, of course, unsustainable. Here is Bill Pote talking
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about his prescription. This Biden inflation that we had the last four years, which created this housing
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crisis. Now President Trump is coming in and fixing it, and he's turning around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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You know, Bill, I don't know if you know this, and most Americans don't know this, but there's $7.8
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trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that we, as the American taxpayers, have many rights to.
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$7.8 trillion. And until President Trump showed up on the scene, nobody even really knew that they
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were making this much money and that we had these as huge assets. So, like one of my friends said
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recently, President Trump just finds money everywhere. And he found money at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
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and we're going to use it for the benefit of the American people. Okay, so Bill, I heard that same
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comment on another network from you yesterday. You said this is a business that could be worth
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trillions of dollars. Trillions to whom? Trillions to the American people, trillions to the shareholders.
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One day. I mean, you know, we've got to clean up the capital structure, and that's potentially
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what the president is looking at. He will still be in control. It will still be a very,
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very prominent company for the government. However, we are really focused on driving
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operational improvements and really making these great American icons once again.
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And Bill, the American economy is very robust. And under President Trump's leadership,
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these two companies, I stand behind it, they're going to make over $30 billion a year in earnings.
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I think that number will eventually be over $50 billion. These are huge assets, Bill,
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and it's about time we have a president who actually knows that they are there.
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Bill Pulte, the president's courageous director of the Federal Home Finance Agency. He's the same
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man who sent a criminal referral regarding the serial mortgage fraud by New York Attorney General
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Letitia James to the US Justice Department, has also called on the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
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to lower interest rates. Let's listen to Bill Pulte once again.
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From where you sit, what is the most convincing argument for the Fed to cut rates at a time
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when the White House's tariffs threaten to reignite inflation?
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Well, first and foremost, inflation is lower than it was the last time they cut. President Trump has
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been very successful at reducing inflation. And so, therefore, it just only makes sense that if
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inflation was higher and they did cuts then, why can't they do cuts now? But to your point,
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for the last four years, at least as it pertains to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, inflation has been
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totally out of control. Mortgage rates skyrocketed. And frankly, people are trapped in their homes with
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these low interest rates. We need to get interest rates down. And President Trump, I believe,
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deserves that because he's crushed this Biden inflation. President Trump and Treasury Secretary
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Scott Besson have also called on Chairman Powell to lower rates. The chairman is demuring,
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saying he doesn't have enough data. Well, a few thoughts on Jerome Powell. First of all,
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he's not a lawyer. He's a lawyer. He's not a trained economist. He always says that he's data
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dependent, but the data he's looking at is old and significantly lags what's actually going on in
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the marketplace. This would be analogous to driving a car down the highway, but looking in the rearview
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mirror. It's dangerous. And that's why we have these boom and bust cycles. The next Fed chair,
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the president points, who I hope will be much better, will understand this. It is actually
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Powell who is being political. He, of course, says the president, in demanding an interest rate cut
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because inflation is historically low, is the one being political. The Fed has become like a bunch of
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lemmings. If they disagree, they get ostracized. This does not allow for open debate and true thinking.
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Perhaps this is because the Fed has become a collection of neo-Keynesian economists with no
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opposing views. Contrast this, for example, with the United Kingdom, whose central bank often has votes
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that are 5-4 instead of unanimous. The Fed has a habit of cherry-picking economic reports. For example,
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the gross domestic product showed a negative reading in Q1 in the first quarter, but the Fed disregarded it
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because the import calculation was quite high, which distracts from the gross domestic product since
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it was front-running the tariffs, you see. However, the Fed forgot the offset of interventories that were
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built from the increased imports, which adds to GDP. So you see how they are manipulating the data.
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The job numbers look good on the headline, but there is significant underlying weaknesses. The Fed
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either does not understand it or refuses to accept it as they continually ignore the current solid
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labor market. The job gains are coming from overstatements in the birth-death ratio and have been
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consistently revised lower to the tune of 50% of the original reported headlines. This was done to
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benefit Joe Biden's re-election. They would announce enormous job gains and then get huge headlines.
