Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 22, 2023


AG Garland Stonewalls Congress, Tries to Cover Up DOJ Obstruction


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

168.69368

Word count

6,852

Sentence count

451

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

13

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sen. Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson react to Attorney General Merrick Garland's appearance before Congress on the latest on the Hunter Biden impeachment inquiry. They discuss the lack of candor from Garland's answers to basic questions and the implications for the future of the investigation.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.380 Welcome.
00:00:06.160 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:00:09.840 And Senator, a mountain of evidence against the Biden crime family is really starting
00:00:15.120 to mount up, but it's actually not pressure on the president or his family or Hunter Biden.
00:00:20.500 It's on the Attorney General Merrick Garland.
00:00:23.680 He was testifying before Congress on the latest on the impeachment inquiry.
00:00:27.820 And your overall reaction I want to get, because I was shocked, not really by his arrogance
00:00:34.060 this time, by his, I would say, lack of just candid answers to basic questions that were
00:00:41.640 asked of him.
00:00:42.660 Were you shocked by his demeanor?
00:00:45.100 You know, unfortunately, I wasn't.
00:00:46.760 Merrick Garland, from the day he was sworn in, has demonstrated a contempt for Congress,
00:00:54.080 a contempt for the American people, a smug entitlement that no one is allowed to question
00:01:00.980 him, that he doesn't have to answer any questions.
00:01:04.120 Look, I have questioned Merrick Garland now many times, and he will not answer, he will
00:01:08.980 not give you a straight answer to anything.
00:01:11.520 And so as the evidence keeps mounting, not just of Joe Biden's personal corruption, but
00:01:17.460 of Merrick Garland being personally implicated now in multiple felonies, he has not wavered
00:01:24.620 at all from his attitude that seems to say, how dare you question me?
00:01:31.300 He is, he's the legal equivalent of Anthony Fauci.
00:01:36.260 Fauci says, I am the science.
00:01:39.540 Merrick Garland's response is essentially, I am the law.
00:01:43.460 And they're both wrong.
00:01:45.780 I want to play a few clips that really went viral, and they went viral because of just
00:01:52.260 the shock of the lack of response.
00:01:54.780 And like you said, the arrogance of Garland.
00:01:57.440 One of them was just a basic question talking about, hey, what did you know and when did
00:02:03.580 you kind of know it?
00:02:04.400 Take a listen.
00:02:04.900 Have you had personal contact with anyone at FBI headquarters about the Hunter Biden investigation?
00:02:10.040 I don't recollect the answer to that question, but the FBI works for the Justice Department.
00:02:19.620 I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
00:02:20.740 You don't recollect whether you've talked with anybody at FBI headquarters about an investigation
00:02:25.780 of the President's son?
00:02:27.140 I don't believe that I did.
00:02:28.700 I promised the Senate when I came before it for confirmation that I would leave Mr. Weiss
00:02:35.620 in place and that I would not interfere with his investigation.
00:02:40.080 Okay.
00:02:40.320 Did you ever?
00:02:41.200 I have kept that promise.
00:02:42.880 All right.
00:02:43.900 Do you believe him, Senator?
00:02:45.460 Because I don't.
00:02:46.940 Well, the IRS whistleblowers both testified to the House that he lied when he made that
00:02:58.140 promise to the Senate.
00:02:59.360 When he made that promise to me in my questioning, we have now two career IRS employees who've
00:03:05.680 gone before the House and said that he flat out lied, that he has directly interfered.
00:03:10.240 And I got to say the question here, this is very specific.
00:03:14.680 Have you had personal contact with anyone at FBI headquarters about the Hunter Biden case?
00:03:20.840 And for him to say, well, I don't remember, how do you not remember that?
00:03:26.020 This isn't asking generally, have you talked to FBI headquarters?
00:03:29.320 Of course he has.
00:03:30.500 As he says in his answer, the FBI works for the Justice Department.
00:03:34.980 So, yes, the attorney general has talked to FBI headquarters, but if he is recusing himself
00:03:42.180 from the matter, if he is not interfering, then he would know whether or not he had had
00:03:47.500 those conversations.
00:03:48.400 And the fact that he doesn't remember with the entirety of the evidence is highly dubious.
00:03:56.520 There is also another congresswoman who asked a question of Garland as he was testifying
00:04:01.480 by the House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, and I want you to hear what she had to say.
00:04:05.580 It was a lengthy back and forth, but it was an important one as well.
00:04:08.800 And I say important because it was the accusation that Merrick Garland basically is not acting
00:04:15.040 on behalf of the American people or on behalf of the law of this, the laws of this country
00:04:21.000 or making sure these laws are being followed.
