Morning Wire - Government Censorship Hearing & Gascon Loses Lawsuit | 3.10.23

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Journalists testify about social media censorship by FBI, DOJ and DHS, Los Angeles DA Gascon loses retaliation lawsuit, and “Qanon Shaman” attorney claims prosecutors withheld video. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.  Black Rifle Coffee: "Get 10% off your Coffee Club subscription! BlackRifleCoffee.com promo code ‘WIRE’"  Epic Will: "Get 10% OFF your Will! EpicWill.com/WIRE" Genucel: "Save 70% off the Most Popular Package plus a FREE Beauty Box! Genucel.com/WIRE" Cynch: "First tank exchange for $10! Download the Cynch app and use promo code ‘WIRE’" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Allegations of state and big tech censorship were front and center Thursday as Congress held hearings on the weaponization of the federal government. It's not a slippery slope. It's an immediate leap into a terrifying mechanism that we only see in totalitarian societies. We break down the key moments and what we learned. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, March 10th, and this is Morning. A Los Angeles jury has just awarded a city prosecutor $1.5 million for her lawsuit against the city's controversial DA.

What did the prosecutor allege and how does it relate to spiraling crime in the city of angels? And the lawyer who represented the QAnon Shaman in his capital riot case alleges serious misconduct by the Department of Justice. What is he claiming? And could the newly released footage affect the cases of other J6 defendants? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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and testament, living will, and even health care power of attorney. Their step-by-step online form makes it incredibly easy. All you got to do is fill in the blanks. Go to Epic Will, to save 10% off your complete will package. That's epicwill.com slash wire. This is very disturbing because what they're doing when they're putting these labels on there

is they're actually also trying to discredit you. So it's a form of censorship, but it's also a disinformation campaign. That was Michael Schellenberger, a journalist testifying Thursday in front of a House committee looking into whether the federal government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to censor speech. Here to tell us what happened at the hearings yesterday is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham. So, Megan, I watched some of the proceedings.

What was the main substance of the testimony? So the select subcommittee running this hearing is titled the weaponization of the federal government. And I think that's a pretty good summary of the focus yesterday. Because what these Twitter files revealed was that the FBI, the DHS, HHS, DHS, DOD, state department, CIA, really just an incredible array of government departments have put in place a formal system to coordinate with these social media platforms to censor users and posts. Now, the government's justification for that has ranged from claiming they were flagging foreign

disinformation to protecting the public from COVID misinformation. Tybee and Michael Schellenberger, who is the other independent journalist who broke a lot of the news about how these portals between the federal government and the social media companies works, both stridently rejected those defenses. Some Democrat members seemed to try to discredit them. For example, Virgin Islands congresswoman Stacey Plaskett called Tybee a so-called journalist. This was his response. Ranking member Plaskett, I'm not a so-called journalist. I've won the National Magazine Award, the I have Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and I've written 10 books, including four New York Times bestsellers.

The original promise of the internet was that it might democratize the exchange of information globally. A free internet would overwhelm all attempts to control information flow. It's very existence a threat to anti-democratic forms of government everywhere. What we found in the files was a sweeping effort to reverse that promise and use machine learning and other tools to turn the internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role.

And then in his testimony, Schellenberger pushed back on the justification the government has offered for its involvement in content moderation. We went from a situation where we were fighting ISIS recruiting, and then it was Russian disinformation. And now they're in a situation where they're wanting to censor true information, accurate facts, because they're worried that people might behave in ways that they don't want them to. That involves mind reading at a level that is grossly inappropriate. At one point, Schellenberger referred to what's been happening as the, quote, censorship industrial complex. Now, there was also some discussion of the media's role as well. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, there was. Taibi had some pretty sharp words for his own industry. He argued that the media has taken no interest in investigating these matters or coming to the defense of the First Amendment. And he said they've become a, quote, arm of a state-sponsored.

thought policing system. And I think it's important to note that Tybee said he and other reporters are still coming through the Twitter files and they're still finding more revelations. He said they actually just uncovered a partnership between a virology organization based out of Stanford and a number of government agencies and Twitter where they, quote, talk explicitly about censoring stories of true vaccine side effects and other true stories because they were concerned that it encouraged vaccine hesitancy. Now, Schellenberger, for his part, said that the government is sending a chilling message to journalists.

They were saying, even if the material you think is true, it could lead people to have conclusions that we don't want them to have. And therefore, you should change your journalism because of that. Well, these are big debates about speech and technology that are long overdue at this point. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Coming up, an L.A. prosecutor wins a $1.5 million case against a controversial DA. Hey guys, this is Reagan, here to tell you about my new favorite skin care line, GenuCell.

GenuCel sent their probiotic moisturizer to the morning wire team and were loving the results. Wrinkles, dark spots, and yes, even those under-eye bags and puffiness cleared up in days. For a limited time, you can get GenuCel's new probiotic extract-infused moisturizer free with every order of their most popular package. Subscribe and get a complimentary bonus box. Visit genucel.com slash wire and use code wire at checkout to claim the special offer. That's genucel.com slash wire. A Los Angeles prosecutor who claimed she was punished for criticizing district attorney George Gascon's progressive policies has just won $1.5 million in court. Deputy District Attorney Sean Randolph said she was demoted after she criticized Gascon as soft on crime.