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And then weeks later, they would quietly restate their findings and they would move all those numbers
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down. Job openings have actually been plummeting and unemployment duration periods have been rising
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significantly. I'm concerned the labor market will continue to weaken and the unemployment rate could
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approach 5% if Jerome Powell does not cut rates. Powell is obsessed with 2% as his inflation target. After
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all, they did such a horrific job of allowing inflation to rise over 9% that now suddenly they've gotten
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religion on this topic. But the reason inflation rose to 9% was because the Fed was once again looking
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through the rear-view mirror. They kept the quarters and zero interest rate policy for too long, which was
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like pouring gasoline on Biden's profligate spending because they had covered due to the inflation readings,
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which were still printing low numbers because, again, the lag in what is really happening in the marketplace.
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The forward-looking data shows inflation was about to explode, yet the Fed refused to look ahead and made
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terrible decisions by relying on the faulty lagging data. This is the mistake they made under Joe Biden.
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It's not a mistake we want them to make under President Donald Trump.
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The main culprit in this lag is the shelter component. That's housing. This is the largest
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weighting in both in terms of the PCE and CPI inflation reports. In fact, it makes up over 44%
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of the core CPI. The reason why shelter lags is because of the way it is calculated by the Bureau
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of Labor Statistics. They divide the country into six parts and only look at the areas every six months,
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which clearly creates the lag I've been talking about. Additionally, they're asking what the current
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rent payment, which could be reflective of a lease that was signed months earlier. This creates
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approximately a one-year lag when you look at shelter, housing, the most influential component
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within the inflation reports. The Fed is making the same mistake again. What the housing market needs
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is consistency and predictability. They need to know what interest rates are going to be. Chairman Pulte
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and Secretary of Treasury Besson are absolutely right, as is the President. The time to cut rates is now. If,
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however, the Chairman refuses to cut rates, there is no way around this. The President does not have the
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constitutional authority to fire the Fed Chairman. Perhaps Congressman Ron Paul was right all along.
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Perhaps it's time for the Congress to repeal the Federal Reserve Act. Remember when they told us they
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were going to look at our gold that was held by the Federal Reserve and by the Federal Reserve in New
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York and in Fort Knox? Whatever happened to that? How come nobody has seen the gold since 1974? Where is
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the gold, I ask? We'll find out. Thanks for joining us here in the Stone Zone. Whatever you do,
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don't touch that dial because we'll be right back with the latest in American politics, the news,
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and well, some surprises. Gordon Chang is going to join us because the Chinese did exactly what he
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predicted they would do on this show only about a week ago. They have double-crossed President Donald
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Trump. The Stone Zone on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:13:45.700
If you're looking to create, grow, and sustain your wealth, download and subscribe to the Pain
00:13:54.340
Points of Wealth Podcast at BeBullish.com with Bob, Ryan, and Chris Payne. It's your podcast for market
00:14:01.300
insights, money tips, and real talk on the economy. Download and subscribe at BeBullish.com.
00:14:08.820
To me, Elon Musk is a hero. See, the left loved Elon Musk and they loved electric cars until he bought
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Twitter and canceled their censorship policies and made it a free speech platform. I had 980,000
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followers when I was banned for life in 2017. My crime, the rule I violated, supporting Donald Trump
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for president. Suddenly, Elon Musk found himself the target of nine different federal investigations into
00:14:51.060
his various businesses. I think he woke up to the fact that they would target anyone who stood up for
00:14:57.140
free speech. He now has done an incredible job at his DOES, the Department of Government Efficiency,
00:15:04.340
uncovering not millions, not billions, but trillions of dollars in waste, fraud, and corruption.
00:15:12.020
Whether the Congress has the guts to follow through, Elon Musk is a hero, but he's right about one thing.
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The president honored him in the ceremony in the Oval Office, and Musk took direct aim at the New York
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Times. Let's listen to Elon Musk. You know, some of the media organizations in this room were the
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Slingers. There is a New York Times report today that accuses you of blurring the line between...
