Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 28, 2025


Bombshells： AG Bondi Accuses NY FBI Field Office of Deliberately Hiding Jeffrey Epstein Files plus NY Post Reports Trump's Attempted Assassin in Butler may have had an Accomplice


Episode Stats

Length

29 minutes

Words per Minute

166.0033

Word Count

4,977

Sentence Count

294

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.200 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:00:09.600 And Senator, it was a very big day Thursday as we got part one of the Epstein files that
00:00:17.660 were released to the public by a lot of conservatives that were at the White House.
00:00:21.920 And then Pam Bondi came out afterwards and dropped a bomb that was pretty much, hey,
00:00:27.560 I may be the Attorney General and Cash Patel may be the FBI Director, but there are people
00:00:32.440 in New York that are hiding documents from us that deal with Jeffrey Epstein.
00:00:36.740 Well, that's exactly right.
00:00:38.280 And let me start by saying thank you to Pam Bondi for honoring the promises she made.
00:00:43.740 I have been calling on the Department of Justice to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files,
00:00:48.800 and she is working to do that.
00:00:51.240 And so she released the first tranche of information today.
00:00:55.080 That was good, although a lot of the observers who saw the information were underwhelmed by
00:01:02.080 what was in it.
00:01:02.780 She released it to a group of conservative influencers online and gave them a binder with
00:01:09.400 the information.
00:01:10.880 And there were no big smoking guns in what came out initially.
00:01:14.820 We do know that the new Jeffrey Epstein contact list included Alec Baldwin, Michael Jackson,
00:01:23.240 and Mick Jagger.
00:01:25.040 But it was for people who want to know who were Jeffrey Epstein's clients, who was complicit
00:01:36.160 and who was guilty as he was of sexually abusing teenage girls.
00:01:43.000 There was relatively little information in the files that were released.
00:01:47.860 But then there was a bombshell because Pam Bondi accused the New York FBI office of withholding
00:02:00.640 significant parts of the Epstein files.
00:02:04.140 That's a big, big deal.
00:02:06.160 And she did so in a formal letter that she sent to Kash Patel.
00:02:12.680 So she sent a letter on February 27th.
00:02:14.820 I'm going to read you the entire letter because this letter is a big deal.
00:02:18.200 February 27th, 2025.
00:02:20.040 Dear Director Patel,
00:02:20.900 Before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
00:02:26.940 In response to this request, I received approximately 200 pages of documents, which consisted primarily
00:02:33.900 of flight logs, Epstein's list of contacts, and a list of victims' names and phone numbers.
00:02:41.100 I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request
00:02:45.660 and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents.
00:02:52.300 Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI field office in New York
00:02:58.700 was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.
00:03:06.840 Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files.
00:03:13.860 When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information.
00:03:22.120 By 8 a.m. tomorrow, February 28th, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office,
00:03:30.600 including all records, documents, audio and video recordings,
00:03:35.720 and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients.
00:03:40.000 Regardless of how such information was obtained,
00:03:43.080 there will be no withholdings or limitations to my or your access.
00:03:49.380 The Department of Justice will ensure that any public disclosure of these files
00:03:53.860 will be done in a manner to protect the privacy of victims and in accordance with law,
00:03:59.700 as I have done my entire career as a prosecutor.
00:04:03.400 I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed.
00:04:13.740 You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days.
00:04:22.020 I appreciate your immediate attention to this important matter.
00:04:26.200 I know that we are both committed to transparency for the American people,
00:04:29.800 and I look forward to continuing to work with you to serve our president and our country.
00:04:35.800 Sincerely, Pamela Bondi, Attorney General.
00:04:39.800 This letter was incredible, and I actually talked to someone that you and I both know, Chad Prather.
00:04:45.300 He was invited as one of the 15.
00:04:47.140 He's a fellow Texan that went to the White House.
00:04:51.140 And as soon as he left, we actually talked on the phone, and he said,
00:04:54.940 none of us that were invited up here knew we were going to get the Epstein files, number one.
00:05:01.300 We were actually brought up to the White House to talk about communications,
00:05:04.760 and we were going to meet with the vice president.
00:05:06.820 We didn't know we were going to be meeting with the people in the cabinet.
00:05:08.920 We didn't know we were going to be meeting with the president.
00:05:10.500 We certainly didn't know we were going to be given these Epstein files.