00:04:24.260 But instead, he's basically working as a defense lawyer for the Biden crime family by purposely
00:04:32.940 slow-walking the probes into the Clintons, and this is something we haven't talked about
00:04:38.120 in a while, but also into Hunter Biden, also into Joe Biden, also into the FBI's involvement
00:04:43.260 in things like January the 6th.
00:04:44.940 It's like he's a personal attorney for anyone in the Democratic Party that does something
00:04:49.320 that's nefarious.
00:04:50.300 It's like in my town, FBI, phone numbers all over the district, please call, call that.
00:04:57.400 People are truly afraid.
00:04:59.000 I just want to make sure if you're not aware that you are, and this is a big problem when
00:05:04.160 people are afraid of their own government, and I'll show you some other things.
00:05:08.920 We're talking about justice system.
00:05:11.440 I don't question, you're probably not a bad person, I don't know you, but what I'll tell
00:05:15.360 you, you're in charge of the department.
00:05:17.000 And people right now feel, you know, I look at Durham report, and I call on the fights
00:05:22.740 of violations of queries of millions of Americans, right, it's like KGB, but when I read Durham
00:05:28.060 reports, we have this, you have a nice, you know, playbook.
00:05:32.200 First, let's have a special counsel, and then you don't have to answer any questions here.
00:05:37.540 Then, let's extend slow-walk investigation on Hillary Clinton, on Hunter, everything is
00:05:44.140 slow-walked.
00:05:45.140 We were very quick on Donald Trump, but you were very slow-walked.
00:05:48.740 Then, by the time, you know, that investigation ended, statute of limitation expired, and all
00:05:54.300 of your agents need to be tested from NISIA, no one recalls anything, okay, you probably
00:05:58.640 should have as part of your hiring policy.
00:06:00.880 So no one held accountable, which was egregious, what happened, you know, in that report.
00:06:06.480 When I read about them, I can't believe it happened in the United States of America.
00:06:10.140 This is my frustration, I'll be honest with you.
00:06:14.060 Then, it's very interesting, you know, regardless what it is, even people in Obama administration
00:06:18.820 raise concerns, you know, how can President Sanz be serving on, you know, corrupt Ukrainian 0.99
00:06:26.040 oligarchs? 0.99
00:06:26.680 Do you understand that it actually can undermine the one Ukrainian effort and policy?
00:06:32.900 I think these concerns were raised.
00:06:34.320 The Obama administration didn't do anything about it.
00:06:36.600 These people are dying right now, and Americans don't trust this president.
00:06:42.100 So you, I want to ask you one thing, you know, as you, you know, I don't need answer because
00:06:47.080 I know you're not going to, but I think you're probably a good American, and you care.
00:06:51.480 And a lot of these people are so afraid they cover up this stuff, I think, in your department,
00:06:55.520 because they're embarrassed that what we became as a country, to say that what our department
00:07:00.880 justice became, that allows Russians to do propaganda, and Chinese, it allows them to destabilize 0.95
00:07:07.380 our country.
00:07:08.260 That is danger to our republic.
00:07:11.220 It is significant danger.
00:07:12.500 And I have just one more question from you.
00:07:14.740 You know, I mean, I agree on corporate crimes and FISA stuff, even with Democrats, that we
00:07:19.080 need to do a better job.
00:07:20.380 One more question for you.
00:07:21.540 Do you believe that, you know, you talk about rights to vote, but do you believe that only
00:07:27.000 U.S. citizens should be voting in this election and doing anything to make sure that only eligible 0.78
00:07:32.700 people vote in elections?
00:07:34.340 Yes and yes.
00:07:35.900 Okay, I would like to see that what you do.
00:07:37.600 Thank you.
00:07:38.280 Neil Beck.
00:07:38.840 I play that because I feel like this is the level of frustration and anger that so many
00:07:46.260 Americans have that this Congresswoman, Mrs. Sparks, it displayed there.
00:07:50.740 She's livid over the way that this man's doing his job, almost to the point of, like, how
00:07:55.980 the hell can you live with yourself, and how are you getting away with this?
00:07:59.140 And this is where I think many Americans are at this point.
00:08:03.120 Well, you're right.
00:08:04.460 That's very powerful.
00:08:05.540 That's Victoria Sparks.
00:08:06.800 She is a congresswoman from the state of Indiana, and Victoria was born in the Soviet Union,
00:08:11.640 and she grew up in the Soviet Union.
00:08:13.480 And so she saw a communist dictatorship.