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Is the New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on
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the Russiagate? Is it the same organization? I think it is. I think it is. I think the
00:15:56.260
judges ruled against the New York Times for their lies about the Russiagate hoax, and that they might
00:16:02.180
have to give back that Pulitzer Prize. That New York Times? Let's move on. Elon is exactly right. I had the
00:16:09.620
same exact experience with the New York Times when they covered the Soviet-style witch hunt that my
00:16:15.380
family and I were subjected to. This is one where we only learned after I was pardoned that the judge
00:16:22.260
withheld exculpatory evidence to prove that I had no knowledge of Russian collusion, WikiLeaks
00:16:27.540
collaboration, or any other crime. Now, I was prosecuted because I refused to offer false testimony
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against President Donald Trump. And when BuzzFeed sued the U.S. Justice Department to get Robert
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Mueller's full and complete final report unredacted and published and a federal judge ordered it,
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we saw the graphic admission that Mueller had found no evidence of Russian collusion, WikiLeaks
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collaboration, or any other crime against me. This information had been withheld from my defense
00:17:02.180
lawyers. Look it up in the New York Times, however. It was on November 3rd, 2020, at midnight, that the
00:17:09.300
Justice Department released this shocking admission that Roger Stone did nothing wrong, but the New York
00:17:15.620
Times never reported it. Don't go away. We'll be back with old China hand Gordon Chang, who's going to tell
00:17:22.660
us why he was accurate last week when he told us on the show that the Chinese would make a tariff
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deal with President Donald Trump that they almost immediately would violate.
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The Stone Zone. On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:17:46.980
The Stone Zone. On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:17:52.660
And we're back in the Stone Zone. Joining me now is old China hand Gordon G. Chang. Gordon Chang has
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lived and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong for almost two decades. He is a columnist, has written for
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Newsweek, The Hill, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Barron's, and elsewhere.
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His most recent book, Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America, now available on Amazon.
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It's must reading. I highly recommend you. Gordon, welcome back into the Stone Zone. It was right
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here on this show only days ago that you predicted that China would reach a tariff agreement with the
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United States, but you also predicted that they would violate that agreement. And now, just as you
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predicted, that is exactly what has happened. President Donald Trump on True Social said two weeks ago,
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China was in grave economic danger. The very high tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for
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China to trade into the United States marketplace, which is by far number one in the world. We went,
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in effect, cold turkey with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed,
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and there was, to put it mildly, civil unrest. I saw what was happening. I didn't like it for them,
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nor for us. I made a fast deal with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a
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very bad situation, and I did not want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly
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stabilized, and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy. That was the good news. The bad
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news, however, is that China, perhaps surprising, not surprising to some, that would include Gordon
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Chang, has totally violated its agreement with us, so much for being Mr. Nice Guy. Well, Gordon Chang,
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I have to hand it to you. You called all this just days ago. Well, that was really easy, Roger. So it
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didn't take very much in the way of powers of prediction. What we saw, especially after the May 12th
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agreement was announced, was that China did not adhere to its main promise, which was to remove
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non-tariff barriers that it had put in place after April 2nd, Liberation Day. This was a very easy thing
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for Beijing to do. Specifically, this was the export ban on rare earths to the United States. It's important
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to us. I don't know why China didn't do it. But clearly, we're now at a point, which was easy to
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see. And that is, Beijing is in violation of the agreement, and the United States needs to do
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something about it. Yeah, I think you're right. You would think that the Chinese would actually have
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some sense of relief that we're not launching a nuclear attack on Iran, since they depend on their
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Iranian puppet states for so much of their oil. What are the ways that China is violating the current
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agreement? Yeah, the most important one is the failure to remove the export ban on rare earths.
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This was specifically referred to when the May 12th agreement said all of the measures that
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China had put in place after April 2nd. And that certainly included the rare earth ban,
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which was actually discussed in Geneva, between the American and the Chinese negotiators.
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So it was something that China knew that we expected them to do right away. You know,
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the thing about this May 12th agreement was, as President Trump intimated in that posting,
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this was a very favorable agreement for China. So it's in China's interest to make sure that it goes
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forward and that we adhere to it. And so it really is, you know, a very short sighted decision on the
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part of the Chinese to try to test President Trump by not adhering and complying with the agreement.