00:05:13.580 And he said there was two parts of this that the big mainstream media clearly didn't understand,
00:05:20.960 or they were angry that we got the files before they did.
00:05:24.680 And so they wanted to say today was a nothing burger.
00:05:26.880 He said, when they gave them to us, they said, look, there's really nothing new in here that you're going to find.
00:05:33.180 This is why we're calling it part one.
00:05:35.440 And then they said, what we want you to know is exactly the letter that you just read,
00:05:40.980 which was, we don't have the majority of the intel that we've been demanding
00:05:46.100 because there are bad actors in the deep state who were refusing to give it to us.
00:05:50.480 In fact, what they said was even more shocking was Pam Bondi did an interview with Waters last night on Fox,
00:05:59.200 and she was talking about the, quote, 200 pages that she had.
00:06:03.780 There was, in essence, a whistleblower that saw the interview and said,
00:06:06.840 I need to tell you right now that you're missing a lot of pages,
00:06:11.020 and they're not giving them to you from New York FBI.
00:06:13.520 And that's how fast this all came about.
00:06:16.820 So when you're the, when you're the attorney general of the United States of America,
00:06:19.980 you're going on TV and only because you gave a page number,
00:06:24.000 which was about 10% of apparently what is actually out there based on what the whistleblower said.
00:06:29.960 This is insane that this is our government right now.
00:06:32.800 And there's that many people fighting against the will of the people who elected the president,
00:06:37.060 who had put Pam Bondi and Cash Patel into these positions.
00:06:40.360 Well, and from the letter, there may be audio and video recordings.
00:06:46.400 There may be some issue that some of the materials were seized illegally.
00:06:51.420 I mean, there's a suggestion there that regardless of how it was accessed, I want it.
00:06:57.260 But look, I got to say, listen, I worked in the Department of Justice 25 years ago.
00:07:02.740 I have been working in and around law enforcement for virtually my entire adult life.
00:07:08.920 I have never seen something like this happen.
00:07:12.880 So understand, the FBI reports to the Department of Justice.
00:07:18.100 Cash Patel, his boss is Pam Bondi.
00:07:21.580 The FBI is in the org chart reporting to the Department of Justice.
00:07:26.160 So when the attorney general orders the FBI, I want to see these files.
00:07:31.080 In every instance I'm aware of, the FBI complies.
00:07:34.860 There's supposed to be law enforcement.
00:07:37.220 If the attorney general says, I want to see something, you give it to the attorney general.
00:07:41.780 And look, presumably we will find out.
00:07:44.720 And we'll find out, I guess, within two weeks when Cash Patel prepares his report saying, here's what happened.
00:07:52.320 But it is astonishing if you have rogue agents in the New York office of the FBI who are just defying the attorney general.
00:08:02.880 That is a level of open warfare that I've never seen.
00:08:09.540 And it really does indicate the need to clean house in a major way.
00:08:14.920 There was also another aspect of this, and again, this is coming from Chad, and he was meeting, right, with the president and the vice president and these other cabinet members, Pam Bondi, Cash Patel.
00:08:24.380 And he said they were also, the letter has been basically just completely misconstrued as if there's some sort of disagreement or wedge between Pam Bondi and Cash Patel.
00:08:36.680 But when you understand the back story, he said they're lockstep.
00:08:40.260 She's giving this letter out to give him the power to then go get the answers from the demands.
00:08:47.080 And yet the media was reporting this tonight all over the place like, oh, there's a big rift between the attorney general and the FBI director.
00:08:54.560 That is also not the case at all.
00:08:56.620 Another lie.
00:08:57.280 Yeah, and I think that's very clear from the letter where it says when you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information.
00:09:07.800 And so Cash Patel has just been confirmed.
00:09:09.920 As you know, I went to Cash Patel's swearing in at the White House last week.
00:09:15.040 He's brand new on the job.
00:09:16.680 He has a mandate to restore integrity to the FBI.
00:09:20.580 And I guess the whistleblower, whoever the source was, contacted the attorney general directly.
00:09:27.500 And she's the one, the attorney general, who told Cash Patel about this document.
00:09:32.020 I am sure he is pissed off at what the New York field office apparently did.
00:09:39.280 And I fully expect he will get to the bottom of it.
00:09:42.560 And I expect they're going to make the results of that public.
00:09:44.760 I think we're all going to know exactly who's responsible and why.
00:09:48.540 Let me ask about accountability here because you would understand the law more than I certainly do.
00:09:56.580 And that is if you've been directed by the FBI director or the attorney general to turn over documents and you work in the government and you deliberately hide those documents and do not turn them over, are you committing a crime or is it basically worst case scenario you lose your job and they fire you for insubordination?
