Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson : Alaska From the Intel Perspective.

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Larry Johnson : Alaska From the Intel Perspective.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, August 18th, 2025. Larry Johnson will be with us in just a moment with his thoughts on what went on in Alaska on Friday, including from an intelligence community perspective. But first, this. My friends, if you care about your liberty and your right to control your own future, you need to hear about this.

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lifetime replay access and exclusive VIP panels, use promo code judge. for 20% off your upgrade. That's expatmoneysummit.com promo code judge. Larry, welcome here, my dear friend. Hi there. What is your big picture take on the events in Alaska on Friday? Talking to each other, not shooting at each other. So that was the first step.

You know, Putin clearly, I think, won the power move visuals, you know, his was the second plane to arrive. He was the second one off the plane, and he got to walk the red carpet. And Trump, to his credit, and you've been around him, so you know sort of the, let's call it, the false Donald Trump and the genuine Donald Trump. It was the genuine Donald Trump greeting Zelensky, you know, genuine warmth and And so, I'm not in Zelensky, Putin, sorry. There won't be that genuine worth today, greeting Zelensky.

But in a way, it brought Putin, it humanized him. Because in the West, the propaganda against Vladimir Putin and Russia in general is unrelenting and portraying Putin as evil, a child killer, a murderer, a war criminal. He's the worst human being that's ever been alive If you if you base it on what's being said in the West So there was that But also Putin and very calm way Was able to explain to Trump

What the Russian position is without any of the CIA filters Preventing Trump from hearing the truth So I think and I agree with the entire entirely, Larry, you look at this with a different lens than I do because of your intelligence community and state department background. But I think that Putin's lecture, I'm going to use his phrase on the genesis and causes of the Ukraine crisis is probably the first time Trump heard that version and that understanding of events and heard it with that level of articulation. and intellectual support.

Yeah, I know some have argued that Trump actually had the correct information, but I disagree. And it's based upon two different articles written by Seymourch, and in each article, one dealt with the Russian casualties. The other dealt with how the war in Ukraine, is being framed by the intelligence community. Because, you know, Si has very good sources. And whoever this person or persons he was talking to,

they were in the intelligence community. He identified them as an intelligence community sources. And when they're telling Cy that, you know, two million Russians have been, you know, killed and wounded. And they're telling Cy that, yeah, this is just a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia, then they're sending that same information to the president. And, you know, Trump is not one on his own, out of his own curiosity.

If it's not, if he's not seen it on television or watching it, you know, maybe on a podcast like yours, he's not picking it up. And there is, as we've seen repeatedly on all major news channels, the ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, CNN, not a single member of the people that you talk to on a regular basis every week is allowed on any of those channels. McGregor used to get on occasionally with Tucker. But once Tucker went away, Doug McGregor went away.

So there is no alternative voice presented where Trump could actually have a reasonable chance to hear something different. It's a controlled narrative. Well, this is another whole story is banning people like you, McGovern, McGregor, Ritter, all of whom used to be on Fox and elsewhere. This is a tragedy for the American public to understand what's going on. But the flip side of it is that shows like this and the others on which you appear and where our other regulars appear have have flourished and are a principal news source

for many people yeah let me emphasize i'm not i'm not arguing that i should go back on tv because i much prefer sitting down and chatting with you we can actually have discussions because you know what was like uh you you when i first met they were all over me what i would say to you what the others would say to you we had three and a half minutes yeah here we can probe deeply an issue, as we do now, as we do every Monday, as we do every Friday with Ray. But you mentioned something that I felt curious, and I thought of it over the weekend when I was characterizing your segment here as a view of the Alaska Conference from the Intelligence Community perspective.

What did the CIA have to do, if anything, with this? and what did they do to prepare for it? And I assume they were there with the other Americans. Well, yeah, I mean, John Ratcliffe is there. And so I'm sure, you know, he had an aid or two. The role of the CIA in that instance is to provide, make sure the president has the best information about what are the Russians? What are they going to say? What is their intent?

what are the factors governing their decisions. But, you know, again, I could have given that brief and I didn't even need access to classified information. It's real simple. Stop expanding NATO to surround Russia. Stop it. Dismantle NATO because Russia has no intent to attack Europe. And they certainly have no intent to occupy Western Ukraine.

They are fighting to defend. the Russian speakers and that part of Ukraine that have, frankly, a legacy of with Russia that goes back a millennia, more than a thousand years. So this is, you know, this is nothing, you know, recent. If you're viewing the show with the video, we are periodically showing the automobile entrance to the White House where we expect President Zelensky at any moment. We see him or Chancellor Mertz or Prime Minister Starrmer or President Macron, particularly if President Trump greets them, we'll pan back to that view for you.

Did the CIA monitor President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, and the others while they were there? And if the answer to that is yes, did the SVR, whatever they call themselves today, the old KGB, monitor Trump and Rubio and Heggseth. Well, by monitor, do you mean electronically intercept, try to... Yes, yes. Did Trump know what Putin was whispering to Lavrov? Probably not.