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Yeah. And those who have tested Donald Trump in the past have found out that he has ice water in his
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veins when it comes to negotiating, particularly when he's negotiating on behalf of the American
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public. What do you think happens next in this Chinese American tariff minuet?
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President Trump is going to impose some cost, and I think he's going to do it pretty soon.
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He's made a marker for himself with the posting a few hours ago, which means that it will happen.
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I don't know what form it'll take. Probably an increase in tariffs could be something else. We'll find out.
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Yeah, I guess he could also use sanctions if he wanted to. He does. Of course, some federal court
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has already attempted to tell him that he doesn't have the authority to do any of this. This was one
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of the most incredible things I've seen in a 50 year career in American politics, where a federal judge
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in Florida says that Donald Trump has the authority set by Congress to negotiate tariffs for reasons
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beyond just revenue. The drugs pouring into our country, the trade imbalance, those are
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legitimate reasons. Trump declared an economic emergency in order to give himself this executive
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power as required by the Constitution. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, this incredibly obscure
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international court of trade, which is located in Manhattan, of all places, rules the president doesn't
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have this authority. Trump's lawyers appealed within hours, and a federal appeals court stayed the
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the international trade court's decision so the president can get back to negotiating better trade
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deals for the American people. We haven't seen a final ruling on that, but we presume, much like the
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earlier federal court rulings that said that he didn't have the authority to deport violent illegal
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immigrant criminals from the United States. It will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, I imagine.
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And my guess is that the International Trade Court, which threw out a hundred years of precedent,
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allowed every other president to set tariffs unencumbered, will be overturned. In the meantime,
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I think I want to focus on the part of the president's statement, Gordon, when he spoke of civil unrest
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unfolding in China. The Chinese have an extraordinarily brutal regime. They rule with an iron fist. What is
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the situation on the ground in China today? Well, there have been protests of workers, and indeed,
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workers have been burning down their factories. A recent example was a worker who was not paid 800
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renminbi, and basically a little bit more than 100 U.S. dollars. He burned down his factory. And that
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could happen in any country, Roger. But 800 brother, as he is now known, has become a folk hero throughout
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China. And that doesn't happen in countries. What it says is that China's people are extremely unhappy.
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And whenever they get the opportunity, they will take to the streets as they have been. Also, we have
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had hints that there are depositor protests in the eastern part of the country, big cities like Shanghai and
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Beijing. And that really is an indication that the banks are being squeezed. Now, I'm sure that these
00:25:31.940
are the smaller financial institutions, because the big ones are flush with cash. But it shows that
00:25:38.980
the problems in the economy are now radiating into the banking system. And that's a really bad sign for
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Beijing. The president, by his deft moods in the Middle East, is very clearly trying to isolate China.
00:25:52.820
He would like to get a solution to the Russian-Ukraine war. That's proving more difficult than perhaps
00:25:58.980
the president had thought. Whenever he gets one side lined up, the other side falls apart on him.
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I was kind of surprised that he was unaware of the attempted assassination of Vladimir Putin,
00:26:12.340
where his helicopter was attacked by Ukrainian drones. I bet those drones, by the way, came from
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the United States. It would explain Vladimir Putin's reticence to come to the table. I was hopeful
00:26:27.780
that Putin would show up in Turkey, where our ambassador, Tom Barrack, extraordinarily able
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individual who the president not only appointed as ambassador to Turkey, but also special envoy to Syria,
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Syria, where we are beginning the peacemaking process with the new Syrian leadership. I was hoping that
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Putin would show up, and that since the president was already in the Middle East, that he might drop
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in and broker the deal himself. See, I've read the art of the deal. Gordon, how stable is the government
00:27:05.300
of Chairman Xi? We Americans think that, you know, that they don't have their own internal politics,
00:27:12.740
but indeed they do. They certainly do. So for instance, there is credible information to suggest
00:27:20.100
that Xi Jinping has lost substantial influence, or maybe even total control over the Chinese military.
00:27:27.540
Recently, his loyalists have disappeared from public view. There are rumors that they were suicided.