00:08:16.840 She saw, when she's referencing the KGB, she's familiar with what the KGB would do.
00:08:22.260 And Victoria came to America when she was 22 years old, and so she came to America seeking
00:08:27.740 freedom, seeking a better life.
00:08:30.300 And the outrage that she's expressing there, that how can it be that the U.S. Department
00:08:36.160 of Justice is behaving like the KGB did? 0.74
00:08:39.600 That is, from personal experience, from life experience, she's seen oppression firsthand.
00:08:47.980 And notice, Garland doesn't respond at all to any of what she said there.
00:08:53.620 He just sits there passively, which, frankly, is what I guess the KGB would do as well.
00:08:59.100 Now, I guess they would actually arrest her for saying that, so it's still marginally better.
00:09:02.960 But at the end of the day, the points she made are fundamentally the same.
00:09:09.840 The slow walking.
00:09:11.080 Look, they just brought charges against Hunter Biden for buying a gun illegally when he was
00:09:17.240 on crack.
00:09:18.520 They've had the evidence of that for years.
00:09:21.120 There's been no new evidence on that.
00:09:23.000 They could have brought that years ago.
00:09:24.480 What they did, though, was slow walk the investigation so that the statute of limitations now has expired
00:09:31.280 on the most serious tax offenses.
00:09:33.580 They've allowed that statute of limitation to expire.
00:09:35.720 The statute of limitations has now expired on Joe Biden's corruption with communist China. 0.54
00:09:43.140 The text app, the text on WhatsApp that Hunter sent to the Chinese communist official saying,
00:09:50.740 I'm sitting next to my father.
00:09:52.100 Well, you know what?
00:09:53.560 Merrick Garland has magically let the statute of limitations expire on that.
00:09:58.200 And he doesn't defend himself.
00:09:59.540 He doesn't dispute it.
00:10:00.480 His attitude is, I don't answer to you.
00:10:02.820 I don't answer to anybody.
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00:11:31.780 Senator, I also want to ask you about the way the media is covering this now.
00:11:37.500 And I say the way they're doing it because they're having to cover, obviously, this issue
00:11:42.740 with the president and with Garland, but it's like they don't know how to do it.
00:11:49.820 And one of the things that was said tonight on CNN, I want you to hear this, after the
00:11:55.480 testimony from Garland, this was actually said on CNN.
00:11:59.140 Listen.
00:11:59.480 Were you disappointed in the attorney general's lack of answers there?
00:12:02.780 Well, I think he's trying to be very cautious not to say something that is incorrect.
00:12:09.160 For example, you know, he's the head of the Department of Justice, the attorney general.
00:12:14.280 He sees, you know, hundreds, thousands of people, you know, were some of them FBI agents?
00:12:20.940 He doesn't.
00:12:21.600 He made it very clear.
00:12:23.200 He has had no direction towards the special counsel on the Biden investigation.
00:12:29.720 It's completely hands off.
00:12:31.540 Well, this is Congresswoman Lofgren.
00:12:34.640 She just made that up.
00:12:36.280 That's not what Merrick Garland said in response.
00:12:38.580 He said he didn't know.
00:12:39.920 He couldn't remember it.
00:12:41.140 Right.
00:12:41.300 He said, I don't think I have.
00:12:43.240 So she's out there.
00:12:44.220 And even Aaron Burnett, I give her some credit.
00:12:46.240 She's like, like, come on.
00:12:48.340 Like, you can't even be happy with this answering here.
00:12:52.240 And she immediately goes into spin mode as well.
00:12:54.820 I can totally kind of understand why and how.
00:12:57.720 It's like, are you kidding me?
00:12:59.280 Well, the Democrats have talking points, and every Democrat reads from the same talking points, and they're willing to lie.
00:13:06.540 We see Corrine Jean-Pierre do that almost on a daily basis, just stand up there and brazenly lie. 0.98
00:13:12.480 It's like when she stood at the White House podium and said, people aren't just walking across the border.
00:13:16.580 That doesn't happen.
00:13:17.360 That was a flat-out lie.
00:13:18.460 I guarantee you it is happening right now.
00:13:21.140 And by the way, whatever time you happen to have downloaded this podcast and played it, it's happening right now.
00:13:27.060 Whether you're listening to it early in the morning, you're listening to it at lunchtime, you're listening to it as you drive home in the evening, you're listening to it at 2 in the morning.
00:13:34.880 It's happening right now.
00:13:37.040 Someone's coming across the border.
00:13:38.340 When you have 7.2 million people cross in two and a half years, she's lying literally every minute of every day. 0.85
00:13:44.920 And they do the same thing on Hunter Biden, on Joe Biden, on the evidence of corruption.
