1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: To night. Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:06,040 Speaker 1: director of talk show host Michael Brown. Brownie, no, Brownie, 3 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:08,080 Speaker 1: You're doing a heck of a job the Weekend with 4 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 1: Michael Brown broadcasting life from Denver, Colorado. Hey, you're listening 5 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: to the Weekend with Michael Brown. Glad to have you 6 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: joining the program today. Rules of engagement, you know, as usual, 7 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,000 Speaker 1: pretty easy. If you want to tell me anything or 8 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: ask me anything on the text line, the number on 9 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: your message app is three three one zero three three 10 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: three one zero three. Just use the keyword Mike or Michael. 11 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: Do me a favorite, Follow me on X or Instagram 12 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: or Facebook. They're all at Michael D. Brown. Go follow 13 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,720 Speaker 1: me on X right now, at Michael D. Brown. There's 14 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: a rule in criminal law that every good trial lawyer 15 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:45,480 Speaker 1: would know. When the evidence is strong, the prosecution will 16 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: present that evidence very loudly and clearly. If the evidence 17 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 1: is damaging, the defense will try to bury it through 18 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 1: procedure glaze in discovery and hope the jury never connects. 19 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: The dots throw up the smoke screen. For four years, 20 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: four years now, the American intelligence community ran the most 21 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:10,640 Speaker 1: sophisticated document burial operation probably since I don't know Watergate, 22 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,480 Speaker 1: and it wasn't to protect our national security. It was 23 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:19,759 Speaker 1: to protect a political outcome. The target wasn't a foreign adversary. 24 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: The target was a sitting president of the United States 25 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:26,240 Speaker 1: of America who was a foreign adversary. What about them? 26 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 1: They got a pass. So let's start with what we 27 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: know now and what we've been told to forget. Let's 28 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: start with the facts as they now stand, because the 29 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: facts are pretty damning. In January of twenty twenty one, 30 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: the outgoing Director of National Intelligence, a guy by the 31 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: name of John Ratcliffe, attached a letter to the Intelligence 32 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: Community Assessment on Foreign Threats regarding the twenty twenty election. 33 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: Now this was not a casual note, This wasn't a memo. 34 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: This was a formal, official finding from the nation's top 35 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:11,920 Speaker 1: intelligence officer. Now you may recall that at the time 36 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: John Ratcliffe was the Director of National Intelligence. This is 37 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty one. Biden's coming in, John Radcliffe, 38 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: the dn I for Trump is going out. Ratcliffe is 39 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: now the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. So back 40 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: to that letter of January twenty twenty one, Radcliffe stated 41 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 1: unambiguously that communist China quote sought to influence the twenty 42 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: twenty US federal elections to undermine Donald Trump close quote. 43 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: Let me read you that again. The Director of National Intelligence, 44 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,359 Speaker 1: the guy that sat atop all seventeen agencies of the 45 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:01,239 Speaker 1: American intelligence apparatus, the position that to Gabbert currently holds, 46 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: concluded that China ran an active influence operation against a 47 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 1: sitting president and a federal election. Now, the letter was published, 48 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 1: it was unclassified. It's been in plain sight all this time, 49 00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: and it was promptly framed by the cabal, by the 50 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: mainstream press as a fringe, minority view. And of course 51 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: then it got buried under the avalanche of what January sixth. 52 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: I don't know if that was an accident. I really 53 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: don't know that that was an accident. Now, I'm not 54 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: wearing a tinfoil hat today, and I'm not asking you 55 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 1: to put a tinfoil hat on either, And I'm not 56 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: saying that necessarily everything changed the outcome of an election. 57 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: I want you to focus on the letter, because the 58 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: letter says that the Chinese Communist Party actively interfered in 59 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: the election. It's not an accident that that letter got buried. 