The Tucker Carlson Show - Lawyer Bob Amsterdam represents the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He says the brutality they face at the hands of the Ukrainian government is truly shocking.

On Saturday, the House of Representatives approved $95 billion in American tax dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. That package, that spending package, passed overwhelmingly, 316 to 94. That's $61 billion that went to Ukraine. And that's just a small portion of the $230 billion that Congress has already given the Ukrainian government. And it's possible not to be cynical that all of this money is being sent across the world to Ukraine because it's much easier for our ruling class to steal once it's off the books. But after the vote passed, overwhelmingly members of Congress showed just how closely we are now aligned with Ukraine by waving and cheering and displaying the flags of a foreign government inside the Congress. Do they really love Ukraine? Ask any person in that room, how many Ukrainian people have died in the war that you are paying them? And not one of them can answer the question, "How many Ukrainians have died?" They have no idea because they don't really care about the Ukrainians. So maybe it's not really about Ukraine. Maybe the real enemy is not the Russian government after all. It's not the other way around. Tucker Carlson's new book, "The Devil Next Door" is out now, and it's going to make you think twice about what you're supposed to do with your money and your time in the United States. If you don't like the truth, then you should listen to Tucker's podcast. Links From This Episode: Free Training From Tucker Carlson: How To Be More Honest And Fair And Honest About It On The Internet: His New Book "Tucker Carlson's New Book Out There" Is Out Now: Watch It On All Of That And More On His Podcast on His Podcast And More Here's The Truth About It And The Rest Of It On It And His Story On It, And It's Not Really That's Not Good And He's Not Gonna Say It, But He's Gonna Let That? And He'll Let Me Hear It On That And He Will Tell It And He Can't Say It And I Can't Wait To Hear It, So Let Me Say It? And So Much More And He Won't Let It And It Will Be More Than That, So He Can Be It, Too BECAUSE He Says It, He Can T Say It... And He Sells It, I'll Gasp And He Gives It And So It's Gotta Hear It? And He Also Has It,

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Tucker Carlson podcast. It's pretty obvious at this point that the corporate

00:00:15.060 media are dying quickly, but why? Because they lie. That's right. They lie and they died as a

00:00:24.220 result. But at tuckercarlson.com, we do not lie. We promise to bring you honest interviews and

00:00:29.120 commentary without fear. Here's our latest episode. On Saturday, the House of Representatives,

00:00:34.580 the legislative body that writes the laws for our bankrupt country, approved $95 billion in

00:00:41.500 American tax dollars in foreign aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Taiwan, by the way, happens

00:00:47.280 to be one of the richest countries in the world. That package, that spending package, passed

00:00:51.960 overwhelmingly, 316 to 94. So let's narrow out a piece of it. That would be the $61 billion that

00:00:59.500 went to Ukraine. Now, so far, Congress has given the Ukrainian government nearly $174 billion in

00:01:08.900 munitions and so-called aid. Then you add another $60 billion that Joe Biden gave to Zelensky, and the

00:01:14.360 total is over $230 billion. And that's just the money that was publicly appropriated that we can

00:01:20.420 account for. There's a lot more than that. So let's take a look at what's in the package that

00:01:25.560 just passed on Saturday, the bankrupt country sent across the world to the Ukrainian government. 0.91

00:01:32.600 There's $14 billion to purchase weapons. There's $15 billion for military training and intelligence

00:01:37.760 sharing, since the U.S. intel agencies are running the Ukrainian intel agencies, even as they assassinate

00:01:43.840 people. Then there's $8 billion for the Ukrainian government. It's pensions for its bureaucrats,

00:01:49.060 $8 billion for its pensions. And then there's $300 million to help Ukraine secure its border.