On Monday, a jury agreed with her. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty, is here with the details for us. So, Marade, tell us about this case. Hi, Georgia. Sure. So this prosecutor, Sean Randolph, filed her lawsuit in October 2021,

alleging that she was demoted from head of the juvenile division to the parole division, which her lawyer called a dead-end career move. The demotion came after Randolph criticized Gascon's rules for trying criminals, which Randolph thought were too lenient. Because of the new rules, Randolph said she couldn't try as an adult, a 17-year-old who killed his 16-year-old girlfriend

and her sister and set the house on fire in an attempt to cover up the murders. The juvenile sentence means the boy will be released when he turns 25. On Monday, as we just mentioned, a jury awarded her $1.5 million. Randolph said Monday that she's very happy with the result of her lawsuit. She said she's grateful to the jury and that it's wonderful to be vindicated after two years of going through this situation. We should note, Randolph is not the only prosecutor

who claims Gascon retaliated against them for disagreeing with him. Her case is the first of at least 17 lawsuits of a similar nature against Gascon. And has Gascon responded yet to Randolph winning that case? Yes, Gascon's office said they're disappointed by the jury's verdict and stand by the decisions to reassign Randolph and the other prosecutors. The DA's office said that moving personnel around

is absolutely critical to a functioning officer. office. And which policies are these prosecutors so upset about? Well, Gascon got rid of cash bail. He also got rid of sentencing enhancements, and he barred his DAs from prosecuting a variety of nonviolent misdemeanors. Also, he forbade prosecutors from bringing victims or their families to parole hearings. Los Angeles is the biggest DA office in the country and files over 100,000 cases a year, so these reforms have had far-reaching consequences. Prosecutors say the reforms have resulted in reduced sentences for repeat rapists and murderers. Now, there are 16 of these lawsuits pending.

What do we know about the others? That's right. One senior lawyer was prosecuting a two-time rapist and criticized the DA for allowing the perpetrator to seek a lighter sentence than the original 73 years in prison. She claims that shortly after making that criticism, she was demoted to calendar deputy as punishment. Two other prosecutors claimed Gascon's office didn't want them to reveal a gang member's violent history in court.

When they did anyway, and the gang member was denied release, they were demoted to running an insurance fraud unit. They are also suing. By the way, another one of Gascon's critics is top L.A. prosecutor John Lewin, a 30-year veteran who has won awards for his work and prosecuted the famous murderer Robert Durst. Lewin said he too was demoted to calendar deputy after he criticized Gascon. Another prosecutor, John McKinney, who has also been vocal about criticizing Gascon,

and even announced he would run for DA, was demoted to supervising younger prosecutors. Back in August, Gascon survived an attempt to recall him, but many Angelinos are still afraid that the DA is more concerned about protecting criminals than prosecuting them. Well, Marade, thanks so much for reporting. Thanks, Georgia. That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Marade Allorty. Earlier this week, Tucker Carlson played newly released video from Capitol surveillance cameras that provided additional context for some of the central claims made by the January 6th committee. One clip showed Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman, walking through the halls of the U.S. Capitol, accompanied by multiple officers. Chansley's attorney during his prosecution,

Albert Watkins told Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak that the DOJ never provided him with that video. Luke joins us now. Luke, if this is true, if portions of the tape were deliberately withheld, would that be a violation of the legal process? Hi, John, absolutely. Watkins claims that he was never provided the video, despite rules requiring prosecutors to turn over all evidence relevant to a defendant, particularly exculpatory evidence. He said in 40 years of practicing law,

quote, I've never seen anything so vile. He said that prosecutorial misconduct undermines democracy. And he said that if the government acts corruptly, they're only exacerbating the distrust of government that can lead to riots and conspiracy theories. What was the outcome of Chanceley's trial? Well, Chanceley pleaded guilty after 11,

months in solitary confinement and received 41 months in prison. Watkins suggests that if he had seen this video, he might not have pleaded guilty. And do court records back up the claims by Watkins? Court records show that he asked for all videos showing his client in the Capitol repeatedly, mentioned video of him walking peacefully, and raised concerns about how the government was indexing a massive volume of information. The government said they were setting up a platform called evidence.com to house all videos and said defendants would be given the same tools that prosecutors had to go through it. Now, there are a couple possibilities here. First, everything Watkins is saying could be accurate, that Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly

Paschall hid the video and lied. Or maybe he's not telling the truth, although DOJ declined to say so or provide any documentation of that, even though the case is no longer open. Second, it could be that the government would have eventually produced the evidence if Chansley hadn't pleaded guilty. judges have criticized the DOJ for being slow to produce evidence in these January 6 cases, and Chansley was being kept in solitary confinement, which Watkins said created pressure to resolve the case quickly just so he could get out. Third, DOJ could have technically produced a video,

but buried it in a massive dump of thousands of hours of unrelated video. That's a problem because defense attorneys could be asked to watch five years of video, while prosecutors were able to rely on facial recognition and other high-tech tools to sift through it. What would the consequences be if prosecutors actually withheld evidence that they knew about? Watkins said judges should be furious

at being misled by prosecutors and could take action proactively. There could also be bar complaints against attorneys. For those whose cases are long-closed, like Chancelley, it gets trickier. He'd need to file a special writ of habeas corpus, which is particularly difficult to bring successfully.

Now, what about the defendants whose cases are currently ongoing. Will this new footage actually change the situation for them? Yes, one defendant, Ryan Nichols, said that now he's been granted access to the same 41,000 hours of tapes as Tucker, but pointed out that that's twice the material that prosecutors previously told him even existed. Defense lawyers have also been under a strict protection order that prevented them from sharing video. Nichols said the protective order must be lifted so that review of all this video can be crowdsourced to Americans. Indeed, prosecutors explicitly relied on crowdsourcing themselves to help identify suspects.

Well, there are hundreds of these cases that are still open and five years worth of video, like you said. So lots more to report. Luke, thanks for staying on top of this. That was Daily Wire investigative reporter, Luke Roziak. Another story we're tracking this week. A senior Taliban official was killed in a suicide bombing on Thursday. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assassination of the governor of Balk province. The governor was the highest ranking Taliban official to be killed since the American withdrawal in 2021.

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