60 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,520 Speaker 1: But here's where it gets worse. And here's where it 61 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:11,840 Speaker 1: gets actually very more specific. The Office of the Director 62 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: of National Intelligence has a role called the Analytic Armbudsman. Now, 63 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: the Analytic m Umbudsman was created under the Intelligence Reform 64 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: and Terrorism Prevention Act, which is one of these post 65 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: nine to eleven reforms, kind of like the Patriot Act, 66 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,360 Speaker 1: and it was designed specifically to serve as an independent 67 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 1: watchdog against exactly the kind of politicized, biased, or inconsistently 68 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: applied intelligence analysis that led us to miss threats before 69 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: nine to eleven. The man in that role in twenty 70 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:55,159 Speaker 1: twenty one, the Analytic Mbudsman was a guide by the 71 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 1: name of Barry Zuloff. I'm not sure whether I'm pronouncing 72 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 1: it correctly or not as spelled zulauf Zuloft. Now, before 73 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,480 Speaker 1: I go any further, I want I'm a huge make 74 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,839 Speaker 1: sure you understand what this is. This is a position 75 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:12,359 Speaker 1: that was created post nine to eleven, which was in 76 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,840 Speaker 1: two thousand and one, probably passed at the same time 77 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: the whole Land Security Act, passed in two thousand and two, 78 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:23,600 Speaker 1: became effective in two thousand and three. Now what I'm 79 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: talking about now is a letter that was drafted published 80 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. So we've had an analytic ombudsman 81 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: like Berry, Zoloft or Zuloft for a couple of decades. Now, 82 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: now here's what he did, as any ombudsman would. He 83 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: completed an internal review of how the CIA's analysts had 84 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 1: handled Chinese election interference evidence. What he found, I think 85 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: should have been front page news for at least six 86 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: months running. According to this report, some intelligence analysts had 87 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:07,479 Speaker 1: deliberately downplayed the evidence of Chinese interference because, and these 88 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: are the words attributed to their own private admissions. They 89 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: didn't want their work used by and I quote that 90 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,719 Speaker 1: vulgarian in the Oval Office close quote who's that vulgarian 91 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,479 Speaker 1: in the Oval Office at the time that these analysts 92 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 1: were reviewing the Chinese evidence. That these analysts were reviewing 93 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: the Chinese evidence Donald Trump. So, in their own words, 94 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: they didn't want their work to be used by that 95 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: vulgarian in the Oval Office to justify a harder line 96 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:48,840 Speaker 1: against Beijing. They didn't want it used to justify a 97 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: hard line against Beijing, the number one competitor to the 98 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: United States to be the world's superpower. Now, think about 99 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: what that means, what that means is career intelligence professionals, 100 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,000 Speaker 1: people who hold the highest security clearances in the United States, 101 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: security clearances like I Hell, who took an oath to 102 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:16,880 Speaker 1: provide objective analysis that would be free from political bias, 103 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,200 Speaker 1: admitted privately that they sat on evidence because they didn't 104 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 1: lack the president. Isn't that exactly a violation of their 105 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:30,080 Speaker 1: oath to provide objective analysis free from political bias? I 106 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: think that it's absolutely a violation of their oath. The 107 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: Zooluf's Corps finding was this, If you're taking notes, here's 108 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 1: what I'd write down. The intelligence community was applying fundamentally 109 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:47,760 Speaker 1: different standards to Russian and Chinese election activities. Russian activities 110 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: and you know, I mean foreign countries all the time 111 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: are spying on us. Everybody spies on everybody, and everybody 112 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: kind of actively interferes, some more so than others in 113 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:02,240 Speaker 1: everybody's elections. You don't think that we interfere in other 114 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: people's elections in your being naive, Now, we don't do 115 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: anything to try to, you know, upend an election, but 116 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:09,840 Speaker 1: we might try a little bit to steer an election 117 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: a certain way, planting news stories, releasing selective intelligence. Well, 118 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 1: the Russian and the Chinese do that with us so 119 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 1: zoo off. The analytic Ombudsman's core finding was simply this, 120 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: the intelligence community was applying fundamentally different standards to Russian 121 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:35,000 Speaker 1: and Chinese election activities. How was that happening? Well, I'm 122 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:36,960 Speaker 1: going to explain that to you. So we came with 123 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,600 Speaker 1: Michael Brown. Text lines open three three, one zero three, 124 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:48,880 Speaker 1: keyword Micha or Michael. I'll be right back. Hey. So 125 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:50,560 Speaker 1: we came with Michael Brown. Glad he have you joined 126 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 1: in the program? Give me a favor if you'd like to. 127 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,000 Speaker 1: If you like what we do on the weekend, then 128 00:08:56,040 --> 00:08:59,320 Speaker 1: you really on your iHeart app you ought to stream 129 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: and listen to the eight day program. It's really easy 130 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 1: to do. So you could on your iHeart app set 131 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:09,600 Speaker 1: a preset for this station KOA Koa, just like the Campground. 