00:01:55.360 None to secure our border, $300 million to help Ukraine secure its border. Just the priorities

00:02:00.580 are clear. That's all real. Before the vote, Nancy Pelosi went on the House floor to demand that our

00:02:05.720 colleagues keep the money flowing to Zelensky. If you vote any other way, you're somehow for rape. 0.76

00:02:11.420 Watch. I hope that our colleagues will choose democracy and decency rather than autocracy and

00:02:19.360 evil, because I fear that if you choose the Putin route, you will have blood on your hands. Blood of

00:02:27.340 the children, blood of their mothers, raped in front of their parents, raped in front of their children. 1.00

00:02:32.520 Yeah. Vote for this or you have blood on your hands. And by the way, that's a person who's gotten 1.00

00:02:37.260 stupendously rich, you wonder how, while serving in the United States Congress. But she's not sending

00:02:42.420 any of her own money to Ukraine. She's sending your money to Ukraine. So alongside this, the House

00:02:48.080 advanced legislation that would allow Biden to place frozen Russian assets in a special slush fund

00:02:53.160 specifically for Ukraine. That'd be $8 billion worth of material the U.S. government just stole

00:03:00.220 from Russian citizens without a trial. We don't like you. We're taking it. That money currently sits in U.S. 1.00

00:03:05.960 bank accounts. And it's possible not to be cynical that all of this money is being sent to Ukraine

00:03:12.660 because it's much easier for our ruling class to steal once it's offshore. So the bottom line here

00:03:19.780 is that we are at war with Russia and we're doing so on behalf of Ukraine. Now, why are we doing this?

00:03:26.360 There are several emergencies unfolding in the United States. Economic and indeed military were being

00:03:32.100 invaded. But you should not worry about this, says Congressman Jerry Connolly of Virginia, because

00:03:39.100 we're not actually sending money to a foreign country. Ukraine is America. Watch. 0.85

00:03:44.920 And today, we cannot disappoint those who seek what we have, freedom, the freedom to self-determine,

00:03:55.480 the freedom to decide their sovereignty and their alliances and their form of government.

00:04:04.100 Some say, well, we have to deal with our border first. The Ukrainian-Russian border is our border.

00:04:11.480 Right. A democracy that canceled elections. 1.00

00:04:15.980 But after the vote passed, overwhelmingly, members of Congress showed just how closely we are now

00:04:24.020 aligned with Ukraine by waving and cheering and displaying the flags of a foreign government

00:04:30.540 government inside the Congress. Watch this.

00:04:49.220 Oh, they love Ukraine. But do they really love Ukraine? Ask any person in that room, how many

00:04:54.240 Ukrainian people, how many soldiers, how many civilians, how many Ukrainians have died in the

00:05:01.280 war that you are paying for? And not one of them can answer the question. They don't know how many

00:05:05.040 Ukrainians have died. They have no idea because they don't care. That's how much they love the

00:05:09.740 Ukrainians. So maybe it's not really about Ukraine. And if you're wondering, take a look at a tweet,

00:05:15.140 a statement sent out by a man called Nate McMurray. He's a Democrat from New York now running for

00:05:18.820 Congress. And he wrote this, Slava, Ukraine, die, MAGA, die. You lose. In other words, maybe the real 1.00

00:05:27.760 enemy is not the Russian government. Maybe it's you. But it wasn't the Democrats who made this possible.

00:05:34.260 It was the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. And he forced this spending

00:05:41.060 bill through. He allowed it to come to a vote because he says he is a Christian and his Christian faith

00:05:47.760 requires that, requires funding war. After the vote, Mike Johnson was a little more specific

00:05:54.620 about why he did it. Watch.

00:05:56.700 Three of our primary adversaries, Russia and Iran and China, are working together and they're being 0.98

00:06:02.200 aggressors around the globe. And they're a global threat to our prosperity and our security. Their

00:06:08.460 advance threatens their free world and it demands American leadership. If we turn our backs right now,

00:06:14.040 the consequences could be devastating. So this afternoon, the House acted and we sent over to the

00:06:19.820 Senate and it will be transmitted shortly, our supplemental national security legislation. I've said it

00:06:25.520 very simply. I'll say it once again. It's an old military adage, but we would rather send bullets to the

00:06:32.020 conflict overseas than our own boys, our troops. And I think this is an important moment, an important

00:06:39.000 opportunity to make that decision. We allowed the House to do that. And I expect the Senate will make

00:06:43.220 the same decision.