00:13:49.860 They just stick to their talking points, and they count on the press not to hold them accountable.
00:13:54.400 There's a lot of things that were brought up with Garland, and it's outside of just the Biden crime family.
00:13:59.440 One of them is a contentious point that I think should be an election year issue, and I'm talking about the presidential election year.
00:14:05.940 And this is the fact that you had an FBI that put out that infamous school board memo targeting parents and treating them like al-Qaeda, just like they are terrorists like al-Qaeda, calling them domestic terrorists.
00:14:19.720 And there was a back and forth about this as well.
00:14:22.620 I want people to listen to what Kevin Kiley had to say in this back and forth.
00:14:27.640 Are you aware that Director Wray a couple months ago in sworn testimony implicated you in a sweeping abuse of power?
00:14:35.080 I doubt he would characterize whatever he said in that way.
00:14:39.620 Well, he testified about the school board memo that you issued on October 4th of 2021, in which you mobilized federal law enforcement powers against American parents.
00:14:49.660 Now, of course, you didn't put it quite like that.
00:14:51.480 Instead, you found a pretext, which is stated right here in the first line of the memo.
00:14:57.100 In recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.
00:15:06.200 What was your basis for making that claim?
00:15:09.140 I will say again, as I've testified numerous times in response to exactly the same question, that I saw numerous reports in the press of violence and threats.
00:15:21.560 You saw reports in the press, and so you decided to instigate a nationwide law enforcement initiative?
00:15:26.600 If I may be permitted to answer the question.
00:15:28.560 Please.
00:15:28.760 Numerous reports in the media of violence and threats of violence against school personnel of all kinds.
00:15:36.180 By the way, can we just stop there at that lie, Senator?
00:15:38.760 There were not wide-ranging mass reports of violence against school board members.
00:15:45.140 That is a lie from the Attorney General of the United States of America, Merrick Garland.
00:15:48.300 That was not happening in this country when they decided to go after parents and declare that they're domestic terrorists.
00:15:54.360 Can we all agree that that's a lie?
00:15:56.380 Well, not only is it a lie, it's a lie that he's been caught on before.
00:16:00.720 Because when I cross-examined him in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on exactly this topic,
00:16:05.560 and I pulled up the memo that he wrote, there were 20 different instances that were cited in the letter from the National Association of School Boards.
00:16:12.660 That was the entire predicate for his memo.
00:16:14.960 That's what he based it on, is the memo that he'd gotten, and they cited 20 different instances.
00:16:19.360 And I asked him, I said, of the 20, how many were violent?
00:16:23.180 He said, I don't know.
00:16:24.500 I said, did you examine any of them?
00:16:26.080 No.
00:16:26.660 Did you look into whether they were violent or not?
00:16:28.740 No.
00:16:29.340 One of them was Scott Smith, the father in Loudoun County whose daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy dressed as a girl in a skirt in the girl's bathroom.
00:16:37.340 And Scott Smith was wrongfully arrested by the school board because when the school board covered it up,
00:16:44.460 they went after the parent instead of defending and protecting the child. 0.91
00:16:49.380 And by the way, they transferred that sexual predator to another high school where he sexually assaulted another little girl. 0.93
00:16:55.800 He's now a convicted sex offender because he kept on doing it.
00:16:59.200 And Garland's answer to me, he admitted he had no idea which ones were violent, which ones were not.
00:17:05.100 He didn't examine it.
00:17:06.400 He did no due diligence whatsoever.
00:17:08.780 He simply said, I want to go after the parents.
00:17:11.440 And so what he just repeated to the House is repeating the same lies.
00:17:15.020 He has no idea what violence occurred or not.
00:17:17.140 That was just a pretext to go after parents because he didn't like them expressing their First Amendment rights.
00:17:27.180 And then listen, he gets even more irritated that he's having to answer this question.
00:17:31.240 Did you consult with the FBI director?
00:17:33.340 We received a letter from the National Association of School Boards reporting.
00:17:37.920 Yes, that letter contained anecdotes.
00:17:39.700 It didn't contain data of an increase.
00:17:42.040 Did you, yes or no, consult with the FBI director before issuing the memo?
00:17:45.580 I don't believe I spoke with the FBI director, no.
00:17:48.760 Why not?
00:17:49.460 Why wouldn't you consult with the FBI director?
00:17:50.920 Because the purpose of the memo, as is very clear from the memo, is to ask the FBI to assess the situation, to hold meetings, and to determine whether this was...
00:18:00.900 Mr. Attorney General, you started with a conclusion that there was an increase in threats.