132 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:12,800 Speaker 1: It's at eight fifty am ninety four to one FM. 133 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: You hit that as a preset and then you can 134 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 1: listen live Monday through Friday on that station from nine 135 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:23,080 Speaker 1: to noon Mountain time. So go set your preset on 136 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 1: your iHeart app for KOA eight fifty am ninety four 137 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:29,360 Speaker 1: to one FM, and you listen to me during the week. 138 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: So back to this analytic ombudsman and the idea that 139 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: they've they've admitted that they were applying different standards to 140 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: Russian and Chinese election activities. The Russian actions were labeled 141 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:51,439 Speaker 1: as interference. The exact, identical or at least comparable Chinese 142 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 1: actions got softened, they got minimized, or they simply weren't 143 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,199 Speaker 1: included in the formal intelligence assessments. And let me just 144 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: tell you, that's not analysis. That's not a let's just 145 00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: use the word spy. That's not a spy looking at 146 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:15,080 Speaker 1: something analytically and saying to their supervisor, Hey, this is 147 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:19,720 Speaker 1: what I believe is going on. That's analysis. What they're 148 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: doing is advocacy. And when your advocacy, particularly in the 149 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:28,720 Speaker 1: intelligence community, serves a foreign communist government at the expense 150 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 1: of your own country's election integrity, that has a name, 151 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:36,840 Speaker 1: and it's not very flattery. Now, there was an institutional 152 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: heightst because the bureaucracy always defends itself. The breocracy is 153 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:45,360 Speaker 1: like a reptile, and it has these built in defense mechanisms, 154 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:48,720 Speaker 1: and anytime they feel like they're being attacked, those defense 155 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,000 Speaker 1: mechanisms get deployed and they do everything they can to 156 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:56,559 Speaker 1: keep anybody in the outside from seeing what they're doing. Well, 157 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,640 Speaker 1: John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, didn't go quietly. 158 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,640 Speaker 1: He tried to get his findings, this letter formally distributed 159 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:09,920 Speaker 1: before he left office on January twentieth, the twenty twenty one. 160 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:15,959 Speaker 1: What happened instead is a case study in how bureaucratic 161 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: obstruction can actually function when the goal is to suppress 162 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: and not reveal. This is the bureaucracy acting as the reptile, 163 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:30,800 Speaker 1: putting up its putting up its defenses, defenses. So here's 164 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: the sequence of events. Ratcliffe completed his assessment in the 165 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,360 Speaker 1: final days of his tenure. There was all amid that 166 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:43,280 Speaker 1: post January sixth chaos the career officials at the Office 167 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 1: of the Director of National Intelligence, which he was the 168 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:50,360 Speaker 1: head of. But these are the career people, many of 169 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 1: them were hostile to the conclusion that China had interfered 170 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:58,679 Speaker 1: at all. So they refused to attach his dissenting letter 171 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 1: to the public version of the intelligence report with equal 172 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:10,559 Speaker 1: formal weight. What they did they controlled the classification stamps. 173 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,840 Speaker 1: Now what do I mean by that? Every page, every 174 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: document that is part of an intelligence briefing gets a 175 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:26,560 Speaker 1: classification stamp if you've never seen one. Imagine a typical 176 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: eight and a half eleven sheet of paper. It's first 177 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: put in a cover, and the cover will tell you 178 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: that that is a classified document by the markings, and 179 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: it will tell you what the classification is. It might 180 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:44,960 Speaker 1: be something like top secret, sci Special compartmentalized information, one 181 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 1: of the highest classifications of all. But then when you 182 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:52,760 Speaker 1: open the document, when you open the cover and you 183 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: start reading, for example, the letter or the briefing, every 184 00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:00,679 Speaker 1: paragraph is indented and over to the left on the 185 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:06,600 Speaker 1: left side is a marking of that particular paragraph. So 186 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:10,560 Speaker 1: some paragraphs may be unclassified because it's just giving you 187 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 1: some basic information, basic background information that came from public sources, 188 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: a newspaper, a television report, whatever it might be. But 189 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:24,240 Speaker 1: then the analysis in the next paragraph will have a 190 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:28,079 Speaker 1: classification bearing on that. So that's what I mean. When 191 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: they controlled, they controlled the classification stamps, they controlled the 192 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:38,080 Speaker 1: processing pipeline. They could delay, they could redraft, and they 193 