Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 24, 2023


All the President's Men-AG Garland Faces Whistleblower Allegation of Perjury on Hunter Biden & Tony Blinken Caught Red-handed Lying about Hunter's Laptop


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.440 Senator, it's going to be a fast-paced show.
00:00:08.140 We have so much news that's broken this week about a whistleblower,
00:00:12.260 someone asking for whistleblower protection.
00:00:14.700 We actually have an attorney saying he needs this protection.
00:00:19.260 And then on top of that, we hear all of a sudden,
00:00:21.840 Joe Biden's finally going to decide,
00:00:23.480 I'm going to announce I'm running for president,
00:00:25.960 hoping that'll put a lot of this to bed,
00:00:27.900 that the media will protect him.
00:00:30.000 Your initial reaction to this was probably the worst week
00:00:33.340 from a media perspective for this president
00:00:35.340 since he got into office, excluding maybe Afghanistan,
00:00:38.260 because they're finally reporting on what's happened.
00:00:41.640 Well, look, the allegations that are coming out,
00:00:45.360 we've discussed at great length on verdict,
00:00:48.320 the allegations of corruption within the Biden family,
00:00:52.180 of profiting from Joe Biden's positions of government authority,
00:00:55.800 both as vice president and as president.
00:00:57.940 We now have all of that escalating significantly
00:01:03.280 and a new element of the politicization of the Department of Justice
00:01:09.020 protecting Hunter Biden,
00:01:11.360 and in particular, this whistleblower,
00:01:13.620 who sent a letter on April 19th,
00:01:15.660 sent a letter to senators and House members
00:01:18.120 of the applicable congressional committees,
00:01:20.460 offering to provide testimony demonstrating that the Biden administration lied.
00:01:26.800 And the letter says,
00:01:28.560 I represent a career IRS criminal supervisory special agent
00:01:32.240 who has been overseeing the ongoing and sensitive investigation
00:01:37.280 of a high-profile controversial subject since early 2020
00:01:42.300 and would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.
00:01:47.420 Now, we now know that high-profile subject is Hunter Biden,
00:01:50.960 but the letter doesn't specify that.
00:01:53.580 Despite serious risk of retaliation, the letter continues,
00:01:57.280 My client is offering to provide you with information necessary
00:02:01.520 to exercise your constitutional oversight functions
00:02:05.300 and wishes to make the disclosures in a nonpartisan manner
00:02:09.400 to the leadership of the relevant committees
00:02:11.740 on both sides of the political aisle.
00:02:14.140 Now, what would the testimony be?
00:02:15.880 Well, the letter gives you some indication of what the testimony would be.
00:02:19.620 The letter continues,
00:02:20.960 My client has already made legally protected disclosures internally at the IRS
00:02:27.680 through counsel to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
00:02:33.300 and to the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
00:02:38.580 The protected disclosures,
00:02:41.160 one, contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee,
00:02:48.720 two, involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest
00:02:54.100 in the ultimate disposition of the case,
00:02:56.140 and three, detail examples of preferential treatment
00:03:03.000 and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols
00:03:09.000 that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals
00:03:13.260 in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.
00:03:18.920 Now, Hunter Biden is politically connected in that daddy's in the White House.
00:03:22.980 Yeah.
00:03:23.760 But what is striking,
00:03:28.280 so we talked about this in the last podcast on Friday,
00:03:31.560 what has broken since we recorded that podcast
00:03:34.560 is who the senior political official is.
00:03:36.640 And it's not the assistant secretary of whatchamacallit.
00:03:42.600 The senior political official is allegedly Merrick Garland,
00:03:47.400 the Attorney General of the United States.
00:03:50.100 That's a big damn deal.
00:03:52.220 He's accusing the Attorney General of the United States of committing perjury,
00:03:57.560 of lying under oath to Congress.
00:03:59.540 That is serious.
00:04:01.380 And, well, look, his lawyer went on TV to describe what his client wants to say.
00:04:08.460 Give a listen.
00:04:09.400 So my client's a career law enforcement officer who is respected within the IRS,
00:04:15.260 and he teaches other agents how to properly do investigations.
00:04:18.400 He knows when to spot when investigative steps aren't done in the traditional way
00:04:24.420 to get at the truth.
00:04:25.400 And he has spotted and observed things that are done differently in this particular matter,
00:04:30.920 which I can't identify.
00:04:32.980 And he wants to talk about them,
00:04:34.800 and he believes that they were influenced by politics.
00:04:37.260 That is significant for him to say it this way.
00:04:39.940 You can also see that this attorney is trying to be very smart and go by the book
00:04:43.920 because they're afraid of Merrick Garland, I think,
00:04:46.460 and the Justice Department coming back and retaliating against this individual.
00:04:49.560 He's saying there are things I don't even know.
00:04:51.940 And it's obvious they're terrified of the weaponization of this DOJ and of the FBI.
00:04:57.580 They're trying to do everything perfectly.
00:04:59.460 He's saying there's a lot of things I don't even know yet.
00:05:02.000 This is a pretty brave decision to come forward.
00:05:04.840 Would you agree with that?
00:05:05.840 Well, it is.
00:05:06.840 And this IRS agent, this supervisor, is risking his or her career,
00:05:14.000 is obviously afraid of retaliation.
00:05:17.120 And I'll say this letter was a pretty serious elevation.
00:05:20.960 Now, the individual had already taken it to the inspector general at the Treasury Department,
00:05:27.200 to the IRS itself, and to the Department of Justice.
00:05:32.960 So this whistleblower is trying to blow the whistle.
00:05:36.440 And the Biden administration, as far as we know, isn't doing anything about it.
00:05:40.760 How much does this remind you?
00:05:42.040 And that's what I said today.
00:05:42.720 We're going to go fast-paced because there's so much here.
00:05:44.540 This reminds me so much of Tony Bobulinski.
00:05:47.460 When he came forward, he's like, no one will listen to me.
00:05:50.240 This reminds me of the guy who, John Paul MacIsaac, the guy who had the laptop, right?
00:05:55.000 He's like, I called the United States government.
00:05:57.440 I say I have this.
00:05:58.920 And yet nothing seems to happen.
00:06:01.000 So therefore, you forced me to come out in a different way.