00:18:05.200 Now, if you had bothered to consult with the FBI director, here's what he would have said.
00:18:08.680 This is from his sworn testimony, that he was not aware of any such evidence.
00:18:12.460 So my question to you, sir, sitting here today, is can you substantiate your claim that there was an increase?
00:18:18.220 Of course, there will always be sporadic criminal activity in all quarters of society, but your claim was there was an increase.
00:18:23.720 Can you substantiate that sitting here today?
00:18:25.960 I can substantiate that by the reports in the press of violence and threats of violence, and by the letters sent by representatives of thousands...
00:18:33.460 That's a no. You're giving us anecdotes. I'm asking you if you had data.
00:18:38.160 You also said in your memo that you were committed to using the department's authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.
00:18:48.480 Were there any such prosecutions?
00:18:50.200 The emphasis should be there on when appropriate, and there were no such prosecutions, and that's good news, not bad news.
00:18:56.800 There were no prosecutions, and in fact, Director Wray said there were no arrests, there were no charges.
00:19:01.800 So you have no data to show us that there was any increase.
00:19:04.940 You didn't even bother to consult with the FBI director, and then there were no resulting prosecutions, even though you said that they were coming.
00:19:11.740 So I have to ask you now, in retrospect, was there a compelling law enforcement justification for the memo?
00:19:18.140 I think you're mischaracterizing the memo, the purpose of the memo.
00:19:22.140 By the way, how's he mischaracterizing the memo, Senator?
00:19:25.340 He's describing it perfectly accurately.
00:19:27.940 It's accurate, and I go back to how the hell does this guy keep his job if he can come to before Congress, whether it's on the House side or the Senate side, and just lie and make stuff up and then can't answer a basic question?
00:19:39.480 Is there ever a day where this Attorney General is going to be held accountable for sitting there in this arrogant way, just straight up lying to people, even when the facts are in front of his face?
00:19:50.720 He's held accountable.
00:19:52.220 He's doing exactly what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want him to do.
00:19:57.080 He is covering up for Joe Biden.
00:20:00.420 He's covering up for Democrats.
00:20:01.580 He's weaponizing the Department of Justice.
00:20:04.520 He's weaponizing the FBI.
00:20:06.560 There are several things that he said there.
00:20:08.400 So he says no one's been prosecuted.
00:20:10.540 What he didn't acknowledge is the FBI has gone and interviewed multiple parents who exercise their First Amendment rights, and they've been willing to be used, essentially, to try to intimidate parents.
00:20:21.600 I've got to say, if you're a mom or dad and you go to a school board and suddenly the G-men are knocking on your door because you express your First Amendment rights, that is abuse of power. 0.96
00:20:31.500 That is a chilling of First Amendment rights.
00:20:33.860 I hate to break it to Merrick Garland, but moms and dads are not domestic terrorists.
00:20:38.720 And by the way, he relies on, well, I trusted the representatives of the school boards, National Association of School Boards.
00:20:45.280 You know what Merrick Garland doesn't say?
00:20:46.600 The National Association of School Boards apologized for sending the letter, said it was a mistake, and said what they said was wrong.
00:20:53.180 Now, he doesn't mention that, but Merrick Garland has left this memo in place, that direction.
00:20:58.640 Go target parents.
00:21:00.180 It is operative today.
00:21:02.200 I forced a vote on the Senate floor to overturn that direction to say that the Senate does not want parents treated as domestic terrorists.
00:21:09.760 Every single Senate Democrat voted no.
00:21:12.820 Merrick Garland is doing precisely what the Democrats want.
00:21:16.900 There is a reason that my latest book, Justice Corrupted, How the Left Has Weaponized the Legal System, opens with what happened in Loudoun County and Merrick Garland's memo to the FBI directing them to go after parents.
00:21:31.160 It's because it is a brazen example of using law enforcement as a tool to go after your political enemies, and it's a willingness to disregard the rule of law and simply to exercise power.
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00:24:06.140 There was also another issue, Senator, that came up that I also thought was very interesting with Garland.
00:24:11.580 And that was a simple question.
00:24:14.960 Are you looking in to who leaked the Hunter Biden probe info to the Washington Post, right?
00:24:21.940 They've slow played everything else.
00:24:23.560 They protect the president at all costs.
00:24:25.560 And his non-answer was, to me, one of the most disgusting moments of the day.
00:24:31.780 Mr. Garland, have you or are you investigating who leaked the information that appeared in the Washington Post on October 6, 2022,
00:24:41.620 about this investigation, about the Hunter Biden investigation?
00:24:43.940 You're saying there was an October 2022?