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:42,360 Speaker 1: could effectively manage the findings and do it all outside 194 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:45,959 Speaker 1: public view. They could also do it outside the review 195 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 1: of the actual Director of National Intelligence. Because these are 196 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: in the waning days. He's got a bazillion things to do, 197 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: and he's trying to wrap things up and move out 198 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,440 Speaker 1: so the new one can move in. This is how 199 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,560 Speaker 1: the administ ready straight the administrator state, or as some 200 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:04,920 Speaker 1: people refer to it, the deep state. This is how 201 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: it works when it wants to make something disappear. It 202 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: doesn't shred the documents, it doesn't hold them, you know, 203 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: till midnight meetings. It just stamps things secret. It'll bog 204 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: them down in interagency coordination because if it involves another agency, 205 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 1: every agency has to go off and prove, you know, 206 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,360 Speaker 1: the wording and the language and the classification, and then 207 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: they wait for the clock to run out. And on 208 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:38,280 Speaker 1: January twentieth, twenty twenty one, at twelve oh one pm, 209 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: the clock ran out. The incoming Biden administration's new Director 210 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,880 Speaker 1: of National Intelligence, someone by the name of April Haines, 211 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:53,560 Speaker 1: release the official declassified summary of the election intelligence assessment 212 00:14:54,600 --> 00:15:00,840 Speaker 1: in March. The headline conclusion just the op of what 213 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:06,080 Speaker 1: John Radcliffe had said. Avril Haines concluded that China did 214 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:11,320 Speaker 1: not deploy interference efforts, the exact opposite of what both 215 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:14,960 Speaker 1: the D and I, The Director of National Intelligence John Radcliffe, 216 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:19,880 Speaker 1: and the Analytic Mbudsman Zuuloff had found, but by then 217 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: Trump was out of office, the media had moved on, 218 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 1: and nobody was paying any attention. The dissenting findings weren't 219 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: formally declassified until Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and pressure 220 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:39,840 Speaker 1: press pressure later year. You know, wait, several years later 221 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: forced them into daylight. Now the analytic armbudsman, mister Zuloff 222 00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:50,720 Speaker 1: himself eventually discussed the controversy in a podcast and in 223 00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:54,640 Speaker 1: an academic publication, confirming on the record what the internal 224 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:58,840 Speaker 1: documents showed. So the evidence that they didn't want you 225 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 1: to see, let's talk about that. What exactly was China 226 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 1: doing that warranted these alarm bells that John Ratcliffe was 227 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:12,080 Speaker 1: trying to set off, and that justified the ombudsman's the ombudsman, 228 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:17,920 Speaker 1: the analytic armbudsman's finding. But what was it that warded 229 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:23,000 Speaker 1: differential treatment. Well, the documented record, assembled from Department of 230 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:29,440 Speaker 1: Justice indictments, subsequent intelligence disclosures, and some basic investigative reporting, 231 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:33,000 Speaker 1: paints a really comprehensive picture of what was going on. 232 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:40,320 Speaker 1: There was cyber espionage at scale twenty twenty three and 233 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. The Department of Justice indictments against members 234 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:50,480 Speaker 1: of what's called APT thirty one. That's Advanced Persistent Threat 235 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:54,360 Speaker 1: thirty one. What bell's that, you say, Well, that's a 236 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 1: Chinese state sponsored hacking unit directly tied to the Ministry 237 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: of State Securities who buy State Security Department in Wuhan. Yes, 238 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: so APT thirty one. They've been indicted by the current 239 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:19,600 Speaker 1: Department of Justice. That those indictments made clear that Chinese 240 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:24,199 Speaker 1: government operatives had systematically targeted the Trump administration officials starting 241 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:28,879 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. That included intrusions into networks connected to 242 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:31,960 Speaker 1: the White House, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and 243 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,639 Speaker 1: the Justice Department. They weren't doing fishing expeditions. It was 244 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:40,639 Speaker 1: a coordinated intelligence collection effort directed at the sitting American 245 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: government during an election year. Just sit on that, think 246 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:55,080 Speaker 1: about it. I'll be right back to night. Michael Brown 247 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 1: joins me here, the former FEMA director of talk show 248 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,360 Speaker 1: host Michael Brown. Brownie, no, Brownie, you're doing the Weekend 249 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:04,320 Speaker 1: with Michael Brown. Pey, Welcome back to the Weekend with 250 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: Michael Brown. Good to have you with me. I appreciate 251 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,480 Speaker 1: everybody tuning in. Give me a favorite, Subscribe to the 252 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,280 Speaker 1: podcast on your podcast app. Is very easy. Just search 253 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,000 Speaker 1: for the name of this program, the Situation with Michael Brown, 254 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: The Situation with Michael Brown. Once't you hit that, why 255 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,199 Speaker 1: don't you find it? Hit that subscribe button, leave a 256 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:23,879 Speaker 1: five star review, and then that'll do two things for you. 257 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:26,359 Speaker 1: That will download all five days of the weekday program 258 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,119 Speaker 1: and the weekend program, so you get all the programming 259 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: that I do Monday through Saturday. So we're talking about 260 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 1: this Chinese influence, you know. So I'm not calling it interference. 