00:10:13.100 It's likely the latter.
00:10:14.380 Sure, there's not anything it would there's not an immediate crime that comes to mind.
00:10:20.940 It's just defying your boss.
00:10:23.940 I suppose you could try to characterize it as obstruction of justice.
00:10:27.800 But I think the simplest explanation, the simplest remedy would be termination.
00:10:34.620 And I expect any FBI agent that deliberately disobeyed a direct order from the attorney general, I expect anyone involved in that to be terminated.
00:10:45.880 It's an incredible story.
00:10:47.720 And I think one of the things that we should make clear is there's clearly significant information.
00:10:52.800 We've been told that Pam Bondi has said that there is video, there is audio, there's a lot of recordings and there's a lot more information.
00:11:00.940 To be clear, we don't we don't know that at least the letter doesn't say that it just says deliver the full and complete files, including audio and video recordings.
00:11:10.940 And look, lawyers tend to be pretty broad.
00:11:13.760 She may not know that there are audio and video recordings.
00:11:16.080 She may she may there may be or there may not be.
00:11:19.360 But she but she hasn't definitively said that there are audio and video recordings.
00:11:23.300 Yeah, you're absolutely right.
00:11:24.480 That's what the letter said.
00:11:25.400 But what's interesting is from the people that were in the meeting, they were told that this was, in essence, the tip of the iceberg,
00:11:31.100 that they do have audio and video recordings that apparently have been withheld from the New York office.
00:11:36.160 And that's part of the reason why I think you're seeing the demand come out this way is that there must be a lot that the deep state doesn't want us to see,
00:11:45.120 which goes back to my final question for you, Senator, on this.
00:11:48.700 Why is it they don't want us to see this?
00:11:51.100 Is this because they're trying to protect people in the political world?
00:11:56.040 What would be the reason you wouldn't want to know or for everyone to see what it is they're they're they're desperately trying to hide from not only us,
00:12:06.260 but literally from the attorney general and the FBI director?
00:12:09.640 So, look, I don't know.
00:12:11.220 I can only speculate.
00:12:12.620 It may be that they want to protect people whose whose misconduct or criminal conduct is is is suggested or demonstrated in the files.
00:12:22.840 I don't know that, but that certainly could be a reason.
00:12:26.040 We do know that Jeffrey Epstein was very close to a number of Democrats, that he was very, very close to Bill Clinton.
00:12:33.280 Bizarrely enough, Jeffrey Epstein had a painting in in his his New York townhouse of of Bill Clinton in a dress wearing pumps.
00:12:44.580 It was really bizarre.
00:12:46.320 A blue dress, right?
00:12:47.480 A blue dress.
00:12:48.260 Yes.
00:12:49.100 Yeah.
00:12:49.340 And a lot of people make they believe that was clearly the painting in reference to Monica Lewinsky in the blue dress.
00:12:55.200 And you've got to think to put that up and hang it in your in your home and have that relationship.
00:13:01.540 It's like, well, you must feel pretty powerful to be able to do that.
00:13:05.220 So we don't know.
00:13:06.820 It may be, you know, the reference to regardless how the information was was accessed.
00:13:13.780 That may mean some some information was acquired illegally.
00:13:18.180 That's a possibility.
00:13:19.200 It may be.
00:13:20.440 Look, there's there's speculation that that Jeffrey Epstein worked with with intelligence operatives, either from from the United States or other nations.
00:13:29.860 I don't know that to be the case, but that there's a host of things that could be in there.
00:13:37.460 And that's one of the reasons why I think the Department of Justice should have released this a long time ago, because without the information, all people are left to do is speculate.
00:13:45.200 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them.
00:13:52.380 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:13:56.120 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:13:57.280 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:13:58.520 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:14:08.000 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:14:11.000 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:14:16.880 There was another shocking headline that also came out today, and that deals with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:14:27.060 The headline for The New York Post is, quote, would be Trump assassin may have had an accomplice and data shows, as investigators say, FBI suppressed info.
00:14:38.480 I wouldn't believe that headline if I wouldn't have just had the conversation with you for the last 10 minutes that we just had about the FBI covering up Epstein information as well.
00:14:48.280 Well, this is a stunning article.