00:06:03.680 The Biden DOJ, I believe, is desperately trying to protect Joe Biden.
00:06:08.880 They leaked that Hunter Biden was going to get indicted, but he hadn't been indicted.
00:06:14.540 They leaked that months ago that Hunter Biden was going to get indicted, and it still hasn't happened.
00:06:19.280 And what this individual is saying, like his lawyer just said, well, he teaches other IRS agents how to conduct investigations,
00:06:25.940 and he can tell the signs of when an investigation is not being conducted to discover the truth.
00:06:34.460 Look, that's a big deal.
00:06:35.860 He's saying this is a political cover-up, and it's a political cover-up that is directed by political appointees.
00:06:43.160 And he says, in particular, the attorney general lied to Congress.
00:06:47.500 Here's an example of Merrick Garland talking about Hunter Biden before the Senate.
00:06:52.480 I don't know the answer to that, and I don't want to get into the internal elements of decision-making by the U.S. attorney,
00:06:59.440 but he has been advised that he is not to be denied anything that he needs.
00:07:04.980 And if that were to happen, it should ascend through the department's ranks.
00:07:09.580 And I have not heard anything from that office to suggest that they are not able to do everything that the U.S. attorney wants to do.
00:07:17.500 Do you believe him?
00:07:18.560 Before you answer that, I want to remind everybody about our friends at Patriot Mobile.
00:07:22.340 Patriot Mobile is the only conservative cell phone company in the U.S.,
00:07:26.800 and if you're sick and tired of giving your dollars to woke companies that are going against what you believe in,
00:07:32.140 then stand up for what you believe in with a bill you're going to pay every single month.
00:07:35.660 That's your cell phone bill.
00:07:37.060 Patriot Mobile actually fights for your First and your Second Amendment rights.
00:07:40.800 They give money to organizations that stand up for what you believe in.
00:07:44.700 Now, Big Mobile, they're fighting against what you actually stand for.
00:07:48.580 If you stand for the First and the Second Amendment, if you stand for the rights of unborn children,
00:07:52.660 then you need to make the switch to Patriot Mobile.
00:07:54.860 You get the same coverage you have right now with your cell phone.
00:07:58.360 You get to keep your same cell phone number.
00:08:00.280 Now, if you have a business, a small business, they have a business division that can help you switch all of your lines over.
00:08:05.360 Plus, there's one other perk.
00:08:06.620 You usually save money when you switch.
00:08:08.740 So check out Patriot Mobile.
00:08:10.480 Now, stand with your values and give your money to a company that's fighting to stand up for what we believe in.
00:08:16.680 You can call them 878-PATRIOT.
00:08:18.740 Use the promo code VERDICT.
00:08:20.560 You're going to get the best deals of the year.
00:08:23.560 878-PATRIOT or PatriotMobile.com slash VERDICT.
00:08:27.640 Senator, the question I think when you look at, you know, Garland, he's testifying there under oath.
00:08:34.300 Do you believe him?
00:08:36.160 I don't.
00:08:36.560 You know, he's referring to the U.S. attorney in the District of Delaware.
00:08:43.340 David Weiss is his name.
00:08:45.220 He is a holdover U.S. attorney from the Trump administration.
00:08:48.260 So he was appointed by Trump.
00:08:51.380 I think Garland is trying to say, look, Trump appointed this guy, so there's no political interference at all.
00:08:57.900 He can do whatever he wants.
00:08:59.680 He can bring whatever case he wants.
00:09:01.220 Well, this IRS whistleblower is suggesting that's not the case.
00:09:07.400 Look, here's another example of Merrick Garland testifying again before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
00:09:13.780 Same topic.
00:09:14.280 So as the committee well knows from my confirmation hearing, I promised to leave the matter of Hunter Biden in the hands of the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, who was appointed in the previous administration.
00:09:28.300 So any information like that should have gone or should or should have gone to that U.S. attorney's offices and the FBI squad that's working with him.
00:09:38.980 I have pledged not to interfere with that investigation, and I have carried through on my pledge.
00:09:44.900 Clearly, they're trying to paint a picture.
00:09:46.720 They say, hey, Weiss is a guy that can get to do his own thing.
00:09:49.980 Is that reality for people that don't understand how the DOJ works?
00:09:53.160 I mean, you can say, hey, he has free reign.
00:09:55.740 Do whatever you want to do.
00:09:56.720 Do the right thing.
00:09:58.040 Go where the facts take you.
00:09:59.840 But ultimately, doesn't he still have to go back to the people of the DOJ above him and say, this is the plan or this is what I'd like to do?
00:10:05.940 Well, typically, in this sort of matter, you'd have to get approval to file charges, and you'd have to get approval from the fifth floor, from top management, from the attorney general.
00:10:20.020 You know, what we just played there, we don't know for sure what it is that this whistleblower is alleging was perjury.
00:10:27.860 But I think that clip is a pretty good candidate.
00:10:30.280 I think it could easily be that because he says specifically, I have not politically interfered.
00:10:39.020 I pledged not to, and I followed through on that pledge.
00:10:41.780 It's a clear categorical statement.
00:10:44.480 If it is the case, as the whistleblower says, that there was politics that's interfering, and if it's coming from the attorney general, that would contradict that statement.
00:10:56.440 We don't know that because we haven't heard this testimony.
00:11:00.280 But, look, I will say the fact that the whistleblower sent this letter and released the letter to the public, it now makes it extremely difficult for the Biden administration to directly retaliate against this whistleblower.
00:11:15.320 This letter is addressed to Ron Wyden, who's the chairman of the finance committee.
00:11:20.300 It's addressed to Mike Crapo, who is the ranking member of the finance committee.
00:11:24.380 It's addressed to Dick Durbin, the chairman of judiciary.
00:11:26.880 It's addressed to Lindsey Graham, who's the ranking member of judiciary.
00:11:29.700 It's addressed to Chuck Grassley, who is on the finance committee and the judiciary committee and is co-chair of the whistleblower protection caucus, along with Ron Wyden, a Democrat, who is also co-chair of the whistleblower protection caucus.
00:11:45.580 And then it's also sent to four House members, Jason Smith, Richard Neal, Jim Jordan and Jerry Nadler, sending it to five senators, to four House members, both Republicans and Democrats, is a very effective way to avoid this whistleblower just being disappeared in the night.
