The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 776 The White House Fights Back

Episode Date: August 2, 2018

Summary: In this episode I address the devastating scandal that the media has forgotten about. I also discuss the anomalies of the Manafort trial and Trump’s impressive negotiating skills on trade.��   News Picks: Sarah Sanders doesn’t take any garbage from the media.    This Law & Crime piece addresses some of the possible reasons behind Manafort’s refusal to take a plea.    What ever happened to the unmasking scandal?    Why are these cases from the Mueller probe being referred to the SDNY?   The Fed is holding interest rates steady.    Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

get ready to hear the truth about america on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host dan bongino all right welcome to the dan bongino show producer joe how are you today ready will and enable dude let's go so the press conference yesterday with sarah sanders at the white house was one of those i love sarah sand White House was one of those. I love Sarah Sanders. Was another one of those epic neutron bombs. I just, I love it. She is such a warrior. Oh, man.

And she doesn't back down an inch on this stuff. So the media is losing their minds about the Tampa rally on, what was that, Tuesday night? The Trump Tampa rally on Tuesday night. They're losing their minds because the snowflakes at CNN are upset that a bunch of Trump supporters were down near the press pen and chanting, CNN sucks. Oh, that hurt your little feelings? Guys, your feelings are hurt? Oh. I'm so sorry.

CNN, you know the stuff that you held at me on a routine basis i'm serious i don't talk about it on the show because i don't want to incentivize you know more idiots when my kids are around but do you know the stuff conservatives that they get thrown out of restaurants people rip hats off their heads they pour drinks on them and cnn at the press conference did so by the way a reporter asked sarah sanders are you gonna condemn those those nasty people in the crowd for chanting you know cnn sucks sarah sanders comes out and says no thanks free speech free press we believe in both. Bing, pow, boom. Bing, pow, boom. You're darn right. So let me get this straight.

We're supposed to be policing people's speech? Listen, if they were threatening them or violent with them, Joe and I'd be the first ones saying, guys, ladies, no good. You know that if you listen to the show. But wait, you're not allowed to chant CNN sucks now? What, do we live in a police state? The same media, by the way. That's for now a year and a half, Joe.

CNN has been given a platform to the most virulent anti-Trump haters on the planet. Accusing this guy of every single crime on the planet, nearly. So some people scant a chance cnn sucks and all of a sudden we're all supposed to start crying good for sarah sanders no no thanks it's not a police state we believe in free speech here it's just sickening i'm so tired he's whiny what these these are like whiny little kids. Are you going to condemn it? No, we're not going to condemn it. Condemn what? They think you suck.

Stop sucking, and maybe we won't have a problem. There you go. But you're going to condemn it, right? Yeah. Maybe if you didn't suck, people wouldn't chant CNN sucks. All right, I got more from the press conference, too. I'm just really upset about it. I watched it.

I actually listened to it. I was back from the gym, and I had it on the app. I was listening to Fox, and I'm listening to it, and I'm like, I can't believe this. I cannot believe this, that the media is whining about saying that they suck. Stop sucking, and no one will tell you you suck. All right, today's show brought to you by our buddies at Beachbody On Demand. Listen, you've heard me talking about Beachbody On Demand for a while now. Have you gotten your free trial yet?

If you haven't, you're missing out. My wife's been using this. And my wife's a beauty. I love my wife to death. But she looks pretty ripped lately. I got to tell you. If you see us out there, she's got the shoulders. She's really, I can't say it.

Any more would be like weird. Take it easy, Dan. Take it easy. I know. I just, you know, be weird. Take it easy, Dan. Take it easy. I know. I dig my wife. She's great. Now, she's been using P90X and Sanity. I like Core Deforce, which is a Beachbody on Demand workout for mixed martial arts folks,

which is great. Core Deforce. You want those six-pack abs? This is your program. The programs are terrific. You can cater them to your needs, your time schedule. They've been around forever. You heard of P90X.