00:06:43.780 Every word a lie. Of course, we've already sent troops. There are American soldiers in Ukraine

00:06:48.180 right now and more on the way today. We are in a hot war with Russia and they're going to tell you

00:06:55.160 that in stages, not all at once. So where's Zelensky as all of this is going on? Well, it shouldn't

00:07:01.940 surprise you. He's not on the front lines. He's on American television laughing in your face. Here he is

00:07:06.820 on NBC right after the vote. Listen carefully to this. Zelensky says American taxpayers should be

00:07:12.300 grateful to send hundreds of billions of dollars from their bankrupt country that is currently being

00:07:17.860 invaded to his country where the money is being stolen. That's just the price of protecting democracy.

00:07:23.240 How long should Americans be expected to fund the war in Ukraine?

00:07:28.120 The Americans are not funding the war in Ukraine. They first and foremost protect freedom and democracy

00:07:45.700 all over Europe. And Ukraine is fighting. And Ukraine is sending its best sons and daughters

00:07:56.940 to the front line. And it reduces the price for all Europe, for all NATO. It reduces the price for

00:08:04.460 everyone, including the U.S.

00:08:07.520 Yeah. So we're funding freedom and democracy when we send hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.

00:08:14.680 Now, of course, if we were defending democracy, we would ask the American people what they think.

00:08:18.800 And if a majority of them opposed this, we wouldn't do it because that's the fundamental democratic

00:08:23.960 principle. You serve the people you rule because it's their country and they're in charge.

00:08:31.220 But of course, that's not at all what's happening. And it does raise the question once again,

00:08:34.980 if we're defending democracy in Ukraine, is Ukraine a democracy, a country that canceled its presidential

00:08:41.700 elections. Well, let's see. In Ukraine, right now, tonight, Christians are being persecuted by the

00:08:47.980 state we're paying for. For the crime of belonging to the wrong religion, priests are getting thrown 0.58

00:08:52.900 in jail. Churches are being seized by the government. Your tax dollars, 60 billion more, thanks to Mike

00:08:59.260 Johnson, are funding all of this. So it's very hard to get information about what is actually happening

00:09:04.760 in Ukraine because the big media outlets lie about it deciduously and have for more than two years.

00:09:09.320 But one of the most reliable and honest voices on this question is a man called Bob Amsterdam,

00:09:14.200 a little background on Bob Amsterdam. He is a lawyer. He represents the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

00:09:21.000 He is not a Ukrainian Orthodox Christian. He is, in fact, Jewish. I think he's probably pretty liberal.

00:09:28.160 He's not pro-Russia. He is, in fact, banned from going to Russia. A couple of his friends were murdered

00:09:33.300 in Russia. He is not acting on behalf of the Russian government or even, for faith reasons,

00:09:39.120 Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He is one of the rare American attorneys who believes still,

00:09:45.340 even in 2024, that human rights are worth protecting. Telling the truth is important.

00:09:50.200 And he has returned in the last month from Ukraine, and we thought it'd be worth asking him,

00:09:55.220 what's it actually like there? We are honored to have, once again, Bob Amsterdam. Bob,

00:09:59.060 thanks so much for coming on. So give us, I'll stand back and allow you to give us the overview

00:10:04.840 of what is happening in Ukraine right now. Well, thank you, Tucker. And to be transparent,

00:10:12.260 I supported the bill because it is the parishioners of our church who are on the front line,

00:10:18.300 and they need all the help they can get. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a church that is guided and bound by

00:10:26.920 God's words. It is a church that is a thousand years old, and its priests are dedicated to Christ's

00:10:35.980 teachings and, in fact, separated themselves completely from the Russian Orthodox Church

00:10:44.360 in 2022 after the full-scale invasion. And I want to make it very clear. There are studies in Ukraine

00:10:52.920 that demonstrate that our church is exactly as nationalistic and patriotic as the new state

00:11:01.040 church that was founded five years ago. However, elements within the government have declared war

00:11:09.920 on the UOC, and they have persecuted mercilessly priests, clerics, parishioners.