00:12:06.660 It's a very effective way to avoid a late night visit from Hillary Clinton to his jail cell and end up being Jeffrey Epstein.
00:12:14.820 Yeah, and you've got to cover your A-double-S on this one to be blunt.
00:12:18.920 I mean, it's got to be terrifying to be this guy.
00:12:21.300 How does this work then moving forward?
00:12:23.580 And what the lawyer is saying is this guy is a non-political career guy.
00:12:29.740 Investigative guy, almost like law enforcement-esque.
00:12:32.180 And it at least sounds like, as you read the letter, he is genuinely offended and disturbed.
00:12:39.440 This is what whistleblower protections are all about when someone sees a cover-up, when someone sees the machinery of justice being misused.
00:12:48.880 And listen, we've talked on a verdict all the time about how to tell the Biden Justice Department is being corrupted on this investigation.
00:13:01.620 The critical question is whether they are endeavoring to focus wrongdoing on Hunter Biden, a poor, troubled soul with substance abuse issues, which is their political narrative, or whether they're willing to look into corruption that flows directly to Joe Biden.
00:13:21.740 And that's the connection where, if you're being political, you say, OK, go after him for all the drug use you want.
00:13:30.020 Tax issues, fine.
00:13:31.800 Just leave your daddy at it.
00:13:32.420 Well, but personal tax issues.
00:13:33.640 So, look, what's interesting about this letter also is that he refers to, in particular, he says,
00:13:40.060 Look, there are some of the protected disclosures contain information that is restricted by statute from unauthorized disclosure to protect taxpayer and tax return information.
00:13:53.920 So, this is an IRS investigator.
00:13:57.080 He's looking at IRS tax returns.
00:13:59.740 He's looking at, presumably, Hunter Biden's tax returns, maybe business tax returns.
00:14:05.760 And what it may be, and I'm speculating here, but I'm speculating based on what he said, is it may be that the political interference is saying,
00:14:14.700 Nope, don't look into this flow of money, and if it's going to Joe Biden.
00:14:19.120 Nope, you can't look into that.
00:14:20.900 That may be, because we've said all the time, that's the real critical question.
00:14:26.340 Are they protecting the big guy?
00:14:29.060 Yeah.
00:14:29.660 And if they're saying to the investigators, you know, they're looking at a deal and saying,
00:14:34.440 All right, is this thing crooked?
00:14:37.200 You'd normally follow the money.
00:14:39.360 That would be the ordinary steps that you engage in to find the truth.
00:14:44.100 And so, it is...
00:14:45.580 In other words, who else is involved?
00:14:47.620 Yes.
00:14:48.600 And if you're the top guy, or you're Garland, and you're this whistleblower, and you say,
00:14:53.980 We're following this money, and we want to see where it's going, because we can see what's happening here.
00:14:59.740 Again, you connect all the suspicious activity reports.
00:15:03.420 You connect it with the nine Biden family member last names we now know are involved in this shady business scheme,
00:15:08.940 this apparatus, whatever you want to call it.
00:15:11.840 You connect all that, and then if someone comes in and says,
00:15:14.500 No, no, no, you can't go there.
00:15:16.340 That's when this whistleblower, I would assume, was offended.
00:15:20.200 Yeah, no, I think that's right.
00:15:21.680 I mean, it certainly on its face presents like someone who wanted to investigate criminal conduct or possible criminal conduct
00:15:30.080 and was prevented from doing so.
00:15:32.380 That had political higher-ups saying, No, no, no, no, no.
00:15:35.300 I mean, what he alleges is it was politics.
00:15:37.440 In other words, we're protecting the big guy.
00:15:40.880 You can't go there.
00:15:42.660 Let's go to the lawyer for quickly a moment here.
00:15:45.360 If you are in the IRS and you go to an attorney and you say, This is what I've seen,
00:15:52.620 and then you're accusing the Attorney General of the United States of America, Senator,
00:15:58.540 of being the guy who is stopping you from doing your job,
00:16:03.220 what is the initial reaction going to be in that conversation with any attorney?
00:16:06.380 Like, be careful, tread lightly.
00:16:08.680 Do you understand what could happen to your life and your future if you do go forward with this?
00:16:13.300 How much are they going to go back and really make sure before they send this letter
00:16:17.240 that this is a rock-solid claim from a whistleblower?
00:16:22.180 Well, look, I am assuming that this whistleblower has real evidence.
00:16:26.880 This whistleblower may have his or her own testimony,
00:16:30.400 but it wouldn't surprise me if they're emails.
00:16:33.500 It wouldn't surprise me if there are voicemails or other written correspondence directing,
00:16:40.760 okay, here's what you can investigate and here's what you can't.
00:16:45.080 I don't know that, but an IRS senior supervisory investigator,
00:16:52.420 those are the sorts of materials that he would present.
00:16:56.940 And look, the steps that he took, he went, first of all, to the IRS.
00:17:00.560 So he went to a supervisor.
00:17:02.320 He went to someone within the IRS.
00:17:04.900 He doesn't specify whom, but you would think to the supervisor.
00:17:07.320 It would be the natural place, or if the supervisor was the one conveying it,
00:17:10.900 you'd go to the supervisor's supervisor.
00:17:13.260 That would be a reasonable thing to start.
00:17:16.280 He then went to the inspector general at Treasury.
00:17:19.320 So that's another place to start.
00:17:21.180 And the inspector general exists to investigate wrongdoing within the department.
00:17:27.220 So he's done that.
00:17:28.520 We don't know what time frame.
00:17:29.660 He doesn't specify when he raised it with the IRS,
00:17:32.540 when he raised it with the inspector general.
00:17:34.540 But then he went also to the inspector general of the Department of Justice.
00:17:37.960 So he's crossing over to another department and raising it there as well.
00:17:43.180 And presumably, this letter was sent because those three places got nowhere.
00:17:48.480 Now, there may be ongoing investigations.
00:17:51.260 The IG at Justice, in particular, Michael Horowitz, has done good work.
00:17:58.380 The report that the Department of Justice inspector general did on Crossfire Hurricane,
00:18:04.940 outlying the politicizations, the lying, the enormous breaches of ordinary protocol
00:18:12.120 that were done in the Department of Justice targeting and going after Donald Trump,
00:18:19.920 that was a very good report.