I've heard someone suggest, you know, who was it, Pompeo? One of these knuckleheads was saying, oh, my God, Trump let Putin into the backseat of the Trump limousine, the presidential limousine, Putin could have planted a bug. He is that crafty KGB guy. You know, and it's like, oh my God, please. So Mike, if you were the Secretary of State, what would you have done thrown a cross-body block to prevent him from getting in there after the president invited him? He would have tried to stuff him in the trunk or make him run it outside the limo. You know, this, that was probably the most, fascinating point of it because he did get a brief glimpse of Putin smiling ear to ear and in the

back seat. So that was the only time that Trump and Putin really were there to discuss one-on-one with no interpreter, with nobody else around, except the driver up front. And, you know, that may have been where they actually, you know, sort of agreed on what the course of events would be that day because, you know, originally they were supposed to have that one-on-one meeting at the meeting site, but instead it turned into a three-on-three with Lovroff and Rubio accompanied their bosses. Have you ever seen the magic glasses that can see clearly without glasses? This glasses can not only see far away.

I'm not sure what that was. Yeah, where did that come from? Yeah, all right. Maybe that's the CIA letting us know that they're around. All right, so you don't believe that they were actually monitoring the communications amongst the Russian delegation, and you don't believe that the Russians were monitoring the communications amongst the Americans? Nothing beyond what's routine.

I mean, look, there are the Russian version of the NSA, as well as our own NSA. Yeah, they'll be targeting and collecting. They're always collecting. They don't turn it off. It's like an unseen eye with no eyelids, It's constantly open, constantly looking, constantly collecting. But I don't think that there were special activities directed that day. Just because for no other reason to avoid creating diplomatic incidents.

I see where another one of my former Fox colleagues got in some hot water, Monica Crowley. I didn't know this. She's the head of protocol for the executive. branch. So she and her crew apparently were up there about a week ahead of time, and somebody printed out the personal schedules of President Putin and President Trump showing every move that each was going to make from landing to takeoff, and they left it in a printer in the hotel. I hadn't seen that, but, you know, what that illustrates, you know, the way this narrative unfold So you go back a week ago Thursday.

Whitkoff is in Russia, a meeting with Putin. And then supposedly it's out of that, they're okay, we'll meet. And then they struggle over the weekend to figure out, where's the meeting going to be? Just the fact that Monica Crowley was involved in that way, they knew before Whitkoff went to Russia, I'm sure, that this meeting was going to take place.

And in fact, that may have been the purpose of Whitkoff, going just to update Putin and Lovrov and Ushikov on, okay, this is where we stand, this is that this meeting is going to come off. I think much of this was staged drama. Alster Crook is of the view that Whitkoff either inadvertently or intentionally misunderstood something President Putin said to him and it resulted in this bizarre phrase that the president that President Trump picked up on called land swaps. But what are they talking about, Larry?

The President Putin couldn't give away Russian land, even if he wanted to by a Russian law. No more than, you know, Trump couldn't, could have said, Hey, Vladimir, I'll tell you what. You give up Ukraine, I'll give you back Alaska. You know, he couldn't do that. No, I think when they're, what's really at stake is the Russians have moved into Nipro-Petrovsk, they've moved into Sumi and Kharki. They haven't taken those areas completely,

but they do have control of some territory. So Putin's in a position that he can say, okay, I can withdraw my forces from these oblasts that have not yet voted to decide to become part of Russia. But in doing that, he's sort of making the veiled threat that these can become part of Russia if you don't reach a peace agreement. In fact, the Russians have made that very clear that unless Ukraine comes to a decision, stops the fighting, withdraws its troops, stays out of NATO, and keep the NATO forces out, that Russia will continue to expand operations east of the NEPA River and will ultimately, I think, incorporate other territory like Nipro-Pethros, Kharkiv, in Sumi, Potava, into Russia in the same way that the Nets, Lohantz, Crimea, Zaporisia, Zaporizia, Charsan, have been.

So look at the distance we've traveled, Larry, six, not six months ago, four months ago. General Kellogg was saying things like, we're in favor of standstill, and NATO is going to enforce it, and NATO will be all over Ukraine. and that'll be the ceasefire now the president of the united states is against a ceasefire in favor only of a permanent treaty of peace and nato has to have nothing to do with it has general kellogg and the neocon's been thrown under the bus by donald trump yeah it looks like it and i i hope that's the case trump's problem is that he does not hold any trump cards um he doesn't have any leverage in this case over Russia, you know, a lot of people are trying to say, oh, yeah, he's got a, Russia's

economy is struggling. They've got enormous, enormous problems on the horizon. And I said, wait a second. Russia's debt to GDP ratio is 14 to 19 percent, depending on how you calculate it. The United States is 125%. So what that means is if, if you get paid 100, you, you, produce $100 a day worth of service, but you're spending $125. So you're spending more than you're taking in. And that's exactly what the United States is doing. That's what the UK, it's at 100%. So basically, it's as much money as it can borrow, it's spending it. And France is like 110%. Well, the financial crisis hits, it's not going to be Russia. There's struggling. It's the United States. It's the UK. It's France. And even if Trump now shifts

the burden to the Europe to fund the war in Ukraine, they don't have the ability. I mean, that's where these people are living in a complete land of delusion. And I can show you some commentary from some, you know, people who'd be considered prominent Americans that genuinely believe that The Russians are suffering massive casualties. They've also, you know, their economies on the cusp of collapse. And Putin is unpopular. And there's no way Russia can continue this. And it's like, guys, look in the mirror.