00:14:50.720 I do not know if it is true, but but but if there is evidence that that the the attempted assassin,
00:14:58.620 the the man who shot Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, had an accomplice or multiple accomplices, that would be a big damn deal.
00:15:07.520 And and, you know, I got to say it has been a long time.
00:15:13.260 It has been two hundred and twenty nine days since President Trump was shot at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:15:20.720 And yet we know next to nothing about the shooter.
00:15:25.900 It's almost as if it just dropped into a memory hole and disappeared.
00:15:29.780 And I want to read some of this article from The New York Post because it it it has some very interesting information in it.
00:15:36.580 It's not clear.
00:15:37.600 It's not clear what's what's true or not.
00:15:41.500 But let me read from The New York Post.
00:15:43.440 Quote, it's been almost nine months since a seemingly mild matter, 20 year old attempted to assassinate then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Butler.
00:15:53.500 And we still have no good reason why sources told the FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did.
00:16:08.560 It's left local law enforcement as well as Crooks's former friends, classmates and teachers frustrated.
00:16:15.000 Those who may know Crooks's parents, Matthew and Mary, have refused all interviews and remain in their small three bedroom home, sealed off from the world like hermits.
00:16:27.600 Neighbors say they only leave the house at 3 a.m. to buy groceries.
00:16:31.340 Quote, by the way, why do we know nothing about that guy in Butler?
00:16:37.320 Elon Musk yelled out to the audience at CPAC last week before warning that FBI director Cash Patel is going to get to the bottom of it.
00:16:47.400 A veteran private investigator from Erie, Pennsylvania, who was hired shortly after the fateful July 13th event at Butler Farm to look into crooks by a private client, told The Post he believes a, quote, criminal network was operating with him at the time of the assassination attempt, is still in existence and still wants to kill President Trump.
00:17:12.720 Doug Hagman, whose team of six other investigators have been working the case for months and have interviewed more than 100 people, said they also conducted extensive geofencing analysis of cell phones and tablets not belonging to Crooks that were found with him at his home, at the rifle range where he took target practice, at the rally, and at Bethel Park High School where he graduated in 2022.
00:17:41.400 Quote, we don't think he acted alone, Quote, we don't think he acted alone, Hageman told The Post.
00:17:46.900 Quote, this took a lot of coordination.
00:17:49.760 In my view, Crooks was handled by more than one individual and he was used for this assassination attempt.
00:17:57.240 And I wouldn't preclude the possibility that there were people at the rally itself helping him.
00:18:02.740 Hageman said one of the electronic devices geolocated with Crooks at several different places at the time of the shooting is still pinging today at Bethel Park High School.
00:18:15.840 Look, I don't know if this is true or not.
00:18:18.480 I don't know any background about this private investigator.
00:18:22.200 And I don't know if his allegations are right or not, but it is frustrating that the American people, look, I'm on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
00:18:33.380 I have no information that isn't public about who this would-be assassin was, what his motivation was, what evidence there is of anyone else being involved.
00:18:43.600 And I'll tell you, when I sat down with both Kash Patel and with Pam Bondi when they were preparing for their confirmation, I had an extensive conversation with both of them about the need for transparency.
00:18:56.540 That when you've had four years of both the Department of Justice and the FBI politicized and weaponized, the result is that people don't trust the FBI.
00:19:09.860 I mean, this article in the Post repeatedly argues that the FBI is obstructing efforts to get to the bottom of what happened.
00:19:20.080 That's infuriating, if true.
00:19:22.280 And it is very much my hope that we'll see Pam Bondi and Kash Patel make significant information about this assassination attempt public.
00:19:31.380 The American people have a right to know, have a right to know if anyone else was involved with this.
00:19:38.840 And I don't know if the FBI, if they didn't put a priority on it.
00:19:44.380 I don't know if they didn't investigate.
00:19:45.960 I don't, I guess it is possible this kid acted alone.
00:19:50.660 But the absolute dearth of information is frustrating and infuriating.
00:19:58.080 Well, and it goes back to the point that I think Pam Bondi made at the White House with many of these conservatives, which is we're doing everything we can now to be transparent.
00:20:08.840 But there is still a very deep state rebellion and they are hell bent on not letting the American people know what's going on.
00:20:19.000 They're above us.
00:20:19.960 They think they're more important than us.
00:20:21.680 They don't believe they have to play by the rules.
00:20:23.640 They don't have to be transparent.