00:18:21.800 So it's possible one or both inspectors general are actively investigating and there may be more coming.
00:18:29.780 But those investigations can take a long time.
00:18:33.480 They can be drawn out.
00:18:34.820 They usually culminated in a report on the back end.
00:18:38.180 And that can end up, if there's criminal conduct resulting in a referral for criminal prosecution,
00:18:44.440 sending the letter to Congress elevates it by making it public.
00:18:50.900 Now, look, it also performs a function that it lets the American people know about it.
00:18:57.140 And this is highly relevant.
00:18:59.000 If you have a president and an attorney general who are lying to the American people,
00:19:05.780 who are abusing the justice system,
00:19:07.860 who are covering up evidence of corruption by the president,
00:19:11.320 you know, we've seen that before.
00:19:13.720 There's a guy named Richard Milhouse Nixon.
00:19:15.940 And he had an attorney general, John Mitchell, who covered up for him
00:19:19.200 and covered up for his criminal conduct.
00:19:20.820 And the end of that story,
00:19:24.020 Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace and John Mitchell went to prison.
00:19:27.660 So what's being alleged by this whistleblower,
00:19:32.780 the consequences of it are potentially very, very serious.
00:19:36.440 Set expectations quickly for this whistleblower and what the public may see if he is granted this protection.
00:19:44.900 Do we see him in front of cameras testifying before Congress?
00:19:50.620 Is this done behind closed doors?
00:19:53.280 Will we find out who he is as a person?
00:19:55.660 How does this work?
00:19:56.860 So it depends.
00:19:58.040 And because there are multiple committees, the answer may be different committee by committee.
00:20:01.860 I will say if we had a Democrat Senate and a Democrat House,
00:20:06.200 the odds would be very high that the result would be the same as the results been so far from his other three referrals,
00:20:12.320 that they just basically deep six it and ignore it.
00:20:17.180 Senate Judiciary Committee, I expect Dick Durbin doesn't want to go near this.
00:20:22.320 I will be surprised if Durbin has any interest in getting into this issue.
00:20:27.880 But Jim Jordan will.
00:20:33.420 The fact that we have a Republican majority in the House,
00:20:39.360 I am confident the House will be eager to listen to this whistleblower.
00:20:44.840 It will start presumably.
00:20:46.900 So the lawyer offers to sit down and he says,
00:20:50.220 you know, my goal is to ensure that my client can properly share his lawfully protected disclosures
00:20:56.240 with congressional committees.
00:20:58.140 Thus, I respectfully request that your committees work with me
00:21:01.240 to facilitate sharing the information with Congress legally
00:21:04.820 and with the fully informed advice of counsel.
00:21:08.360 With the appropriate legal protections and in the appropriate setting,
00:21:11.560 I would be happy to meet with you and provide a more detailed proffer of the testimony
00:21:16.900 my client could provide to Congress.
00:21:19.140 So the next step in all likelihood, and it may have happened last week,
00:21:23.060 if it didn't happen last week, I'll be shocked if it doesn't happen this week,
00:21:27.660 is lawyers for the committees will sit down with the lawyer for this whistleblower
00:21:35.080 and he'll give a more detailed proffer.
00:21:37.840 So proffer is a legal term where a proffer is basically saying,
00:21:40.880 okay, here's what my client will testify to.
00:21:43.800 And it's sort of giving a foreshadowing of this is going to be his testimony.
00:21:49.400 And they will presumably work out an agreement, the committees,
00:21:53.460 with him to ensure that he has the legal protections of being a whistleblower
00:21:59.540 so that he doesn't get fired for doing it.
00:22:02.280 And in particular, you know, he mentions that there are statutes
00:22:05.480 that limit what you can say about taxpayer filing information.
00:22:09.780 Now, there's some irony because the Biden IRS leaks information about tax returns of people
00:22:15.360 they don't like, people like Elon Musk.
00:22:17.100 They're happy to leak information about his tax returns.
00:22:20.140 But this guy is very smart saying, look, if I come and tell you about something in the tax return,
00:22:27.140 Merrick Garland could turn around and prosecute me because you're not allowed to share that.
00:22:30.880 So I want to make sure I'm conveying it in a way that it is consistent with law.
00:22:36.200 That will happen.
00:22:37.160 At a minimum, what will happen in the House, what will start will be a conversation with the lawyer.
00:22:42.300 What will probably happen next will be a conversation, perhaps a deposition taken behind closed doors
00:22:51.620 from this whistleblower to hear his testimony.
00:22:57.000 And then the next step, my prediction is we're going to see this guy testify in the House
00:23:03.160 that Jim Jordan or James Comer.
00:23:06.240 So you think we'll actually see him as an individual, as a human being?
00:23:08.920 I think that's quite likely.
00:23:10.680 Now, that's probably two months away.
00:23:14.780 Okay.
00:23:16.280 Takes time.
00:23:18.140 The committee will want to, first of all, hear from the lawyer.
00:23:21.040 Second of all, hear from the witness.
00:23:25.480 It could be fast.
00:23:26.780 Look, we could hear from them in a week.
00:23:28.280 If they want to go fast, they can.
00:23:32.120 Not always smart, though.
00:23:33.500 Look, I would think whatever the allegations are, they're going to ask, do you have any evidence to back it up?
00:23:38.060 Do you have emails?
00:23:38.720 Do you have memos?
00:23:39.340 Do you have, like, what corroborating information?
00:23:42.200 They might ask, what other witnesses do you have?
00:23:44.960 And they may say, okay, we want to talk to these other witnesses.
00:23:47.260 And so my guess is we will see a public hearing.
00:23:54.760 I don't think we'll see one in the Senate.
00:23:56.140 I don't think Dick Durbin wants a public hearing in the Senate.
00:23:58.920 But the House, I think we will probably see a hearing with this witness testifying.
00:24:05.240 And depending on the specifics of the evidence that he or she puts forward, the next steps, that could escalate quickly.
00:24:17.580 I want to ask you about Garland specifically, how much trouble he could actually be in from all this.
00:24:22.380 Before I get your reaction to that, I want to tell you about our friends over at Chalk.