261 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:41,520 Speaker 1: I'm calling it influence, a Chinese influence operation that the 262 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:48,360 Speaker 1: current administration Department of Justice has indicted what it's called 263 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:52,359 Speaker 1: APT thirty one, the Advanced Persistent Threat thirty one, which 264 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 1: is a Chinese state sponsored hacking unit. This direct link 265 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: directly linked to the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry Estate Security, 266 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: located in all places in Wuhan, the same place where 267 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:09,160 Speaker 1: the Wuhan Laboratory is located. So what were they doing? 268 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:13,280 Speaker 1: You know? I said on my weekday program, the fact 269 00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:16,640 Speaker 1: if it was just yesterday, I did a short segment 270 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 1: about I've reached the point where everything that I read, 271 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 1: even when it comes from Fox News or CNN or 272 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: MS now or MS yesterday or whatever they call it. 273 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:37,240 Speaker 1: I look at it with a jaundiced I I look 274 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,200 Speaker 1: at up with a little bit of cynicism, because there's 275 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 1: so much artificial intelligence, there's so much manipulation, there's so 276 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:50,280 Speaker 1: much bias in the media, and people tend to sometimes 277 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:54,479 Speaker 1: because of confirmation biased. They'll read something, they'll see something 278 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,679 Speaker 1: a video or a short or whatever it might be 279 00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: or real, and they'll repost it because it confirmed what 280 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: they want to believe. So even when I see someone 281 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,440 Speaker 1: that may be somebody famous posting something, I'm still looking 282 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,240 Speaker 1: at it going, well, you know, maybe I need to 283 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:14,399 Speaker 1: check that out. Maybe I need to ask, Maybe I 284 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,399 Speaker 1: need to ask groc or I need to ask, you know, 285 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:22,240 Speaker 1: Claude or somebody, is that a real video? Or did 286 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,720 Speaker 1: that person really say xyz or go on to Gemini 287 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:27,879 Speaker 1: with Google or whoever it might do. You need to 288 00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:33,119 Speaker 1: platforms and just ask or just think for yourself. Sometimes. 289 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:40,880 Speaker 1: The reason I point that out is because this influence operation, 290 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,359 Speaker 1: if you wanted to title for this segment, would be 291 00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:48,960 Speaker 1: just like troll farms and manufactured narratives. Because if you 292 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:53,480 Speaker 1: control people on social media, if you control people even 293 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: on broadcast television or cable television or in a newspaper 294 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:03,760 Speaker 1: or on a website that's influential. So there was indeed 295 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:09,600 Speaker 1: a Chinese influence operation known as spamouflage spamouflage, got it, 296 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:17,760 Speaker 1: not camouflage, spamouflage, spamouflage Dragon also called Dragon Bridge, that 297 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:23,520 Speaker 1: was documented flooding American social media platforms including YouTube, Twitter, 298 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 1: and Facebook with content that was specifically designed to amplify 299 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,760 Speaker 1: the negative coverage of Trump's pandemic response and then on 300 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,800 Speaker 1: top of that promote a narrative of American chaos and dysfunction. 301 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,720 Speaker 1: What was the operational objective of doing that, Well, as 302 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,080 Speaker 1: later analysis made clear, it was to cast Biden as 303 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:53,800 Speaker 1: a return to stability and normal. I paused because remember 304 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,360 Speaker 1: Biden saying things like that, Oh, We're going to bring 305 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:01,159 Speaker 1: back stability and we're going to normalize relations between the 306 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:07,320 Speaker 1: United States and China. So they what the Chinese influencers 307 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,679 Speaker 1: were doing was taking Biden's own words and making you 308 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:17,200 Speaker 1: think that, oh, yes, what was occurring before was abbnormal. 309 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:22,760 Speaker 1: If you remember young Frankenstein, it was abbnormal. So in 310 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 1: plain terms, the Chinese Communist Party was running a covert 311 00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: digital propaganda operation with their preferred candidate in a US election. 312 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:38,040 Speaker 1: Now that's not self power, that's just pure unadulge rated interference. 