00:20:25.000 And until you get that fixed, there's going to be a lot of doubting in the American from the American people in these institutions.
00:20:32.240 I think that's exactly right.
00:20:34.820 You know, the the article says that that Hagman, this private investigator, said that he was personally escorted to the Butler County line and told to leave twice during the course of his team's investigation.
00:20:49.300 The people who did so were either federal agents or some type of of private security.
00:20:56.200 And so look, and I actually I can understand an FBI investigation that they would be frustrated with having a private investigator interviewing the same people.
00:21:06.900 So so that actually the fact that the FBI was telling this guy, you know, buzz off.
00:21:11.640 That's not shocking to me, but I don't know what investigation the FBI conducted.
00:21:18.540 I certainly don't know the results of the investigation.
00:21:21.260 They haven't made anything public to the American people.
00:21:24.080 And I think the FBI's attitude has has been in recent years.
00:21:28.020 They don't know the public answer.
00:21:29.280 You don't get to know anything if they don't want to tell you.
00:21:34.460 Yeah, great point.
00:21:35.560 I want to move also to another story.
00:21:37.300 And this goes back to the issue of trust, Elon Musk and Doge.
00:21:42.280 New poll numbers are out saying that the majority of American people actually approve of what Elon Musk is doing.
00:21:47.960 And they think that Doge is having a real impact in a positive way for this country and for taxpayers and the waste, fraud and abuse.
00:21:54.820 They want them to keep moving forward.
00:21:57.520 What we're also seeing, Senator, at the exact same time is I would now describe it as a clearly well-organized, orchestrated effort by the media and the Democrats to ramp up their smears against Trump early on.
00:22:14.400 Or I should say against Elon.
00:22:15.820 And early on, they were trying to drive a wedge between Elon and trust Trump.
00:22:20.400 You could see it in the rhetoric where it's like, well, you know, Elon thinks he's the president.
00:22:24.460 Oh, yeah. The Time magazine cover story that put Elon at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office was obvious in a clumsy attempt to piss Trump off and get Trump mad at Elon.
00:22:35.500 And it was so transparent that I think it did not remotely have the effect they were trying to have.
00:22:42.440 Yeah, it backfired.
00:22:43.360 But that was where you could tell the first step was, well, maybe we can drive a wedge here.
00:22:48.420 That hasn't worked.
00:22:49.340 So now what we're witnessing is just a full on smear campaign against Elon Musk, even on The View.
00:22:58.300 And this was an interesting moment for me because it's like you're getting real close to slander and libel when you when you do what The View does against Elon Musk.
00:23:08.140 I don't know if they care.
00:23:10.000 They have to apologize pretty regularly now for things they say on the air with legal notes they keep having to make.
00:23:16.160 But Joe Behar had this to say on The View about Elon Musk.
00:23:22.180 And I want to play it and then get your reaction to it.
00:23:24.940 And Elon Musk kisses his butt and strokes his his tiny ego or big ego, whatever it is.
00:23:31.440 And and he doesn't get to do he can take a nap while the guy was not born in this country who was born under apartheid in South Africa.
00:23:40.120 So has that mentality going on. He was pro apartheid, as I understand it.
00:23:45.640 He's a naturalized citizen. Right.
00:23:48.040 He's a natural. Now he's a naturalized citizen.
00:23:49.940 Oh, really? How did he do that? Did he come over the border legally?
00:23:53.060 He had an H-1B visa. He flew in.
00:23:54.940 Yeah. He allegedly overstayed that visa.
00:23:57.480 But I think this is just perfectly wonderful for Trump.
00:24:00.440 He's going to take a nap and let this foreigner foreign agent, you know, an enemy of the United States do his job.
00:24:07.520 I mean, not only does she say he's an enemy, but then she says in favor of apartheid, by the way, not true.
00:24:13.460 Came back on the air later in the show and tried to undo that and said, Elon, don't sue.
00:24:19.860 Well, look, I mean, The View, they are unhinged lunatics and they don't care about truth.
00:24:27.520 But they you know, the crazy thing is Joy Behar believes what she says.
00:24:32.060 You know, it's it's amazing. Apparently, Elon Musk is the only immigrant that that that Joy Behar and the crazies on The View dislike.
00:24:42.340 If you're an MS-13 gang member, if you're a murderer or a rapist, they're perfectly fine with you.
00:24:47.820 They don't have a problem with Joe Biden and the Democrats releasing millions of criminals into America that they have no problem with.
00:24:54.560 But if someone comes legally to this country, if someone builds multiple incredible companies, creates thousands and thousands of jobs, is an incredible innovator and then volunteers his time to serve his nation.
00:25:10.800 That merits being called a foreign agent and an enemy of the United States.