00:24:25.520 If you're a guy and you're dealing with that real issue of you're just getting older, you feel like you're losing a little bit of your edge, you feel like you're just more tired than you used to be, you should check out Chalk.
00:24:36.520 Chalk can help you maximize your masculinity by boosting your testosterone levels up to 20% over 90 days.
00:24:44.860 I've been taking the Chalk Male Vitality Stack.
00:24:46.920 I can tell you it actually does work.
00:24:48.740 If you're ready to get your edge back, check out Chalk.
00:24:52.700 Go to ChalkCHOQ.com.
00:24:56.040 Use the promo code Ben for 35% off any Chalk subscription for life.
00:25:01.340 Plus, you can cancel any time.
00:25:03.020 All you have to do is use the promo code Ben.
00:25:05.520 So if you're getting older, get and win this war and get back what you had before.
00:25:11.700 ChalkCHOQ.com.
00:25:13.840 Promo code Ben.
00:25:15.840 At checkout, you'll get 35% off ChalkCHOQ.com.
00:25:19.860 Senator, if you are Garland right now, the Attorney General, and this whistleblower is clearly going to name you, you know what your testimony was.
00:25:29.740 And if you forgot it, you've probably gone back and looked at it.
00:25:32.960 You also probably know what he has on you, this whistleblower.
00:25:37.000 How concerned is Garland right now for his job?
00:25:40.280 And since the Senate is controlled by the Democrats, how much does that protect him?
00:25:47.100 Look, it depends on how specific the evidence is.
00:25:51.960 A special supervisory agent at the IRS is unlikely to be meeting with the Attorney General directly.
00:25:59.840 So, look, the agent could come in and testify, Merrick Garland told me directly, do not investigate Joe Biden or any of the money flowing to Joe Biden.
00:26:09.400 That would be really bad if he said that.
00:26:11.260 The chances of that happening are very, very low.
00:26:14.580 It's not likely to be direct testimony of words that came straight out of Merrick Garland's mouth.
00:26:20.660 It is more likely to be, as he's conducting the investigation, he's told by a supervisor, don't go down that road.
00:26:32.580 No, no, you can't go down that road.
00:26:34.420 I want you to focus on this and not that.
00:26:38.420 In all likelihood, any interference from the Attorney General went through several intermediaries.
00:26:43.660 It wasn't, presumably, it wasn't Garland sitting there directly going, nope, nope, can't touch that.
00:26:52.260 So then it depends on how specific it was.
00:26:54.940 If these guys are idiots enough to write a memo, which they might be because they're pretty brazen,
00:26:59.940 if they wrote a memo and directed, here are all the things you can't get into,
00:27:05.240 and it's directly contrary to what Merrick Garland said that he hasn't interfered in any way,
00:27:10.900 then that's more of a problem.
00:27:12.440 And the memo, look, we've talked about memos for Merrick Garland,
00:27:16.580 the memo that he wrote to the FBI directing them to investigate parents who spoke up at school boards.
00:27:22.720 And then claimed it was wrong, it should never happen.
00:27:26.700 I doubt that's happened.
00:27:30.140 If he wrote a memo on the Hunter Biden case directing them not to look into the president,
00:27:35.380 then he ought to be impeached for stupidity.
00:27:37.780 Forget the corruption.
00:27:39.720 That would be so moronic.
00:27:41.460 I would be very, very surprised if—
00:27:44.380 He's a smart guy.
00:27:45.140 People need to understand that.
00:27:46.040 I always say—
00:27:46.620 He is a very smart guy.
00:27:47.840 He's not an idiot.
00:27:48.580 He is not lacking in gray matter.
00:27:51.320 He is lacking in ethics and integrity,
00:27:54.420 being willing to say no, I will not allow the Department of Justice to be politicized and weaponized.
00:28:01.160 But he is smart and capable.
00:28:03.280 So the degree of legal jeopardy Merrick Garland is in depends upon the quality and specificity of the evidence this whistleblower has.
00:28:16.840 If it's vaguer in nature, well, I was told to focus over here but not over there, and why is that?
00:28:26.400 You know, people just knew it was because the attorney general didn't want us to.
00:28:30.460 It could be something.
00:28:31.720 I mean, if that's all it is, that—you're not going to get a conviction for lying under oath for that kind of tension.
00:28:40.120 You need a much more direct, he said he didn't do X, here's evidence he did X.
00:28:46.820 I mean, that's—
00:28:47.920 There used to be a fear of lying under oath, especially to Congress.
00:28:50.620 It would be a real consequence.
00:28:52.140 We have a lot of examples of people lying under oath, and there's no accountability.
00:28:56.620 Anthony Fauci is the one, the name that comes right to the top of the list.
00:29:00.120 There's many others that have lied—
00:29:01.300 And I've asked Merrick Garland about Anthony Fauci.
00:29:05.340 And Garland picks and chooses which laws he will enforce and which laws he won't.
00:29:10.400 There is a subsequent question, which is if this evidence comes out, what happens then?
00:29:16.420 Because the person who makes the decision whether Merrick Garland should be prosecuted is Merrick Garland.
00:29:22.980 So how does it work then?
00:29:26.140 He would surely recuse, and he would have to recuse.
00:29:29.640 That actually, I feel confident.
00:29:32.280 The DOJ rules are clear.
00:29:34.560 You can't make a decision whether to prosecute yourself.
00:29:36.740 Is this kind of like when he went after Trump at Mar-a-Lago for the classified documents,
00:29:40.140 and then Biden had a bunch of documents like,
00:29:42.020 OK, I got to step back here, we'll have somebody else deal with this?
00:29:44.360 No, on a determination, if it escalated to the point that there was a determination of a criminal investigation,
00:29:52.780 I would expect that Garland would recuse, and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco,
00:29:58.520 would be the acting attorney general for that matter.
00:30:01.380 By the way, same thing Jeff Sessions did.
00:30:03.800 Remember, Jeff Sessions recused from Russia, Russia, Russia.
00:30:07.140 And so Rod Rosenstein was the attorney general for all of that, which is why we went down that horrible road.
00:30:15.500 In this instance, Garland would surely recuse from decisions about himself.
00:30:20.420 But Lisa Monaco has been perfectly willing to be part of the politicization as well.
00:30:26.200 And so I do not believe the Department of Justice would be willing to hold Merrick Garland to account.