You heard of Insanity. These are world-class programs. They are famous because they are so good and get the results. That's Beachbody on demand. This is the company behind P90X, 21 Day Fix, T25, Brazil Butt Lift, Pyo, Hip Hop Abs, Three Week Yoga Retreat, and more. They have world-class trainers. The trainers are pretty terrific. Brazil butt lift Pio Hip hop abs Three week yoga retreat And more

They have world class trainers The trainers are pretty Pretty terrific Get motivated by Celebrity super trainers You know like Sean T Shailene Johnson

Tony Horton And Autumn Calabrese Over 700 workouts I have For all fitness levels You can customize this Ranging from bodybuilding To weight training

To cardio High intensity Hit training they call it To yoga and even dance workouts. You know I'm big into this stuff. Not necessarily the dance stuff, but if you are, you can do the dance workouts. They have nutrition help. Success doesn't just happen in the gym, so Beachbody On Demand has tools to make your eating right easier.

There are dozens of easy-to-follow meal plans and hundreds of delicious recipes. You can work out on your own schedule. They have workouts as short as 10 minutes that don't require extra equipment. Perfect. If you're in the house, you're crunched for time, Beachbody On Demand. And the time it takes you to drive and park in the gym, you could be finished working out. Access it anywhere, anytime. View on your computer, web-enabled TV, tablet, your smartphone, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, and more.

My listeners can try Beachbody On Demand right now, absolutely positively free. What are you waiting for? Join the over 1 million people currently on Beachbody On Demand. Right now, my listeners can get a special free trial membership when you text DANB, DANB, D-A-N-B, no spaces,

to 303030. That's 303030. Text spaces. To 303030. That's 303030. Text Dan B to 303030. You'll get full access to the entire platform for free. All the workouts and nutrition information and support totally free. Again, just text Dan B. Dan B to 303030. You'll love these programs.

They're really, really good. My wife is jacked lately. It's her birthday, by the way. So happy birthday, Paulita. America loves you. And so do I. I call her Paulita for little Paula. Her mom called her that and I stole it.

All right, moving on. So yesterday at the Sarahers press conference as well like there's attacking trump they're on uh full attack mode over the over the muller the muller probe text that jeff sessions should shut this witch hunt down and he should good for trump and good for him not backing down of course the media jumped on that what is this obstruction of justice no you guys are just goofballs you haven't been reading the tea leaves on this case. This case is a debacle, and it's falling apart, and Trump is perfectly within his right

to have an opinion about this. And Joe, as I heard Sarah Sanders answer these questions about Trump's text, asking, or actually I should say, that said Jeff Sessions should shut this thing down, I thought, you know, this is fascinating. The only person that's not allowed to have an opinion on a case started on a fiction, on a myth,

this dossier, apparently is Donald Trump. Donald Trump, who's been the target of it, apparently is not allowed to have an opinion on this devastating case. It's an opinion. Donald Trump can tweet what he wants. It is not obstruction of justice. He did not give an order, and the probe still continues.

Sorry if I'm a little frustrated, folks, but I just, I can't take it with these media people. They're driving me nuts. All right, I do got a lot to get to, though. Yesterday, I had kind of teased this topic, and I wanted to readdress it, because this Mueller probe is a complete, total disaster. And pay attention, maggot! It's a disaster. The Mueller probe, my operating thesis on this thing, let me pull you up full screen because sometimes I can't even see what you're doing. There you are full screen. I had you in a little box. I'm talking to Joe, not you in the car, of course.

I can't see you. Don't worry. I'm not the NSA. I told you how it appears at this point the entire purpose of the Mueller probe is to keep the heat on Donald Trump, the legal heat, the political heat on Donald Trump, because Bob Mueller has to know at this point the collusion thing is a fairy tale. Has to. That Trump did not collude with her. He has to know, Joe. Has to. Bob Mueller, for as devious I think this witch hunt has been, Bob Mueller's not a stupid man.

This thing is a scam. It's a witch hunt. It's a farce. It's a joke. The media loves it because they hate Donald Trump. If this were happening to Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, they'd say, it was a right-wing conspiracy. They'd be losing their minds right now.