00:25:17.120 It you know, at the end of the day, what The View was saying doesn't say much about Elon Musk, but it says a lot about the media and the left and how terrified they are of him.
00:25:29.360 And I'll tell you, Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat congresswoman, had had very similar comments.
00:25:36.880 Listen to what she said about Elon Musk. Apparently, she enjoyed the horror reading from the same talking points.
00:25:42.980 Yeah. And this was in front of the United States Capitol where she said it.
00:25:47.080 Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years and he's a citizen of three countries.
00:25:52.740 I always ask myself the question with the damage he's doing here.
00:25:56.260 When push comes to shove, which country is he loyalty to? South Africa, Canada or the United States?
00:26:02.400 And he's only been a citizen, I'll say again, 22 years.
00:26:06.120 By the way, I thought it was Democrats for the last four years that were obsessed with illegal immigrants coming into this country and saying,
00:26:14.140 who is anyone else to say that they aren't Americans and we don't even call them illegals.
00:26:19.000 You must call them immigrants and they're just like you and I.
00:26:21.620 But but all of a sudden, a guy by the name of Elon Musk is actually getting things done.
00:26:25.300 And now they're just going to slander him and say, which country is he really loyal to?
00:26:28.560 Like he's some sort of secret agent or bad actor for another nation.
00:26:32.400 Well, look, I spent a good chunk of this morning with Elon over at the White House and he met with a number of senators talking about what he's doing on Doge.
00:26:42.040 And it was a very interesting meeting and it's stunning.
00:26:45.380 Some of the things that that they're finding, they're finding, for example, they're going into agencies and finding agencies that that have more electronic subscriptions than they have employees.
00:26:59.620 Wow. And in many instances, thousands and thousands more, like like 30,000 licenses for for different electronic applications, 30,000 licenses and 15,000 employees that that order of magnitude.
00:27:16.260 And so they're going in and canceling the ones that that that that aren't used.
00:27:21.780 They also went and checked and they said hundreds and hundreds of them had never been open, had never even been installed.
00:27:26.880 So even of the employees, not everyone is using them.
00:27:30.880 They've never logged in. And so they can go and check. All right.
00:27:33.400 And so anyone who's not using it, they're canceling those.
00:27:36.380 Those are the sorts of things they're finding.
00:27:40.620 They're really just astonishing.
00:27:42.400 Well, when you met with him today, does it seem that he's even shocked by what he's finding?
00:27:49.480 You know, there are things like he he talked today about ghost payments, about the Treasury has computers that that that transfer funds that make federal payments.
00:27:59.040 And and he says that that there are ghost payments that are going out that a program officer puts in for for for a payment to to a contractor to to somebody.
00:28:10.940 And then the program officer retires, dies, leaves, is gone and the payments just keep on going.
00:28:19.460 And and, you know, it he said it's stunning.
00:28:23.400 The Treasury, the the Treasury computers have have a field where where you categorize, OK, what is this payment for?
00:28:33.180 And and what in in the congressional appropriation is it going for?
00:28:39.180 And and he said routinely that field is left blank.
00:28:44.620 He said USAID, they always left it blank, he said.
00:28:47.620 So there's no way he said many ways.
00:28:49.880 It's it's it's it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible to audit the billions of dollars that are going out the door because they don't keep the records.
00:28:59.080 And it was interesting, Elon's comments, he said, if any public company did this, he said they would be massively fined and the executives would be put in jail.
00:29:09.280 But but hey, federal government, just normal way of doing business.
00:29:12.560 I think the best part is the polls are showing that the media propaganda against Musk so far has not been working against the president.
00:29:20.660 The majority of the American people love what Doge is doing.
00:29:23.100 And as long as he's got the people behind him, it's going to be really interesting to see how this works out.
00:29:27.840 And we're going to keep covering it here.
00:29:28.960 Don't forget, we do the show Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
00:29:31.080 Hit that subscriber auto download button and we will see you back here for the week in review on Saturday as well for some of the stories you may have missed this week.
00:29:39.280 And make sure you download the show every time you see it, download it and check your your your your little boxes to make sure you have that auto download button on.
00:29:49.720 And some of the algorithms change on a regular basis.
00:29:51.980 So make sure you check that and we'll see you back here Saturday.
00:29:55.360 This is an iHeart podcast.
00:29:58.240 Guaranteed human.