00:30:35.660 Many of us would surely call for a special counsel in those circumstances.
00:30:42.420 It would take mounting political pressure to force that to happen.
00:30:46.600 And that's why I think if this guy has – if he has the goods, if he has real evidence –
00:30:51.140 now, if it turns out it's nothing, then you may not see him testify.
00:30:55.000 But if he's got real and compelling evidence, I expect to see him testify because that's the only way to ratchet up the pressure
00:31:01.800 to ultimately – look, if it's bad enough, it could force Garland to resign.
00:31:06.380 But we don't know yet, so that – it depends on whether there is clear evidence of A, political interference
00:31:13.080 and B, Garland committing a felony and lying to Congress under oath.
00:31:18.560 Garland, if you're Garland, you're hoping someone else has a bad week to get you off the front page?
00:31:23.940 And by the way, we were talking a second ago about recusals of the attorney general and Jeff Sessions.
00:31:30.960 If you remember why Jeff Sessions recused, part of it, it started with his confirmation hearing.
00:31:38.520 So he's before the Senate Judiciary Committee being confirmed as attorney general.
00:31:43.280 And Jeff is a good guy. He's a friend. I served with him in the Senate for a lot of years.
00:31:47.800 He was on the Judiciary Committee, sat just a couple of seats away from me on the Judiciary Committee.
00:31:53.980 Jeff had a long day of testimony, and the morning went pretty well.
00:31:57.440 He was getting questioned. The Democrats were coming after him, but he was doing a good job.
00:32:01.760 As he got into the afternoon, I think Jeff got tired.
00:32:06.940 Look, Jeff's in his 70s, and he just, I think, got tired, and his answers got sloppy.
00:32:14.780 And in particular, there was an exchange – and I'm doing this from memory.
00:32:18.600 I don't have the transcript in front of me, but it was Al Franken, who was on the committee before he resigned from the Senate in disgrace.
00:32:25.800 Al Franken asked him about had he met with the Russian ambassador.
00:32:32.160 And Sessions said no. He had not.
00:32:36.820 And then it came out that he had.
00:32:39.600 And there were photographs of him with the Russian ambassador.
00:32:42.200 And it was his answer, and he actually – his answer went above and beyond what Franken had asked.
00:32:49.720 And I think it was just he was tired and sloppy.
00:32:53.320 Now, do I think Jeff Sessions was trying to lie to Congress?
00:32:57.120 No.
00:32:57.560 I don't think it was a deliberate lie.
00:33:00.360 But it became clear after his testimony that what he said was false.
00:33:05.940 It was lacking the intent to be criminal, but it was a false statement.
00:33:09.680 I think it was because he was tired and he wasn't remembering and he was being sloppy.
00:33:15.760 But that was a major factor leading Sessions to recuse himself from this.
00:33:20.840 Yeah.
00:33:21.060 What he said was that he was facing, and there were Democrats talking about wanting to prosecute him for lying to Congress, the attorney general.
00:33:32.160 So, look, these issues are serious, and many of these same Senate Democrats on judiciary who are going to be protecting Merrick Garland, who are protecting Joe Biden, were the ones calling for Sessions' head over his statement, even though I think the context in which it was given, it was clearly not done with the intent to deceive.
00:33:54.980 Here, if he's making a promise, I'm not going to politically interfere, and then he's going and politically interfering, that very likely has the intent to deceive that is essential to it being a criminal false statement before Congress.
00:34:12.820 When you have a bad week and you're in politics, what you're always hoping for is that someone else has a bad week to get you out of the headlines.
00:34:19.840 Rarely do we see such a bad week for this White House.
00:34:22.440 You had a bad week with the Biden family in general, nine people now on the take, from what we understand.
00:34:28.320 You got a bad week for Garland here with this whistleblower.
00:34:31.380 And then we have another bad week for the Secretary of State, who apparently the new way to get that job is to orchestrate a massive lie to the American people, to help influence an election, to your guy, Joe Biden.
00:34:48.540 Let's go back in time and remind people, right before the election, Joe Biden needed a bailout, right?
00:34:55.220 His own personal bailout.
00:34:56.900 You got 50 guys that signed a letter saying, this whole Hunter Biden laptop thing isn't real.
00:35:02.400 It has all the markings of Russian interference and Russia trying to influence our elections.
00:35:08.440 That letter we now know was put together by the now guy who's the Secretary of the State.
00:35:13.240 I guess that's how you get this job.
00:35:15.120 And remember, it saved that letter that they all knew they were lying when they signed it.
00:35:20.560 That letter saved Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
00:35:24.260 And then he used it to go on offense.
00:35:26.160 Take a look.
00:35:26.700 There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this he's accusing me of is a Russian plan.
00:35:35.500 They have said that this is has all the care for five former heads of the CIA.
00:35:41.040 Both parties say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage.
00:35:44.980 Nobody believes it except of his and his good friend Rudy Gianni.
00:35:49.180 You mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax?
00:35:53.060 And that's exactly what this is where he's going.
00:35:57.860 I love that exchange because it's classic Trump.
00:36:00.760 But you listen to him.
00:36:02.120 He went on offense with this letter.
00:36:03.440 And now this letter has it has completely blown up in the face of the Democrats.
00:36:07.080 We have official testimony that they knew they were basically lying.
00:36:11.600 They knew they were going to deceive the American people.
00:36:14.720 These are the people we're supposed to be trusting with our with our national intelligence,
00:36:18.440 resistance with keeping us safe, with being in the in the deeps.
00:36:23.120 You know, I mean, this is the swamp.
00:36:24.340 This is the swamp of the swamp.
00:36:25.900 And now it comes out.
00:36:26.980 It's all just political.
00:36:27.860 We made it all up.
00:36:29.260 So several observations.
00:36:30.620 One, it's really striking watching that.
00:36:33.900 This is something you said to me when we were watching the clip right before we started filming.
00:36:37.740 How much Joe Biden has deteriorated in the last two and a half years?
00:36:43.300 Just from that.
00:36:44.120 It's unbelievable.
00:36:44.640 That was October of 2020.
00:36:46.020 Now, I assume they had him pumped up with drugs and but he was so much more alert there than he is now.
00:36:53.100 It's like, wow.