313 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:46,639 Speaker 1: Let's get a specific TikTok by twenty twenty two. Now 314 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:50,320 Speaker 1: you gotta remember, by twenty twenty two we're talking about Biden, 315 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the ODNI, 316 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:00,400 Speaker 1: and outside researchers had quietly confirmed what many had suffeted. 317 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:06,960 Speaker 1: TikTok accounts linked to Chinese Communist Party's propaganda infrastructure had 318 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:11,760 Speaker 1: been systematically amplifying all the anti Trump narratives back in 319 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:16,719 Speaker 1: twenty twenty. Now, given TikTok's ownership structure and the Chinese 320 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:22,880 Speaker 1: national security laws requirement that Chinese companies cooperate with Chinese 321 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 1: intelligence demand whatever the Chinese intelligence services wanted, companies were 322 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:35,200 Speaker 1: required to comply with, this was never particularly surprising. We've 323 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,639 Speaker 1: known this for decades. But the confirmation of all this 324 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: matters so probably the most explosive, and it must be 325 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:46,879 Speaker 1: noted I think the least independently verified claim in the 326 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:53,520 Speaker 1: emerging record involves a raw FBI intelligence report. What do 327 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:57,120 Speaker 1: we mean by raw? No analysis, just a raw report. 328 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:03,359 Speaker 1: It described a scheme involving Chinese produced fraudulent driver's licenses 329 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:09,560 Speaker 1: that were allegedly intended to facilitate fraudulent mail in voting. 330 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,679 Speaker 1: Then FBI Director Christopher Ray testified to Congress that he 331 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: had seen no evidence of large scale foreign voter fraud operations. 332 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,720 Speaker 1: And let me just say that may be factually true. Indeed, 333 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,240 Speaker 1: Christopher Ray may not have seen evidence of a large 334 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:34,320 Speaker 1: scale foreign voter fraud operations. Now, the raw reporting reportedly 335 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,640 Speaker 1: sat in the system, and it was that they were 336 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:45,679 Speaker 1: producing fraudulent drivers' licenses intended to facilitate fraudulent mail in voting. Now, 337 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:51,199 Speaker 1: how much of that actually occurred is irrelevant. The fact 338 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,560 Speaker 1: that it was occurring at all, and the fact that 339 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,400 Speaker 1: they were attempting to do it is what I want 340 00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:06,040 Speaker 1: you to remember. Congress has since pressed for the disclosure 341 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: of all of this evidence under cash Betel's leadership of 342 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 1: the FBI, because all of this that I've just described 343 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:18,520 Speaker 1: requires more public documentation before it can really truly be 344 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 1: stated to settled fact. But the pattern of suppression and 345 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:27,840 Speaker 1: the pattern of influence that it represents is consistent with 346 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:33,040 Speaker 1: everything else I've described to you. Now, having said that 347 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:39,520 Speaker 1: there's a bigger indictment, remember that anaalet ombudsman mister Zulof. 348 00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:44,679 Speaker 1: He summarized the professional failure with striking clarity. He wrote 349 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:50,119 Speaker 1: this quote, Intelligence belongs to the community, not to one analyst. 350 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,040 Speaker 1: You may like or dislike a leader, but you can't 351 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,960 Speaker 1: let that shape your analysis. Well, Doug, that's the standard. 352 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 1: That's what these people swore to uphold, and by their 353 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:04,280 Speaker 1: own private admission, some of them violated it deliberately, not 354 00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:09,680 Speaker 1: out of incompetence, but out of ideological preference for a 355 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:16,160 Speaker 1: particular outcome. Here's the core constitutional problem. The intelligence community 356 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:20,480 Speaker 1: exists to inform policy. The intelligence community is not supposed 357 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,439 Speaker 1: to make policy. When an analyst decides that a finding 358 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,240 Speaker 1: is too politically useful to the wrong president and therefore 359 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:32,920 Speaker 1: suppresses it, they have arrogated to themselves a policy making 360 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 1: function they were never granted. They've submitted their own political 361 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:42,000 Speaker 1: judgment for the judgment for the judgment of those elected 362 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:47,119 Speaker 1: officials who use their analysis and then ultimately the American people. 363 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,879 Speaker 1: Let me just say that is not a bureaucratic irregularity. 364 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,919 Speaker 1: That's a subversion of democratic government governance. And when the 365 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 1: beneficiary of that subversion happens to be a foreign communist 366 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: government conducting him at thief influence operation against the United States. 367 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:11,040 Speaker 1: The word subversion takes on a second, even darker meaning. So, 368 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:15,880 Speaker 1: now understanding all of that, where does this go from here? 369 00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:24,960 Speaker 1: That's next. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the 370 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,080 Speaker 1: Weekend with Michael Brown. Glad to have you joining the program. 