00:27:33.540
I don't know if that's true or not, but we do know we haven't seen them. And when we also can see
00:27:40.020
other developments in the Chinese military that suggest that Xi Jinping did not, as many people believe,
00:27:46.740
he did not actually get rid of his own people. It's Xi Jinping's adversaries in the middle in the
00:27:53.620
military got rid of them. And that says that Xi Jinping's control and influence throughout the
00:28:00.980
Chinese political system, military and civilian has now been weakened. There are all sorts of
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rumors that are flying around about the Chinese civilian leaders undermining Xi Jinping. I don't
00:28:15.380
know if those are true. We have no way of confirming them and very little in the way of information that
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would lead us to one conclusion or another. But these rumors are there, Roger. And usually when you hear a lot
00:28:28.900
of rumors of this type, it means that people are trying to undermine whoever is the target of the
00:28:35.620
rumors, in this case, Xi Jinping. So yeah, I think the Chinese political system is really unstable right now.
00:28:41.220
If you're just tuning in, we're talking to Gordon Chang. You find him at Gordon G. Chang on X,
00:28:47.700
Gordon G. Chang on X. He has a very lively commentary there. He's also the author of a
00:28:54.660
terrific book, Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America. That's available on Amazon. I've
00:29:02.020
read his previous books, China's Going to War, The Great U.S.-China Tech War, Losing South Korea, Nuclear
00:29:09.620
Showdown. And his analysis of the events in North Korea, as well as China, are always incisive and on
00:29:18.820
the money. I don't believe that Chairman Xi trusts his military. I also don't believe that he's confident
00:29:25.860
about the capabilities of his military. The last time you joined us, I asked you about the probability
00:29:34.340
of a move on Taiwan, something I thought was highly probable under the weak foreign policy of President
00:29:42.660
Joe Biden. I think Chairman Xi knew that if they grabbed nationalist China, Taiwan, the result would be
00:29:49.860
a strong letter of protest from Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, because Joe was probably sleeping.
00:29:59.220
Do you still think it is unlikely that the Chinese attest President Donald Trump vis-a-vis Taiwan?
00:30:07.460
What I think is unlikely is that Xi Jinping would initiate hostilities with an attempt to take the main
00:30:15.140
island of Taiwan because, as you point out, I don't think Xi Jinping trusts his military.
00:30:22.020
You know, it's entirely possible. Two other things, though, are entirely possible and maybe even
00:30:27.060
probable. Taiwan has a lot of little islands that are just off the Chinese mainland, some of them as
00:30:33.620
close as three miles. Xi Jinping needing a quick victory could take one of those little ones because
00:30:39.940
that would be a fairly simple military exercise. The other thing that could happen is Xi has been
00:30:47.060
engaged in very provocative activity on his periphery against South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines,
00:30:54.660
Australia. One of those confrontations could go wrong. That could spiral down into a major conflict,
00:31:04.020
This is, of course, fascinating. Donald Trump prefers commerce over chaos, but you can see him
00:31:12.020
moving aggressively to try to isolate the Chinese. How successful do you think he can be at that?
00:31:19.860
He can be extremely successful because, as Trump mentioned in his posting, everybody needs the U.S.
00:31:25.220
market. U.S. consumers account for something like 38, 39 percent of global consumer spending. That's an
00:31:32.820
enormous percentage. And all of these countries need the United States. So, President Trump can use
00:31:40.900
that leverage. He's got to negotiate with some skill. It's been a little bit chaotic up to now,
00:31:49.780
but I'm sure that President Trump will be able to use the power of our market to accomplish what's
00:31:58.180
I, again, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to Gordon Chang. Gordon, I want to thank you for
00:32:03.060
joining us in the Stone Zone today. You can follow Gordon at Gordon G. Chang in X. He also is the
00:32:11.140
author of a terrific new book, Plan Red China's Project to Destroy America, which you can find in
00:32:17.140
Amazon. If you want to know what's going to happen in China and in Chinese-American relations, follow
00:32:23.220
Gordon Chang on X. His analysis is excellent, and we're always glad to have him here in the Stone Zone.