00:36:54.280 Yeah.
00:36:55.100 The decline is massive when you look at that clip.
00:36:57.640 It is.
00:36:58.460 He was diminished there.
00:36:59.800 But the difference from there to now is striking.
00:37:01.800 Um, look, the Hunter Biden laptop, Hunter Biden has been a screw up his whole life.
00:37:10.860 The laptop, I mean, it is pretty idiotic that you have a laptop with all sorts of incriminating information about you,
00:37:17.220 your family, the money you're making from communist China, your dad, nine family members being on the take.
00:37:23.100 And you just leave it at a repair shop.
00:37:25.240 Russian oligarchs who still haven't been sanctioned.
00:37:27.560 Like, at some level, it's so ridiculous.
00:37:30.740 I, I, I'm sure Joe Biden is like, for Pete's sake, like, like, like, Hunter, stop.
00:37:39.320 Yeah.
00:37:40.220 Um, but when the story broke, this was October.
00:37:47.860 This was a couple of weeks before the election.
00:37:50.560 The Biden campaign was in full on panic mode.
00:37:53.480 And so this letter, it was signed by 51 former current and former senior members of the intelligence community, heads of the CIA.
00:38:02.960 James Clapper, Brennan's the top dogs.
00:38:05.160 Yeah.
00:38:06.060 And, um, what we didn't know until this week is that Tony Blinken was the guy who spearheaded the whole thing, who organized the whole thing.
00:38:16.580 We don't think of our secretaries of state as political operatives that are dealing with a cleanup on aisle six.
00:38:24.060 I mean, this was, okay, now it was a foreign policy.
00:38:28.920 It was, are the Bidens in the tank with corrupt foreign governments?
00:38:35.580 So I guess that's foreign policy in a sense.
00:38:38.740 And their lie to cover it up.
00:38:40.900 This is Russian information.
00:38:42.700 That is a lie.
00:38:43.740 It was not Russian information.
00:38:45.500 It did not come from Russia.
00:38:46.900 And by the way, you know, who knew it wasn't, uh, Russian disinformation, Hunter Biden, you know, who else knew it wasn't Russian disinformation, Joe Biden, Joe Biden, right there knew he was lying, but he sends Tony, Tony, go, go get everyone to sign up.
00:39:05.460 You know, people like Mike Morrell, who was the, uh, deputy head of the CIA who said, oh, look, I signed it cause I wanted Joe Biden to win.
00:39:12.500 Well, let's be clear.
00:39:13.340 He testified to that.
00:39:14.700 If people miss this, he actually testified.
00:39:16.880 The reason why he got all these people together and got them to do this letter is because we wanted Joe Biden to win.
00:39:24.300 They're telling you, yes, we lied and misled the, the election, you know, the people going to, to decide who the president's going to be in an election.
00:39:31.400 And we did it because we wanted our guy to win.
00:39:33.220 And the payoff for Anthony Bling was you get to become the secretary of state.
00:39:37.300 It does suggest how important was it to Joe Biden that they put this letter together and lie about the Hunter Biden laptop important enough that the guy who fixed it, at least temporarily, gets secretary of state.
00:39:55.180 I mean, well, and, and look, this is a problem.
00:39:59.920 The secretary of state, they often hold themselves out to be above politics, outside of politics.
00:40:08.280 But now the State Department is in a mess.
00:40:10.960 And, OK, so State Department press briefing, their press spokesperson was asked about it.
00:40:17.200 His answer, watch and listen, it's, it's, it's pretty darn funny.
00:40:21.700 Does the secretary dispute the accuracy of the GOP letter sent to him on Hunter Biden?
00:40:26.640 And then does he also plan to comply and respond to it by May 4th, the deadline?
00:40:32.040 That is a, a, a, not a State Department issue.
00:40:34.640 So I don't have a comment for you on that.
00:40:36.680 Do you know who we can ask about it?
00:40:38.400 Because we've asked the State Department to provide some to a comment on this letter.
00:40:42.700 Um, and it's not clear who else outside of the department we can ask, given it did happen before he was secretary of state.
00:40:49.660 It is not a State Department issue.
00:40:51.180 And I don't really have a comment on this from the State Department.
00:40:53.300 I mean, that's, that's, that's a hard day's work right there.
00:40:57.860 How is this not a State Department issue when it is absolutely a State Department issue?
00:41:02.620 So I got to say, first of all, for those watching the, the video version of this on YouTube, that guy looks 12.
00:41:10.620 Like, like, like, is, is this take, take your kid to school day?
00:41:13.980 And, and, and, you know, he's, he's like in eighth grade and gets to answer questions.
00:41:18.520 And clearly with the discipline of a middle schooler, he had a line, this is not a State Department issue.
00:41:25.060 And I have, don't have a comment on that is the only line he was going to say.
00:41:28.940 Now I get the State Department as an entity may not want to talk about this, but what about Tony Blinken?
00:41:36.460 Yeah.
00:41:36.660 Like, is he going to say something?
00:41:39.600 Is he going to admit to it?
00:41:41.640 And, and let's be clear.
00:41:43.020 What is the it that he should admit to?
00:41:46.400 Did he organize this letter?
00:41:49.880 Did he know it was a lie?
00:41:52.540 Did he do it politically to benefit Joe Biden, even though he knew it was a lie?
00:41:59.300 And what did he say to convince these people to sign on?
00:42:04.780 And also, who didn't sign on?
00:42:08.180 51 did.
00:42:10.040 Yeah, with their 58, 60, 70 that were contacted, and only these hacks signed it.
00:42:15.080 I got to ask you this, though, about all of these people.
00:42:18.460 And by the way, this letter also became yet another basis for big tech to suppress the story as well.
00:42:25.200 And the media.
00:42:26.060 And the media.
00:42:26.720 They were all intertwined.
00:42:28.200 You can't talk about this.
00:42:29.720 Doesn't exist.
00:42:31.560 It's Orwellian.
00:42:32.780 We are erasing this story because we do not wish it to hurt our political narrative.
00:42:38.780 You look at the narrative of that letter, and it was not just the fact that it was a bailout.
00:42:44.360 It changed it to going on offense, which is what you want to do in politics.
00:42:47.600 Yeah.