You're just, you're projecting your own weaknesses, your own flaws onto Russia. Russia doesn't have those. Wow. Chris, I'm not sure what some of those things on the screen are. That is really wacky, whatever it is. I'll tell you what frightens me, Larry, is the use of the word security guarantee. But what is, I don't know how you could know what Whitcroft is talking about, but what are he and Rubio talking about security guarantees?

Is that American troops on the ground in Ukraine? Well, what the West would like is, yes, to have NATO troops in Ukraine that will be there as a buffer. Russia's never going to accept that under any circumstances. That's what they've been fighting this war for over the last 42 months. So that won't be accepted. Now, would Russia accept peacekeepers from India, from Brazil, from China? Sure.

Because Russia is going to have a say in this. And what the West, all these Western so-called experts failed to understand is Russia is going to get what it insists it needs, the demilitarization, denazification of Ukraine, or else they will settle it militarily. They're not, they didn't start this war because they didn't like Ukraine. they didn't this this didn't start because it was just a beef between two neighbors as many in the united states try to present it to us or a struggle for territory that russia lusted for ukrainian territory none of that this all came down when uh putin presented the draft treaty for security that would have incorporated what to do with nato and europe but that was presented in december of 2021 and it was rejected

completely with Blinken basically telling the Russians go pound sand. You're not going to tell us what they do. And Putin said we have no choice. Because if they didn't, if they had not launched a special military operation,

Ukraine would have launched within days a massive attack into what was left of Danetsk and Leonsk and they would have taken complete control of it. And And then literally NATO would be on Russia's borders. And that's what Putin stopped.

You and Ritter and McGregor and the others with military backgrounds have told us that Zelensky is effectively a puppet by ultra-nationalists. Pepe calls them Nazis. We're not supposed to use that phrase on air, whatever you call them, ultra-Ukrainian nationalists. Do they recognize the deplorable state of the military and that defeat is inevitable? Or are they just blinded by ideology? Or stated differently, what freedom does President Zelensky have this afternoon? He's almost on his way up the driveway, by the way. But what freedom does he have to negotiate with President Trump?

Well, again, he has no leverage. He's completely dependent upon the United States. So, but he's also controlled by these oligarchs in Ukraine, the mafia. That's one aspect of the story that really has not received much attention, the fact that the level of organized criminal activity that has spread into the rest of Europe with Ukraine as a base. and it's been funded and fueled by a lot of the money that we've sent over. You know, as I mentioned to you, there's right now the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Division

has an open investigation into $48 billion that were siphoned off, taken into banks, and at least 23 members of Congress, of the U.S. Congress, both House and Senate, have received kickbacks out of that money. So that's all being investigated right now. And, you know, so this is more, like I said, this is not just about a beef that Putin and Zelensky don't like each other. And therefore, it's a fight over territory. And if we just settle that, no, there's a lot of deep, dark forces that work behind the scenes here.

But back to what Zelensky can agree to. He simply cannot, correct me if I'm wrong, say yes to Trump this afternoon if he expects to his head on a pillow back in Kyiv tomorrow? Well, that's true, but he may not be planning to put his head back on a pillow in Kiev. You know, he'll settle for Miami Beach, just as long as the head is still attached to the shoulders. You know, that's the key, the key condition here.

I don't anticipate that Zelensky will be amenable to accepting the deal. that Donald Trump's going to put on the table. So with that, if that turns out to be true, then the most likely outcome of this is Trump is going to be faced with a choice. Either walk away from it and say, fine, I'm going to, you know, Ukraine and Russia, you guys sort this out, we're out, we're not going to have any more involvement. That would be the wisest thing to do because it would be the quickest way to bring this to an end. But if Trump doesn't do that, then he's faced,

with, okay, I'm going to now go back into an antagonism mode against Vladimir Putin, and we're going to up support for Zelensky, and we're going to go after China and India, which you've already seen Trump, despite the tough talk. He's backed away from that because I think they now at least in private realize that it would be self-defeating, self-destructive to the United States. Larry, thank you very much, my dear friend. We'll know a lot more when you and Ray and I are together Friday afternoon,

and I look forward to that already. All the best to you. All right, my friend. Thanks so much. Thank you. And coming up this afternoon at 2 o'clock on all of this, Colonel Douglas McGregor, and at 3 o'clock, Netanyahu is still slaughtering people. Aaron Monti, Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.

Thank you.