00:24:48.400 October 6, 2022, Washington Post writes a story about the Hunter Biden investigation.
00:24:52.040 I'm just, I wonder, you investigated who leaked that information to the Washington Post?
00:24:57.240 I don't know the answer to that question.
00:24:59.240 Has it been referred to the Inspector General?
00:25:02.200 Do you know that?
00:25:02.680 I don't want my answer to suggest that there is or isn't such an investigation.
00:25:12.020 I know that the Inspector General sent a letter to Congress explaining that he had an ongoing assessment with respect to the whistleblower's charges.
00:25:24.940 I don't know if that's what you're referring to.
00:25:27.540 I mean, really?
00:25:29.100 You don't know?
00:25:30.180 You don't know if you're investigating a leak that came from your department?
00:25:35.380 Do you believe him on that?
00:25:38.240 No, of course not.
00:25:40.240 Now, look, he's a little bit covering his own rear end because he's saying he died.
00:25:44.760 I think he doesn't care.
00:25:47.000 So do I believe that he doesn't know?
00:25:49.980 I guess in some sense.
00:25:51.620 But there's a reason.
00:25:52.480 The answer is no.
00:25:53.340 There is no investigation.
00:25:54.240 And the reason the answer is no is because this Department of Justice from the beginning has used leaks aggressively.
00:26:01.080 They leak information that is damaging to Donald Trump.
00:26:04.140 They leak information that is damaging to Republicans.
00:26:06.360 And they cover it up.
00:26:07.360 Remember when they discovered classified documents the first time in one of Joe Biden's homes?
00:26:15.100 They discovered it before the 2022 election.
00:26:19.160 And yet, miraculously, the Department of Justice was sealed tight as a drum.
00:26:24.320 Nothing was leaked until after Election Day.
00:26:26.920 When they want to, they can keep secrets.
00:26:29.240 But when it hurts their political opponents, they have the press on speed dial.
00:26:34.460 Well, and so I believe the answer is no, there is no investigation because the political superiors were very happy with the leak.
00:26:42.580 And they may have been the ones who leaked it in the first place.
00:26:45.220 But his answer is a classic lawyer's dodge of, well, you know, I don't know if someone's investigating something.
00:26:50.680 But from his perspective, there ain't nothing to investigate.
00:26:54.940 Let's talk about Ray Epps for a second and remind people of Ray Epps.
00:27:00.140 You and I have talked about this on the show before.
00:27:02.440 It's something that came up, obviously, with the director, the FBI director, also with the Attorney General Merrick Garland.
00:27:12.280 But Ray Epps, out of nowhere, many people believe he was an undercover Fed.
00:27:16.620 There were people even chanting at January 6th, Fed, Fed, Fed.
00:27:19.480 He was the guy telling people we're going to storm the place the night before, caught on tape.
00:27:23.340 He's a guy that was pushing on the barricades.
00:27:25.140 He was a guy that was encouraging people to break into the Capitol on January 6th.
00:27:28.860 Had not been charged with anything.
00:27:30.180 Now, fast forward multiple years later, and we find out this last week that, yes, Ray Epps has now officially been charged with a misdemeanor.
00:27:42.100 Meanwhile, we're literally sending grandmothers to prison that were in and around January the 6th, rounding up people all over the country.
00:27:50.460 Even just days ago, we saw another person rounded up.
00:27:53.400 We put some, you know, some different people in jail for decades now for January the 6th.
00:27:58.740 But Ray Epps, who clearly was a ringleader, at least on the day before January 6th and January 6th, all of a sudden gets a misdemeanor.
00:28:06.240 And we still can't get a straight answer from Merrick Garland.
00:28:10.100 I want you to hear Representative Thomas Massey and his back and forth and then your reaction.
00:28:15.100 You're citing the Constitution.
00:28:16.480 I'm going to cite it.
00:28:17.400 It's our constitutional duty to do oversight.
00:28:20.340 Now, in that video, that was your answer to a question to me two years ago when I said how many agents or assets of the government were present on January 5th and January 6th and agitating in the crowd to go into the Capitol and how many went into the Capitol.
00:28:34.420 Can you answer that now?
00:28:35.840 I don't know the answer to that question.
00:28:38.080 Oh, last time.
00:28:38.780 You don't know how many there were or there were none?
00:28:42.580 I don't know the answer to either of those questions.
00:28:45.120 If there were any, I don't know how many.
00:28:47.220 I don't know whether there are any.
00:28:49.820 I think you may have just perjured yourself that you don't know that there were any.
00:28:54.240 You want to say that again, that you don't know that there were any?