00:42:48.220 It allowed the media to say, we're not going to have Russia interfere in our elections, so we're America, kumbaya,
00:42:54.200 and we're protecting you from disinformation from the Russians.
00:42:58.460 So it justified that ability.
00:42:59.880 It gave them a probable cause to say, we did the right thing.
00:43:03.240 But what about all of these men that signed on to this letter that have top secret clearance?
00:43:09.240 Still to this day, many of them do.
00:43:11.000 Half of them are commentators getting paid to go on MSNBC, NBC, and CNN.
00:43:15.860 I had to deal with a couple of them at CNN.
00:43:18.360 They're making money off of still having their top secret clearance, what they have.
00:43:22.300 They deliberately misled the American people to change and alter the outcome of an election.
00:43:26.660 Can you guys take away their top secret clearance for doing this, knowing they were lying to the American people?
00:43:31.880 Well, the problem in that question is the word you guys, because clearance is given in the executive branch.
00:43:42.240 And so what are the chances that the Biden administration is going to revoke clearance?
00:43:47.780 Zero.
00:43:49.800 Because these were all the president's men.
00:43:52.800 Look, these two stories are intertwined.
00:43:56.020 Very much so.
00:43:56.600 I mean, we started talking first about Merrick Garland potentially perjuring himself to cover up his political interference
00:44:05.600 to stop the investigation into Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's potential corruption together.
00:44:12.720 Merrick Garland is attorney general, and he's willing to be politicized.
00:44:17.380 Tony Blinken is secretary of state.
00:44:19.160 You want to talk about two of the very top cabinet positions.
00:44:23.560 They're both doing the same thing.
00:44:25.740 They view their job as we are political operatives, and our priority is not truth.
00:44:33.420 Our priority is not following the law.
00:44:35.780 Our priority is not prosecuting criminal activity.
00:44:39.120 Our priority is protecting the political interest of the Biden-Harris White House.
00:44:45.000 That's messed up.
00:44:46.140 Can you get answers out of Anthony Blinken on this letter?
00:44:49.500 Will you guys have a chance to do that?
00:44:50.840 Before you answer that, I want to tell you about our friends at Augusta Precious Metals.
00:44:54.140 How would you like to get some free gold?
00:44:56.800 You can now do it when you become a client of Augusta Precious Metals.
00:45:00.040 And if you're sick and tired of being stressed out over your retirement, over your 401k, with what's been going on with the economy,
00:45:06.040 with bank failures and everything else, you need to sit down with Augusta Precious Metals
00:45:09.760 and see if gold and silver is right for you and your 401k.
00:45:13.140 If you have $100,000 or more invested and you talk to Augusta Precious Metals, you can actually get a free gold coin as well.
00:45:22.060 That's the nice part about working with them as a company.
00:45:25.540 They want to work with you short-term to protect your assets for the long term.
00:45:30.160 So don't worry about what's happening with the economy all the time.
00:45:34.100 Be able to protect yourself and use gold as part of that protection.
00:45:37.660 Call them or go online, 877, the number 4-GOLD-IRA, 877, the number 4-GOLD-IRA, or AugustaPreciousMetals.com.
00:45:48.280 That's AugustaPreciousMetals.com.
00:45:51.120 Use gold and IRA for your peace of mind, AugustaPreciousMetals.com.
00:45:55.280 Blinken, for a second, can you guys ask him questions now on this?
00:46:01.840 Or does he just say, hey, that was a previous life.
00:46:05.300 I don't have to answer any of these questions.
00:46:07.160 I'm now just working as an official government.
00:46:09.420 That was in my private time on the campaign.
00:46:12.100 So I don't expect the Democrats in the Senate to want to ask anything about it.
00:46:15.580 But we will ask him questions.
00:46:17.340 I'm on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:46:19.700 Tony Blinken testifies regularly before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:46:23.160 He will be forced to answer questions.
00:46:26.740 But if not, you better believe the next time he testifies before Senate Foreign Relations,
00:46:31.860 I'm going to ask him about it.
00:46:33.740 And my guess is he'll be forced to answer even before then.
00:46:37.720 We'll see what he says.
00:46:38.760 He'll come up with a statement.
00:46:40.540 The statement will deny responsibility, will dodge, will be, you know,
00:46:45.320 I was a foreign policy advisor for the campaign and had lots of responsibilities
00:46:50.480 that dealt with foreign policy and Russian disinformation and his foreign policy.
00:46:54.900 I'm going to predict whatever statement he puts out will not address remotely the fact
00:47:05.300 that they were all deliberately lying, will just completely ignore that fact
00:47:09.260 and try to say nothing to see here.
00:47:12.580 Yes, everyone knows I was an advisor on the campaign, and so I was an advisor on the campaign.
00:47:16.820 That's what I expect.
00:47:18.020 Last question.
00:47:20.140 Anthony Blinken or Merrick Garland, who would you not want to be in these two scenarios
00:47:25.060 as it moves forward and why?
00:47:27.800 Garland.
00:47:28.720 Garland, depending on the quality of the evidence that this whistleblower has,
00:47:36.600 Garland potentially has real legal exposure here.
00:47:39.960 Blinken, it's unseemly.
00:47:42.880 It's embarrassing.
00:47:44.100 It's indicative of his being a political hack before he became secretary of state,
00:47:51.120 and so that you don't feel good about that.
00:47:53.500 Yeah.
00:47:53.800 But there's nothing in that that is allegedly illegal.
00:47:58.840 There's not legal jeopardy and any prosecution that follows from that.
00:48:04.400 Garland, and to be clear, we're nowhere close to a prosecution for Garland,
00:48:08.900 but if there's real evidence that he lied to Congress under oath, that would change things significantly.
00:48:15.000 This is breaking, obviously, quickly.
00:48:17.320 We're going to stay on it here at Verdict.
00:48:19.400 Make sure you download our podcast Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays when we publish.
00:48:23.020 We also have our video component of one of those shows a week, so you can watch that on YouTube.
00:48:27.220 You can also watch it on Facebook as well.
00:48:29.440 Follow us there.
00:48:30.820 Senator, really fun show.
00:48:33.060 This one has got a lot of information.
00:48:35.220 Share it with your family and friends, and we'll see you back here in a couple of days.
00:48:39.860 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:48:42.760 Guaranteed Human.