00:11:18.400 And I knew that it was a tremendous risk to go to Ukraine after having spoken out

00:11:27.440 so strongly against this attack. But I had to go because I had to make sure that given the amount

00:11:34.160 of money the Ukrainians are spending defaming anyone who contradicts their version of reality,

00:11:40.880 I had to make sure that I saw what was happening on the ground.

00:11:45.560 And after 10 days in Ukraine, I can tell you that there is not a hint of democracy.

00:11:54.360 The country is run by an organization called the SBU, the secret police, heavily infiltrated even today

00:12:02.280 by Russia. The parliamentary members, I met with eight, they are under incredible pressure

00:12:12.040 from the secret police. In fact, they were all interviewed and interrogated after I left.

00:12:18.120 A number of them had previously been subjected to interrogations.

00:12:22.920 The priests I met, I met a number of them who had been beaten and interrogated in the past.

00:12:31.960 And in fact, one of them, after my meeting with him had his home raided the next day and he was dealt

00:12:39.160 with so harshly, he suffered a heart attack. The, you know, I was followed everywhere. Ukraine not only

00:12:47.960 has shut the media, but they have become a font of disinformation. They just received, well, in fact,

00:12:55.400 they just spent three and a half million dollars in Washington to tell Americans that everything

00:13:01.880 they're doing to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church isn't happening. And that in fact, it's the Russians who 0.88

00:13:08.600 are persecuting Christians and not them. To which I say, any persecution of Christians is wrongful. But it is,

00:13:16.520 it is to Ukraine that professes democracy and freedom. And it is Ukraine that has absolutely 0.98

00:13:26.840 no semblance of rule of law, that is terrorizing its own business community separately, targeting

00:13:34.200 wealthy people for expropriation, especially if they have any religious connection to our church. And it is Ukraine 0.97

00:13:41.640 that is actively setting the SBU secret police on individuals like myself who speak out on behalf

00:13:51.160 of this religion. And let me tell you, since the passage of the bill in the House, Ukraine has gone into 0.99

00:14:00.120 full war mode against my church. They are launching a massive PR campaign internally and again in Washington,

00:14:09.320 attacking the church, attacking me, attacking everyone connected with the church because they can't stand

00:14:16.760 the truth to come out. So what is shameful about our, you know, American conduct is what Robert Destro,

00:14:25.240 the former undersecretary for human rights said, which is that some of this targeting of the church came

00:14:30.920 from Washington, that it was partially planned because Washington saw our church, which had a spiritual

00:14:38.280 connection to Russia as somehow being a threat. And I, and I want to stress that, that our church is

00:14:46.040 Ukrainian. Many of the men on the front line are members of our church who sit there and watch day by day

00:14:54.120 as secret police wearing death masks come and steal their religious home. Imagine how they feel

00:15:03.160 what knowing that their parents and their families are losing their places of worship. And if a new bill

00:15:10.760 is passed, bill 8371, they won't even be able to gather to pray because the churches will be taken from

00:15:19.560 them, but it may even be a crime for them to meet and pray. This unlimited attack on this historic church

00:15:29.160 is unconscionable. And I am absolutely heartbroken that American Christians have not taken up this 1.00

00:15:36.360 fight. It's disgraceful. And I've expressed that directly to the Speaker of the House who says he's

00:15:42.040 a Christian. How can you pay for the persecution of Christians with U.S. tax dollars?

00:15:45.880 Tucker says it best. The credit card companies are ripping Americans off and enough is enough.

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00:16:27.880 world, double candidates and eight times more than Europe's. That's why I've taken action, but I need

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00:17:26.360 Are you aware of any, and I just want to state for the third time, neither of us speaking right

00:17:33.800 now is orthodox. I don't know much about it. So it's not like I'm defending my own church. You're

00:17:38.600 not. But why can't Christian leaders, Christian legislators in the United States speak up and say,

00:17:44.280 that's just wrong and we're not going to send money to a foreign country to build a tyranny as they have 0.98

00:17:50.440 and persecute Christians? Like, why is that hard? You know, it's interesting. I actually defended 1.00

00:17:55.320 this church 40 years ago in one of my first cases where we fought the KGB that was trying to take

00:18:02.440 over a church in Canada. So I've studied orthodoxy over the years and there is absolutely no reason

00:18:10.120 why any Christian of any denomination would hesitate at all. And in fact, it's important for you to know

00:18:16.920 that the majority of orthodox denominations recognize our church and they do not recognize

00:18:23.720 the state church. The state church is heavily patriotic, heavily nationalistic. Our church

00:18:30.840 is focused solely on God. It is focused solely on the spiritual realm.