371 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: Appreciate you tuning in if you want, not if you want, 372 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:33,879 Speaker 1: I'm asking you to to follow me over on x 373 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,520 Speaker 1: at Michael D. Brown at Michael D. Brown. That's the 374 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:41,240 Speaker 1: same for Instagram and Facebook too, And of course the 375 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 1: text lines always opened three three one zero three three 376 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,240 Speaker 1: three one zero three. Tell me anything, ask me anything, 377 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,920 Speaker 1: just to use the keyword mich roor Michael. So where 378 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,920 Speaker 1: does all of this that I've been describing go from here? 379 00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,800 Speaker 1: There's a website that I read fairly often. I know 380 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:05,840 Speaker 1: the editor. It's called just the News just thenews dot com. 381 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:10,280 Speaker 1: John Solomon is the owner of that website. He's a 382 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:20,119 Speaker 1: former reporter, DC Capitol reporter, White House reporter, good guy. 383 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: John Solomon has now reported on this record in twenty 384 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 1: twenty six, five years after John Ratcliffe, the Director of 385 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:35,199 Speaker 1: National Intelligence, first raised the alarm. So the documents are 386 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: finally getting a broader public airing. But the question now 387 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:43,840 Speaker 1: is whether there are any institutional consequences, whether anybody's going 388 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:48,800 Speaker 1: to be called to account, whether the structural vulnerabilities that 389 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,719 Speaker 1: allowed this to happen are going to be addressed, and 390 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 1: whether the American public, you and I ever get the complete, 391 00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:01,280 Speaker 1: unvarnished accounting that I believe that this deserves. You know, 392 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:03,360 Speaker 1: five years is a long time to wait for the truth. 393 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:10,640 Speaker 1: But here's the thing about documented evidence. It typically doesn't expire. 394 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:16,000 Speaker 1: It could disappear, it could get destroyed. But in our 395 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:19,760 Speaker 1: electronic age, you know, people like to say that, you know, 396 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:24,000 Speaker 1: the Internet lives on forever. Well so do a lot 397 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,560 Speaker 1: of emails, unless you're Hillary Clinton and you decide to 398 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:31,040 Speaker 1: bash it with a hammer. But generally speaking, documented evidence 399 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:36,040 Speaker 1: doesn't expire. The John Radcliffe, the director of National Intelligence 400 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:42,800 Speaker 1: under Bush under Trump forty five, that still exists. The 401 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 1: analytic ombudsman mister Zouloff, his report exists. The Department of 402 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: Justice indictments, they exist, the Spamouflage Dragon Chinese Spy and 403 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 1: Chinese influence ring, and those that docum entation exists. So 404 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:06,400 Speaker 1: the facts were always there. What was missing was the 405 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 1: willingness to follow them. Wherever they led, including somewhere deeply 406 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:15,560 Speaker 1: uncomfortable for those people that spent years insisting there was 407 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:21,280 Speaker 1: nothing to see. There was always something to see. They 408 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: just did not want you looking. They didn't want you 409 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 1: to see. So the sources for all of this, in 410 00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: case you want to take notes, there's the John Ratcliffe 411 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:39,160 Speaker 1: OD and I letter they did January twenty twenty one. 412 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,320 Speaker 1: It's unclassified. You can do a Google search on it. 413 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:44,600 Speaker 1: You can probably find it. Go over to Just the News, 414 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:50,560 Speaker 1: very zoo off. The Office of of the Director of 415 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:55,000 Speaker 1: National Intelligence, the Analytics on Budsman Report, it stated January 416 00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,800 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. The Office of the Director of National 417 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:02,720 Speaker 1: Intelligence Intelligence Community Assessment on Foreign Threats to the twenty 418 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,520 Speaker 1: twenty election that became declassified in March of twenty twenty one. 419 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 1: The US Department of Justice indictments against APT thirty one 420 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:17,760 Speaker 1: and all of those Chinese officers that's from twenty twenty 421 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: three and twenty twenty four. The Stanford Internet Observatory, their 422 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:29,600 Speaker 1: documentation of spamouflage, Dragon the Dragon Bridge operations, and John Solomon, 423 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:34,200 Speaker 1: and just the News from twenty twenty six. You think 424 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:39,880 Speaker 1: about all of those, they're all solid, they're all independently verifiable. 425 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 1: The FBI's driver's license report is the one place I'd 426 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,720 Speaker 1: encourage people to get primary documents in hand and take 427 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:52,320 Speaker 1: a look at it, because I think the pattern fits. Now, 428 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:56,520 Speaker 1: some of these specifics need verification, but I think most 429 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,280 Speaker 1: of this can be prosecuted pretty well with the evidence 430 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:03,520 Speaker 1: that we have at there is, I mean, if you 431 00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:10,720 Speaker 1: want to describe it, the core documented elements, the Ratcliffe 432 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:14,160 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one letter, the on Budsman's findings of March 433 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,360 Speaker 1: of twenty twenty one, the Department of Justice is APT 434 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:21,680 Speaker 1: thirty one indictments, the spam spamouflaged Dragon. Those are all 435 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: verifiable from public record, and if you go in and 436 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,320 Speaker 1: do your Google searches right, you can find those documents. 