00:28:56.860 I have no personal knowledge of this matter.
00:28:59.040 I think what I said the last time.
00:29:00.920 You've had two years to find out.
00:29:03.560 And the day, by the way, that was in reference to Ray Epps.
00:29:06.140 And yesterday you indicted him.
00:29:07.820 Isn't that a wonderful coincidence?
00:29:10.120 On a misdemeanor.
00:29:11.640 Meanwhile, you're sending grandmas to prison. 1.00
00:29:14.260 You're putting people away for 20 years for merely filming.
00:29:18.080 Some people weren't even there yet.
00:29:19.540 You've got the guy on video who's saying go into the Capitol.
00:29:22.600 He's directing people to the Capitol before the speech ends.
00:29:25.760 He's at the site of the first breach.
00:29:28.000 You've got all the goods on him, 10 videos, and it's an indictment for a misdemeanor.
00:29:33.140 The American public isn't buying it.
00:29:35.180 I yield the balance of my time to Chairman Jordan.
00:29:37.080 May I answer the question?
00:29:39.420 I'm going to ask you one now.
00:29:41.840 We'll let the gentleman. 0.95
00:29:43.500 Yeah.
00:29:46.960 Go ahead.
00:29:47.680 In discovery, in the cases that were filed with respect to January 6th, the Justice Department prosecutors provided whatever information they had about the question that you're asking.
00:30:01.760 With respect to Mr. Epps, the FBI has said that he was not an employee or informant of the FBI.
00:30:11.780 Mr. Epps has been charged, and there's a proceeding, I believe, going on today on that subject.
00:30:17.800 The charge is a joke.
00:30:18.920 I yield to the chairman.
00:30:20.100 I love the end there.
00:30:21.220 The charge is a joke.
00:30:22.100 I yield to the chairman.
00:30:23.340 He's right about that, based on everything we know about Ray Epps.
00:30:26.580 So who is the guy?
00:30:27.620 Well, look, it's a very good question, and you see the attorney general once again dodging.
00:30:34.100 And, you know, one of the most telling moments of that exchange is when Merrick Garland says, well, I don't even know if there were any FBI agents there.
00:30:43.140 And I think the point was made quite accurately that what Merrick Garland said there was almost certainly a deliberate lie.
00:30:52.740 Look, an earlier verdict we did, actually, before you and I teamed up, back when it was Michael Knowles and me, we had an entire episode of Verdict that was entitled, Who is Ray Epps?
00:31:05.580 And you ought to go on YouTube, and it was episode 104 of Verdict, Who is Ray Epps?
00:31:12.080 And it followed questioning that I had done in the Judiciary Committee of senior officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI, where I asked them who Ray Epps was, and if he had been, if he was an employee of the FBI, if he was a confidential informant.
00:31:28.880 They refused to answer.
00:31:30.240 They stonewalled. 1.00
00:31:31.280 I asked the question, did you have agents there?
00:31:34.240 They refused to answer.
00:31:35.400 They stonewalled. 1.00
00:31:36.200 I asked whether federal agents incited violence.
00:31:39.340 They refused to answer.
00:31:40.440 They stonewalled. 1.00
00:31:41.340 And so this has been a pattern for a long time, and now Merrick Garland is pleading ignorance that he has no idea what the Department of Justice's involvement was in inciting violence or criminality on January 6th.
00:31:58.220 I can tell you this is also in the wake of the Department of Justice losing the case they brought against the individuals that were charged with a plot to kidnap and murder the Michigan governor.
00:32:11.340 Gretchen Whitmer, and the basis of their losing was that the FBI had engaged in entrapment, that they had incited the criminality.
00:32:23.500 And so it's an absolute—
00:32:24.540 Can you explain a little bit more what that means, inciting criminality, so people understand it?
00:32:28.960 Well, law enforcement can't entrap you into committing a crime.
00:32:33.520 In other words, if the police send an undercover agent to you and they say, hey, Ben, there's a car parked on the street.
00:32:42.080 It's got the keys in it.
00:32:43.620 Why don't you steal that car?
00:32:45.540 Come on, Ben, you can do it.
00:32:46.780 Just steal that car.
00:32:47.620 Just hop in there, turn the keys, and take it.
00:32:49.900 If they do that, that's an example of entrapment, where they're the ones, they're the impetus, they're the genesis for the criminality.
00:32:57.540 And you might never have stolen the car otherwise if it were not for the law enforcement officer who is prompting you to do it.
00:33:07.240 And so it's a defense that a criminal defendant can give is, look, this was the government's idea.
00:33:12.920 They entrapped me into doing it.