00:18:36.680 So you said that this legislation passes Saturday and today's Monday, the real crackdown on the church

00:18:47.000 begins. It sounds like there's a connection between those two facts.

00:18:51.400 Oh, listen, we've been working for weeks to file a document, which I'm going to announce on your show.

00:18:57.400 We're filing a document with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

00:19:01.880 This is going to be available publicly to everyone. It's a lengthy document that urges the United

00:19:08.520 States government to find Ukraine a country of particular concern because of their attacks on

00:19:13.880 religious freedom. The Holy Synod of the Church of England has condemned Ukraine. Not only that,

00:19:21.720 the United Nations continuously condemns Ukraine for their attacks on Christians. So why it takes 0.94

00:19:28.920 the Church of England to stand up, but American churches and evangelists have not, that again is a

00:19:36.440 question that defies logic.

00:19:38.520 So you said you were for the bill that passed on Saturday. I'm glad you said that. Of course,

00:19:43.480 you and I disagree on that, which I think gives you more credibility in this conversation.

00:19:48.200 But let me ask you about the connection between the secret police force that you say effectively

00:19:53.720 runs Ukraine now and the US intel services. We know that they have assassinated people,

00:19:59.560 a number of people, including America. They've tried to assassinate Americans. I can say that conclusively. 0.97

00:20:04.360 Could they be doing those kinds of things without the knowledge of the US government?

00:20:10.440 No. And as I said, there is an argument that I don't want to spend time on today. There is an

00:20:16.200 argument that the US government is in a way behind an attack on Christians. It goes down to some

00:20:24.760 decisions that were made in 2014 about the danger of the church. And let me be clear, Putin does 0.93

00:20:32.600 instrumentalize the Russian Orthodox Church. In our case, that instrumentalization does not occur.

00:20:41.160 Our leaders have been very specific and clear about it. They are Ukrainian patriots. I was shocked by how

00:20:47.880 many of them didn't even speak Russian. But most important to understand is we are a church. We are not

00:20:58.680 political players. Bishop Onufri is a man of God. Our leaders are men of God. And they only want to

00:21:07.560 tend to their flock. And important to note, our church is a church that set up 70 parishes outside

00:21:15.640 of Ukraine to tend to refugees. And the man who set up those parishes is under investigation and

00:21:22.840 interrogation and harassment today. That father is under harassment because he dared speak out at a

00:21:31.000 meeting of the Council of European Churches and tell that council what the truth was. And he was

00:21:39.160 immediately detained. He was immediately harassed by the secret police. And no Western newspaper has

00:21:47.480 covered the power of the secret police. And it is to your credit that you've allowed us on to speak

00:21:53.960 to facts that no one seems to understand in the West. And very few people who are not hard partisans

00:22:01.880 have gone to Ukraine, actually. And it's dangerous to go to Ukraine. For me, it would be much more

00:22:07.960 dangerous than going to Moscow, I would say. And so I wonder what it feels like when you're there. I mean,

00:22:14.520 we keep hearing it's this beacon of freedom in the region, in the world. That's why we're sending

00:22:18.680 hundreds of billions of dollars. Does it feel like a free country when you're there?

00:22:23.240 No. I mean, and you're talking to somebody who's traveled in Russia defending opponents of Putin,

00:22:30.040 which I still do. I still defend opponents, even though I'm banned. But exactly the opposite. I was

00:22:38.120 followed everywhere. Talk about disinformation. A TV crew set upon me after I had a meeting with

00:22:45.800 the government and then put on TV that I represented the Russian patriarch as opposed to the Ukrainian

00:22:52.040 patriarch. And also, by the way, gave out my hotel location. So no, it felt like, you know,

00:22:59.880 this was a full-on intimidation. And, you know, I regularly represent opposition groups. I'm banned in

00:23:06.280 seven countries for representing opposition groups and fighting for human rights. And I will tell you

00:23:13.320 that it is rare to feel the level of oppression and fear. And I've never seen parliamentarians

00:23:21.160 as cowed and as frightened as I saw in the Rada of Ukraine. So all of this talk of democracy is complete

00:23:29.160 farce and how we continue to listen to this and how we don't try to build up Ukrainian institutions

00:23:37.480 and why our business people are talking about investing in Ukraine without getting guarantees

00:23:42.600 about rule of law. All of this defies imagination.