437 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,440 Speaker 1: The fake driver's license mail in ballot well, the FBI 438 00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,760 Speaker 1: report claims probably the weakest link in this entire chain, 439 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: but it's asserted in the source document. But I can't 440 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:47,959 Speaker 1: independently verify the very specifics of those, So I've treated 441 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 1: it somewhat carefully in this presentation, But everything else that 442 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:59,560 Speaker 1: I've done is to the standard of being documented. Now 443 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:03,240 Speaker 1: I want to explain something because somebody says something on 444 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:09,160 Speaker 1: the text line. Somebody on the text line wrote, let 445 00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 1: me see if I can find it. This is uber 446 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: number ninety eight twenty three. Mike, you sound like a journalist, 447 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 1: one that does investigations and then reports it. No, I'm not, 448 00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: and I want to make clear why I'm not and 449 00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:28,960 Speaker 1: why I claim not to be, because I'm not putting 450 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:36,480 Speaker 1: anything out there that is I put my own bias 451 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 1: in it. You know that when you tune it into 452 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:43,560 Speaker 1: this program that I sit center right of most things. 453 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,200 Speaker 1: Some people would claim I say it way far over 454 00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,400 Speaker 1: here to the right, and on some issues, I probably 455 00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 1: am a far right wing nut job. But I'm not 456 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,000 Speaker 1: trying to prosecute a case here. I'm not trying to 457 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: win a Pulitzer prize. What I'm trying to do is 458 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:04,280 Speaker 1: to get you to think differently about what you're reading 459 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: or seeing as you go through your daily life, whether 460 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,280 Speaker 1: you're on the social media platforms, you go to particular 461 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,239 Speaker 1: new sites, whatever it is. I want you to think 462 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:20,759 Speaker 1: about this story in this context. When we're told that 463 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:25,080 Speaker 1: there's no such thing as Chinese influence or influence in 464 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:29,480 Speaker 1: the elections, that is, at its most basic level, just 465 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:35,320 Speaker 1: a falsehood. Now, the conclusion that a real investigative reporter 466 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:39,360 Speaker 1: would make would take two or three steps further further 467 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:44,399 Speaker 1: than what I have. For example, let's document how much 468 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:49,520 Speaker 1: did these Chinese operatives, how many driver's licenses did they produce, 469 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,320 Speaker 1: and how many of those driver's licenses turned into actual 470 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:58,879 Speaker 1: fraudulent mail in ballots. I don't know, because I don't 471 00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:02,200 Speaker 1: have the time, the money, the energy, or the inclination 472 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,040 Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time doing that because I 473 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:09,799 Speaker 1: have to produce these basics six days a week. But 474 00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,480 Speaker 1: what I'm trying to convince you of is that there's 475 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:16,880 Speaker 1: more to this story than you're being told. Because the 476 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,440 Speaker 1: basics here is you're being told that it doesn't exist, 477 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,560 Speaker 1: and I'm giving you the basics that it does exist. 478 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:30,000 Speaker 1: What it means, how influential it was. And for example, 479 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 1: you have not heard me say that this influence operation 480 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:39,440 Speaker 1: changed the outcome of an election. Now, my personal opinion 481 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:43,680 Speaker 1: is it probably did not. But in a precinct here 482 00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: or a precinct there, it may have changed those results, 483 00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:53,719 Speaker 1: but it didn't change the overall results. But we're being 484 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,200 Speaker 1: told that if we believe that this happened at all, 485 00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:00,360 Speaker 1: then we're the net jobs. And I just outlined for you. Oh, no, 486 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:06,319 Speaker 1: there's actual evidence that this did and is a curry. 487 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,839 Speaker 1: That's the difference between an investigative journalist and a talk 488 00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:15,840 Speaker 1: show host. So your conclusion from all of this is, Oh, 489 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: when I hear that there was no influence, I can 490 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,880 Speaker 1: go back and re listen to the podcast or re 491 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,400 Speaker 1: listen to what Michael Brown said on Saturday, March twenty first, 492 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:30,719 Speaker 1: from ten to eleven Mountain Time and get the conclusion that, Oh, 493 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:35,160 Speaker 1: it existed, It absolutely existed. I'll be right back