Morning Wire - Trump Sues BBC & Michigan Athletics Probed | 12.17.25

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

President Trump sues the BBC for billions in defamation as the White House rebuffs a controversial exposé, newly declassified documents cast suspicion on the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the University of Michigan launches an investigation as the Sherrone Moore scandal deepens. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2542 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Chevron - Build a brighter future right here at home. Visit https://Chevron.com/America to discover more. Fast Growing Trees - Get 15% off your next purchase at https://fastgrowingtrees.com when using the code WIRE at checkout. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC while the White House rebuffs another media-driven controversy. This was, unfortunately, another attempt at fake news by a reporter who was acting disingenuously and really did take the chief's words out of context. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Halm. It's Wednesday, December 17. This is Morning Wire. Newly declassified documents raise questions about the raid on Mar-a-Lago. out as a very dark chapter in American history. And President Trump may have recourse now to be able to seek damages at some point in time. And the University of Michigan launches an investigation after the arrest of its fired coach. We have the latest on the scandal that's rocked the sports world.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. America is built on hard work and powered by American energy. Chevron has spent $44 billion with local businesses across all 50 states since 2022, fueling infrastructure and communities, all while strengthening local economies. Last year, Chevron increased U.S. production nearly 20 percent, powering communities and businesses from the heartlands to the coast.

We're helping to fuel America's energy advantage, building a brighter future right here at home. Visit chevron.com slash America to discover more. President Trump has launched a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC as he continues to clash with media outlets at home and abroad. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to get us up to speed on the latest from the White House. Hey, Cabot, so a lot going on in D.C. Let's start with this BBC lawsuit, a massive lawsuit. What's going on here? So this week, President Trump filed a 46-page lawsuit in a federal court in Miami accusing the BBC of not only defamation, but also a violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. And he is looking for $10 billion from the broadcaster.

Now, Trump has long clashed with the BBC, but this particular suit stems from a documentary that they put out ahead of the 2024 election. It was called Trump A Second Chance. And the film played this clip of the president's National Mall speech supporters back on January 6th, 2021. We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and I'll be there with you. and we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell,

you're not going to have a country anymore. The problem is that quote is actually two quotes. And they were spoken nearly an hour apart during that speech. When you listen to each of them on their own in the broader context of the speech, it's much more clear that Trump was not telling people to storm the Capitol. For example, here's the original clip in its context.

We're going to walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on are brave senators and congressmen and women. Now, that deceptive editing sparked an internal review at the BBC, which concluded that there had been, quote, a string of incidents that demonstrates serious bias in the corporations reporting. Again, that's in their own words. Trump's lawsuit includes that quote from the outlet

and says they, quote, intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctored his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election. Now, the network has already issued an apology to Trump, But the outlet says that they are going to fight back against this lawsuit. In a statement this week, they conceded that they, quote, regret the manner in which the video was edited, but strongly disagree that there is a basis for a defamation claim.

Now, the Trump administration had another, you know, hit piece against them related to some of the top advisors of Trump. Tell us about that situation. Yeah, a wild story from Vanity Fair that has just taken Washington by storm this week. So for the last year, Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple has been sort of shadowing some of the president's inner circle, mainly chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Part one of that story was published Tuesday, and it included a number of remarkably candid on the record quotes from Wiles talking about some of the inner circle and even cabinet members in the White House.

For example, of J.D. Vance, Wiles said, quote, he has been a conspiracy theorist for a decade. She also implied that his shifting ideology over the last decade was driven by political motives. of Attorney General Pambandi's handling of the Epstein files, Wiles said, quote, Pam Bondi completely whiffed. She said that the witness list or the client list was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn't on her desk. And perhaps most notably, Wiles said President Trump has a, quote, Alcoholics personality.