00:32:35.300
Coming up, Dan Bongino, the deputy FBI director, says he's found an entire room of documents,
00:32:43.380
most of them pertaining or many of them pertaining to the so-called Russian collusion hoax,
00:32:49.140
and they're going to be releasing those documents. We'll be talking about it here in the Stone Zone
00:32:54.740
when we come back, so whatever you do, stick with us if you want to hear the latest on the
00:32:59.700
Russian collusion hoax and whether those who perpetrated it on America will ever face justice,
00:33:07.620
The Stone Zone on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:33:13.380
Yesterday, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino dropped a bombshell.
00:33:31.140
You will recall that both Bongino and FBI Director Cash Patel both said in an interview that they had
00:33:38.100
been persuaded based on the evidence that a sex trafficker convicted in Florida and facing federal
00:33:46.260
charges Jeffrey Epstein had indeed killed himself. This flies in the face of an examination of Epstein's
00:33:55.060
body by Michael Baden, the former New York medical examiner who is widely respected as
00:34:01.780
one of the most prominent pathologists in the country. Baden said that Epstein's neck was broken in three places,
00:34:14.420
that he's never in the hundreds of cases regarding strangulation that he had done autopsy,
00:34:21.940
and he had never seen that. He said that that indicates that Epstein was choked to death. His hyoid
00:34:30.100
bone was broken, which Baden said was widely uncommon in these cases. Now, add to that the fact that the
00:34:39.620
security cameras happened to the security cameras happened to be malfunctioning. The two guards who were
00:34:46.500
supposed to be monitoring Epstein fell asleep. And we know that Epstein retained a new criminal defense attorney,
00:34:56.740
David Schoen, only days before he allegedly killed himself.
00:35:02.820
He had Wired shown a down payment on his very large retainer, and they scheduled a conference for the
00:35:13.460
following week of all Epstein's lawyers to plot a legal strategy. Now, Bongino tells us that one of the cameras was
00:35:24.100
functioning, and it proves that Epstein was alone in his cell at the time that he died. I would
00:35:32.420
welcome that because it would show some clarity to the situation. I have the highest possible regard
00:35:40.740
for FBI Director Cash Patel and a high regard for Dan Bongino, who I don't know as well, but he's a
00:35:49.700
former New York City police officer, a former Secret Service agent. He's highly qualified for his job.
00:35:56.660
I had to chuckle when Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal criticized Bongino, saying that Bongino was
00:36:04.580
unqualified. This is the same U.S. Senator who lied about seeing action actually being in combat in Vietnam
00:36:13.700
when he'd never actually been to Vietnam at all. I would say that that disqualifies Richard Blumenthal
00:36:21.300
from holding office rather than Dan Bongino. The other interesting thing is Bongino announced that they had
00:36:28.020
found an entire room under the control of the FBI where documents had been hidden from the public. We have to
00:36:35.060
presume these documents were also hidden from Special Counsel John Durham, whose report proved that the Russian
00:36:43.060
collusion hoax was exactly that, a hoax cooked up by Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Susan Rice, the National Security
00:36:52.980
Advisor, James Comey, the FBI Director, John Brennan, the CIA Director, Andrew McCabe, the Deputy FBI Director. I want to
00:37:02.260
know what's in that room. I think we got a hint yesterday when they released a previously hidden
00:37:08.500
document document that proved that Nellie Orr, who was married to Bruce Orr, one of the orchestrators at the FBI of the
00:37:15.300
collusion hoax, had lied before Congress about her knowledge of the affair. So hope springs eternal that we will get
00:37:23.700
justice in the Russian collusion hoax, the greatest single abuse of power and dirty trick in the history of American
00:37:32.260
politics. Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone. We love to talk news, history, politics, food,
00:37:40.660
fashion, you name it. Until we meet again, I want to thank you for tuning in. God bless you and Godspeed.
00:37:49.460
Thanks for listening to The Stone Zone with Roger Stone. You can hear The Stone Zone with Roger Stone weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC.
00:37:59.460
If you like the podcast, share it with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the
00:38:06.660
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