00:33:14.660 And the basis, the central defense of these defendants in Michigan was that undercover informants for the FBI, they're the ones who had suggested the plot.
00:33:26.300 They're the ones who drove it forward.
00:33:27.980 And these guys were acquitted.
00:33:30.580 The charges were thrown out.
00:33:32.600 And the fact that the Biden DOJ is caught with absolute misconduct is really stunning.
00:33:44.940 And, of course, the corrupt corporate media completely ignores it.
00:33:49.640 And it's exactly relevant to the question that was just raised about January 6th, which is to what degree did the criminal conduct that occurred, the violence that occurred on that day, to what degree did law enforcement agents incite it or prompt it?
00:34:05.660 And the reason there's so much focus on Ray Epps is he was caught on tape repeatedly saying, let's go into the Capitol, not just up to the Capitol, into the Capitol.
00:34:15.180 And there's one point where his behavior was so odd that the entire crowd begins chanting, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed.
00:34:23.440 And so that's why I asked a senior leader at the FBI if Ray Epps was a Fed, and she refused to answer that question.
00:34:31.340 Merrick Garland now is pleading complete ignorance.
00:34:33.520 He knows nothing of what happened on January 6th, except for the fact that he has told Congress repeatedly that they've devoted more resources to prosecuting individuals involved with January 6th than any other matter in DOJ's history, which is truly a stunning misallocation of resources.
00:34:51.920 But it's yet another example of how the Biden DOJ is about politics all of the time.
00:34:58.960 And if you could target your political enemies, they're more than eager to do so.
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00:36:53.800 Senator, finally, there was one part that I really thought wrapped up just how bad this back and forth was,
00:37:02.320 this testimony before Congress and the Justice Department oversight when Merrick Garland was asked a pretty simple question,
00:37:09.800 and that's, hey, why do you act like you're the president's lawyer?
00:37:13.380 That's not your job.
00:37:15.240 Our job is not to do what is politically convenient.
00:37:19.220 Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate.
00:37:29.280 As the president himself has said, and I reaffirmed today, I am not the president's lawyer.
00:37:36.480 I will add, I am not Congress's prosecutor.
00:37:40.780 The Justice Department works for the American people.
00:37:44.280 Our job is to follow the facts and the law, and that is what we do.
00:37:49.600 I don't believe him. 0.96
00:37:51.220 I think he's a pathological liar at this point. 0.94
00:37:53.800 I don't think he can be trusted. 0.94
00:37:55.200 And I think he's weaponized the DOJ and turned it into a weapon of the president of the United States of America,
00:38:01.220 no matter what he says with his rhetoric there in those pre-scripted, clear talking points.
00:38:07.700 They knew this was a problem for them, and so that's why they had him say it this way.
00:38:12.840 Well, John Mitchell is rolling over in his grave.
00:38:15.700 John Mitchell was Richard Nixon's attorney general.
00:38:18.240 He was indicted.
00:38:19.340 He was prosecuted.
00:38:20.260 He served 22 months in jail for his corruption.
00:38:24.080 And John Mitchell never dared be as brazen as Merrick Garland.
00:38:28.540 Merrick Garland, look, in the New York Times reported that Joe Biden, quote,
00:38:35.680 told confidence that he wanted Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop acting like a ponderous judge and to take decisive action.
00:38:46.240 Joe Biden knew exactly what he was getting with Merrick Garland.
00:38:49.220 He was getting someone willing to use the weaponry of the Department of Justice to target his enemies
00:38:55.960 and simultaneously willing to do whatever is necessary to protect the president, to protect Hunter Biden, to protect Democrats.
00:39:02.820 And I will underscore again, we've got multiple whistleblowers, career employees at the IRS who've come forward,
00:39:11.680 two different whistleblowers, to say what Merrick Garland just said there is flat-out false
00:39:16.720 because the Department of Justice has systematically obstructed justice, obstructed the investigation into Hunter Biden and especially into Joe Biden.
00:39:27.500 And so he can say over and over again, I'm not the president's lawyer, and yet he behaves exactly like he's the president's lawyer.
00:39:35.360 Should this be an election year issue just the way that the DOJ has been weaponized and specifically?
00:39:42.800 Absolutely, yes.
00:39:43.300 Should Republicans be targeting Merrick Garland for the way he's acting?
00:39:46.360 The weaponization and politicization of the Department of Justice, of the FBI, of the machinery of federal government, 0.96
00:39:53.380 I think is a major election issue, and it is a major reason to throw these clowns out 0.97
00:39:58.940 because it has done more to undermine the rule of law than anything that we have seen in decades, if ever.
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