00:23:45.880 Are you an American, I assume? Yes, I am.

00:23:49.560 How does it, I mean, how does it make you feel that the U.S. State Department, the administration,

00:23:53.480 the Congress too, but the U.S. government basically takes over Ukraine. We're paying for the pensions.

00:23:58.280 So, I mean, that's a high level of control. And this is what we get? We get an authoritarian state

00:24:05.960 that assassinates people and where legislators are afraid?

00:24:09.560 Listen, you know, to be very frank about it, I'm also a student of history. And, you know,

00:24:17.000 I keep going back to what we did in the 50s, which was, you know, basically decide we were going to 1.00

00:24:23.880 support autocrats and he may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch. I think the issue for us 1.00

00:24:31.960 is I would have thought by now we'd have learned that what we need to invest in are institutions. And,

00:24:38.440 you know, our government has forgotten the concept of rule of law. We've sanctioned everybody and

00:24:43.400 their brother who looks or smells Russian, even if they're opponents of Vladimir Putin.

00:24:49.560 We have lost the sense of rule of law. And by the way, the Ukrainians sanctioned people so they can 1.00

00:24:55.480 steal their assets and so they can make sure political opponents stay silent or they'll lose

00:25:02.440 their means of support. In fact, somebody is on trial, a guy named Shiloh, he is on trial in Ukraine

00:25:09.800 for vast corruption and no one's talking about his relationship to the presidential administration.

00:25:15.800 So this ongoing predation, corporate raiding, raiding of churches, which the Ukrainians have pioneered, 1.00

00:25:23.880 this illegal raiding of churches is something I've never seen. And if you go to our website,

00:25:30.280 save the UOC, you will see hundreds and hundreds of churches and parishioners crying and screaming and

00:25:38.440 priests being beaten. And these are our allies. These are the people we're funding, which we aren't

00:25:46.120 even man enough to have the leverage to say, you know, could you stop beating up Christians for a 0.70

00:25:51.240 little while? And could you perhaps protect minorities? I mean, I won't, I can't even begin to tell you 0.90

00:25:58.440 the number of journalists who have told me it's okay with them that these churches are being stolen because,

00:26:05.800 you know, your guys are Russian sympathizers. My God! Firstly, they're not. Secondly, you know what?

00:26:14.200 Even if, God forbid, there were a few there were, you use the courts and investigations and the

00:26:22.120 presumption of innocence. You don't close down a thousand-year-old church and sentence millions of

00:26:30.200 Ukrainians to losing their houses of worship during a time of war.

00:26:35.800 And look, in a free country, you don't punish people. You're not allowed to punish people for

00:26:41.800 their attitudes. You punish them for their actions. So if they're working against the Ukrainian state,

00:26:47.960 I think the Ukrainian state has a right to protect itself from that. But if they have bad attitudes

00:26:52.440 in a free country, there's nothing you can do about it because you can't criminalize a person's

00:26:57.240 conscience. Let's talk about attitude. You know, God, God save them. Of the 60 clergy who had been killed

00:27:06.520 in this war, half were UOC. The only priest on trial in Moscow today is a UOC priest who was assisting

00:27:16.760 the Ukrainians. None of this gets mentioned. None of this gets discussed. Why? And let's be very clear,

00:27:23.880 we're dealing with Tammany Hall politics. We're not dealing with fear of Russians. The Zelensky

00:27:29.640 government has lost part of its electoral base in the East and now has to basically appeal more

00:27:38.280 to the West and the more nationalist elements. So this is sort of a grudge match. And they're

00:27:44.280 going to take down this church. They're going to view it as a victory to take down this church

00:27:49.400 and defeat Christ's children because they think they'll pick up votes. That's how cynical this is.