He operates with the view that there is nothing he cannot do. So some head-turning comments to say the least. What has been the response from the White House so far? Well, Daily Wire White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Ollahan, spoke to a number of folks in the administration, and they weren't exactly thrilled by the quotes that Wiles gave, but they were very quick to defend her as a loyal supporter of the president. Virtually every cabinet member and spokesperson then issued statements

after that story was published, defending Wiles. Here's VP J.D. Vance on Tuesday afternoon. I've never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States, and that makes her the best White House chief of staff that I think the president could ask for. And then hours after those comments, President Trump himself weighed in, telling the New York Post that he actually agreed with her assessment about his alcoholic's personality, saying, quote, I've said that many times about myself. I'm fortunate. I'm not a drinker. He then went on to say that he has a, quote, possessive and addictive type personality. So the White House not rattled at all. Maybe enjoying this a little bit. Yeah. And then Wiles again, to close out, said that she thought the interview was a, quote, disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest president, White House staff and cabinet in history.

All right, so more drama, and again, maybe they're enjoying this a little bit. Captain, thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely. Whether you're planting now or later, fast-growing trees has everything you need to make your dream yard a reality, starting with the best quality and selection of plants delivered to your door. Our sponsor, Fast-Growing Trees is America's largest online nursery, and they've been shipping plants and trees nationwide since 2005. Whether you're looking for fruit trees, privacy hedges, flowering trees, or shrubs, they've got over 1,600 options to choose from. The best part, you can browse online, place your order, and have everything delivered right to your door in just a few days. All their plants are grown locally in the U.S. and come with an alive and thrive guarantee,

so they'll arrive healthy and ready to transform your yard. This season, they have the best deals for your yard, including up to half off tons of plants and other deals. And listeners to our show, get 15% off your next purchase when using the code wire at checkout. That's 15% off your next purchase at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code wire at checkout. Now is the perfect time to plant. Use wire to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time, terms and conditions may apply. Check out the link below or in the show notes and support the show. The FBI did not believe it had the proper justification to raid Mara Lago in August 22, but the Biden Justice Department pushed for it anyway.

Here to talk about the new revelations around the FBI's raid on Mara Lago, as well as some updates from the Brown University shooting case is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So, Tim, first off, the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, we have some new information about what was going on behind the scenes. What did we find out? Right. Credit for this scoop goes to Brooke Singman at Fox News. She obtained messages exchanged between the FBI and Biden-D-O-J that seemed to give more credibility to Trump's claims of political targeting. In the months before the raid, an assistant special agent in charge at the FBI had received some tip that Trump had boxes of classified information at Mar-a-Lago. But the Bureau's Washington Field Office, quote, has some concerns that the information is single-sourced, has not been corroborated, and may be dated.

The DOJ, on the other hand, asserted that the evidence met the probable cause standard for search warrants. But weeks later, another message from an FBI agent said, we haven't generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft, absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on site, at what point is it fair to table this? Another message said the Washington Field Office does, quote, not believe that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Marilago. That concern had been passed on to the DOJ, but according to another message, the DOJ has opined that they do have probable cause requesting a wide scope, including residence, office, and storage space.

The FBI's stance on this was that the records probably could be obtained through a much less intrusive process, maybe as simple as having a conversation with Trump's attorney. But what's being alleged here is that Biden's DOJ overruled that and said, move forward anyway. Yeah, and it looks that way. On top of that, we see in the messages that even as the Bureau was preparing for the raid, it was still pushing back against the DOJ. The FBI wanted to be the first to contact Trump's team about the raid, hopefully to secure better cooperation and how the raid comes out. The logic here being that the DOJ had already poisoned its relationship with Trump's team, and the FBI could be a better messenger. An FBI agent wrote that then Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toskis had said on a call with the FBI that he frankly doesn't give a damn about the optics of the raid, and that the department's counterintelligence head, Jay Bratt, had already built an antagonistic relationship with Trump's attorneys. So the FBI agent wanted to put in a request to be the first to speak with Trump's team about the raid. He wrote, quote, I understand that this request may not go well at DOJ. However, it is the FBI serving and executing the search, and it will be our personnel who will have to deal with the reaction to that first contact. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley

said that these documents show that the raid was a miscarriage of justice. Very interesting inside information about the rift between the DOJ and FBI during that time. Now, we also have some updates in the Brown University case. What are we hearing from that? Yeah, we don't have much, but police and the FBI have released more images of the suspected shooter, presumably as tips continue to come in from members of the community. And police have said that they believe the attack was targeted against Brown University and that there have been some suspicions that he was even more targeted than that, but nothing yet confirmed by law enforcement. Well, pretty incredible that he's been on the run this whole time. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Good to be on. The University of Michigan continues to investigate following the firing of head football coach Sharon Moore and his subsequent arrest. Here to tell us more is Crane & Company co-host and former Michigan QB, David, good to have you back on. So we wanted to have you back on here to talk about the fallout from this story. We reported on it last week. We've learned a lot more about what actually happened behind the scenes now. Where do things stand now with this investigation at Michigan? Well, John and Georgia, thank you both for having me. It's certainly been a tumultuous week for Michigan football and for the Ann Arbor community, and I just want to encourage everyone listening

to continue to pray for all involved. As we discussed last week, the University of Michigan did fire Sharon Moore after it was discovered. He had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, and then he was subsequently arrested that evening. Now the University of Michigan has commissioned a full-scale investigation into the practices and culture of its entire athletic department. The investigation will be handled by the same Chicago-based law firm that opened an inquiry earlier this fall into this situation. And we know a little bit more information now that I can recap.

According to prosecutors in Washington County, the staff member in question told investigators, the relationship did occur and presented corroborating evidence the staff member had on Monday apparently broken off a multi-year relationship with the former head coach, and this is according to prosecutors, but became concerned when Moore sent a flurry of text and calls that went unreturned. In light of this new information, Michigan Athletic Director Ward Manual then terminated Sharon Moore after two seasons as the head football coach. And what do we know now about what took place after Moore was fired?

So again, this is coming from the prosecutors in Washington, all County. Soon after the firing, Sharon Moore went to the staff members apartment. This is just outside of Ann Arbor, barged in, grabbing kitchen scissors and a butter knife, and then threatened to take his own life. And he stated, and I'm quoting here, I'm going to kill myself, I'm going to make you watch. My blood is on your hands.

You ruined my life, unquote. This is why I'm encouraging people to continue to pray in this situation here. following that altercation Moore, who was married and a father of three daughters, was charged Friday on three counts, including felony home invasion, misdemeanor charges of stalking in a domestic relationship and breaking and entering. Now, more pleaded, not guilty, and the probable cause hearing was set for January 22nd, 2026. Friday evening, after spending two nights in jail, Sharon Moore was released on $25,000 bond with a GPS.

monitoring system in order to receive counseling. Yeah, and again, let's hope he's okay psychologically. Now, a lot of focus has fallen on Michigan's athletic director now, Ward Manuel, as you mentioned. What does this investigation mean for him? The timeline is of great importance, as we discussed earlier, so that has certainly shined a spotlight on Ward Manuel's office. But as for now, he remains on the job as the program moves forward to look and hire a new football coach. It's worth noting as well, John, that Michigan currently is operating. with an interim president. And this is Domenico Grasso, who said in a statement,

this is, quote, together we will move forward with integrity and excellence and reaffirm our dedication to serving the public good. As we sit here, Michigan is gearing up to play a big bowl game, Texas on New Year's Eve, as I understand it. Is there any word from the team? Yes, and thank you for asking, because in situations like this is oftentimes the players

who get lost and they fall through the cracks, Biff Poji has been named the interim head. coach for the bowl game. And remember, he served as the interim coach for two games this season, Central Michigan and Nebraska when Sharon Moore was suspended by the NCAA. He made a statement this week during his first media availability. And he said, quote, it has been a tumultuous time, a lot of first disbelief, then anger, then really what we're in right now is the kids, quite frankly, feel very betrayed. And we're trying to work through that. He went on to say, he has tried to help the players with lots of arms around shoulders, lots of listening,

lots of telling them that you are loved. And again, like I said, this is Biff Poji, who did serve as the interim for two football games this fall. Well, as always, we appreciate you bringing us inside information on stories like this in this sports world. Dave, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show, now you can watch for free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.

Thank you.