00:27:56.200 It has nothing to do with the Russian threat because if there was a real Russian threat,

00:28:01.800 they produce evidence. They are unable to produce evidence. So they produce sanctions,

00:28:07.320 which they administer with absolutely no cause and no evidence.

00:28:12.200 I want to ask you about where the money's going. So Saturday night, I happened to have dinner with

00:28:18.200 some Ukrainians, Ukrainian-born Ukrainian speakers, very nice people. And they have raised money for

00:28:24.440 the last two years to send to troops in Ukraine. And they go back and forth from between the U.S.

00:28:29.480 and Ukraine. And they told me that there are no bandages in frontline field hospitals in Ukraine.

00:28:36.680 And that the basic necessities, mittens, holsters for sidearms, all of which they have supplied,

00:28:42.680 are not there. And so it raises the question, if you're getting hundreds of billions of dollars to

00:28:47.880 support your troops, why don't the troops have bandages in their field hospitals?

00:28:52.280 You know, Tucker, I will tell you, I haven't studied

00:28:57.480 this deeply other than a number of my clients have had their assets stolen for absolutely no legitimate

00:29:03.640 reason other than the government that has people there that likes and covet their assets.

00:29:09.800 But I will tell you that Ukrainian corruption before the war was at some of the highest levels

00:29:16.040 known to mankind. So nothing about the distribution of funds after the war would surprise me. In fact,

00:29:23.000 there's an EU audit that actually talks about the grotesque level of corruption and war profiteering.

00:29:30.040 So again, one of the things I would say about any aid to Ukraine is I hope it is monitored.

00:29:36.280 I hope there are audits. I hope somebody is watching where the money is going so that it goes

00:29:42.200 to the troops. I know that they spent three and a half million dollars to try to justify their closure

00:29:48.440 of these churches and deflect attention from that. They used three and a half million bucks recently,

00:29:54.920 which should have gone to the troops, should have gone to defending their homeland. They used that to

00:30:00.920 carpet bomb Washington and people like me who were defending the church.

00:30:06.280 So in other words, your tax dollars are being used to defame you through sleazy PR agencies and

00:30:12.440 lobbyists in Washington. That's what you're saying?

00:30:14.840 Oh, absolutely. And I mean, it's happening daily, but you know, they're defaming me. That's okay. But

00:30:21.160 defaming the church, defaming men of God who are facing arrest. Some journalists for the Ukrainian

00:30:30.120 church are facing life sentences for reporting the truth about the activities of the government in

00:30:39.000 seizing churches and jailing priests. These young men, they are in a cell, a cell right now,

00:30:46.920 where there are 20 beds for 28 men. They don't, they have to revolve their sleeping. These, 0.84

00:30:53.720 their crime is they've reported on church seizures.

00:31:02.040 It's a, what, what you're saying is shocking. Last question, where the hell is the State Department,

00:31:07.400 which is supposed to be monitoring human rights?

00:31:10.280 Let me tell you, as I said, we're filing this, we're filing this in the next few days.

00:31:19.960 We hope the State Department will wake up. I've certainly met with them. I've certainly seen that

00:31:26.600 they are, you know, entirely drinking the Kool-Aid. We've developed a bit of a cult of personality

00:31:34.200 about the leadership in Ukraine. I've noticed. And it is time for our reporters to wake up

00:31:41.240 and start reporting on the Shiloh case, the levels of corruption that are going on, and obviously the

00:31:48.040 attack on this church. Bob Amsterdam, you're a brave man. And I appreciate your telling us all of this.

00:31:56.200 Thank you. Thank you for having me.

00:32:00.760 Thanks for listening to the Tucker Carlson podcast. If you liked it, be sure to hit subscribe and leave

00:32:05.240 a review. And remember, we only released some of our interviews as podcasts. The only place you can

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The Tucker Carlson Show - April 22, 2024

Lawyer Bob Amsterdam represents the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He says the brutality they face at the hands of the Ukrainian government is truly shocking.

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