But because it's happening to Donald Trump, they're proud. They're actually proud that the police state and Bob Mueller, the champion of the police state, has taken over and they're investigating a person, not a crime. So one of the interesting angles of this, which i i saw at cnn.com which they reported probably painfully so is that and again people connected to the democrat party apparatus are getting weak referrals to the southern district of new york while people associated with the trump team are getting hammered again i'm not trying to take credit, folks. I'm not trying to put like, you know, notches on some kind of poll here, right? I'm just trying to tell you, if you've been following this show, you have not been wasting

your time. If you are connected to the Democrat Party machine, you're either going to be offered immunity. You're going to get a week referral out. Nothing's going to happen to you later on. And if you're connected to the Trump team, you're going to get hammered. So here's the basic story, because I couldn't get into it in detail yesterday. We were a little crunched for time. Greg Craig, who was Obama's White House counsel, he left the White House. He was working at a company, Skadden Arps, which had an arrangement with Paul Manafort. They were working on an overseas contract in support of a Ukrainian president

against the jailed opposition candidate, Tim Yashchenko. They wrote a memo basically supporting that she wasn't jailed for political reasons. It's complicated. It was basically meant, let's just leave it at this. Manafort and people from this company were working on an operation to clean up the image of a Ukrainian political leader.

That's the simplest way. Does that make sense, Joe? Yeah. They're working on this contract. No problem. Now, Manafort, of course, is getting the full force of the weaponized government against him. I mean, solitary confinement, basically being charged with everything under the sun because, again, Manafort was connected to Trump and they're asking him to flip and he won't now I'll get to that in a second the law and crime piece which is fascinating about why Manafort may not be flipping right why he's going to trial

which is very unusual in the federal system I'll explain that too but what's interesting about it is Greg Craig Obama's former lawyer who worked at Skadden Arps and was involved in this drafting of this memo meant to protect and defend the image of this Ukrainian political leader, the Ukrainian president. He got a simple referral out to Southern District. In other words, we saw something here a little suspicious. We're going to pass this off to you guys. Which, folks, if he is charged out of the Southern District, I will be the first to

report it on here i will be astonished now again i'm just reporting what cnn.com reported they also reported uh the podesta group people from the podesta group have been referred out to the southern district as well the southern district is a very liberal district i'm not knocking the integrity of the people there i'm just saying that these these are, it's in Manhattan and these can be left, leftless leaning, ideologically inclined judges, excuse me, USA's and prosecutors. I think these are going in the dustbin. You will not see any of these cases tried, although there's suspicious activity. Now, what are the allegations that Greg, Greg, Greg, what, you know, what did he do? Well, we don't know the fine details yet.

But interestingly enough, he was on a conversation, according to some reporting, with a guy named Van Der Schwan, who was charged with not telling the FBI the whole story about how much he he knew and didn't know about some of these memos. So what about Craig? Craig seems to get a pass. This happens over and over again. He's the White House lawyer. Now, who replaces him in the White House lawyer position, the legal counsel position? Bob Bauer.

Bob Bauer replaces him, Obama's lawyer, for that position. Bob Bauer then leaves to go to Perkins Coie. Perkins Coie, which is the law firm, paid Fusion GPS on behalf of Hillary Clinton to go gin up the information on Trump in the dossier. Catherine Rumler comes in and replaces Bauer. Rumler, the fixer. Obama's fixer. She was involved in the fixing up the Benghazi scandal, the IRS scandal. She was involved in the Secret Service scandal.

Cleaning that mess up. Just read the reporting. Rumler is now representing one of Bob Mueller's informants in the case. Interesting how if you touched Obama, you seem to get a free pass. But if you touch the Trump team, you wind up in jail or you wind up with the heavy hand of the law finding your butt in solitary confinement. Ladies and gentlemen, this is insane. The Podesta Group was working with Manafort and these deals that Manafort is being prosecuted for.

It's really frustrating, folks. It really is. Because anytime anyone speaks out about it, oh, Mueller, like you can't touch Bob Mueller, Joe. Mueller's a sacred cow. You can't touch Bob Mueller. Why? What's Bob Mueller done?

Bob Mueller's targeting a guy with no allegations of collusion at all when his charter was to go and find Russian collusion while everyone else seems to get a pass. This is insane. I'll put another article in the show notes today. It goes into another angle of this I want to

cover now. It's a law and crime hat tip to Mitchell who sent it over. It's a good piece. It talks about why Manafort has not accepted a deal. Ladies and gentlemen, in the federal system, this is how this works. When I was working there, it's very, very unusual for a federal, not very, highly unusual, I should say, not very, very, maybe a bit hyperbolic, highly unusual for a federal defendant to not accept a plea now why the explanation you know why is that different than the state and local system here's how this works when you're a cop on the street with the mypd right the case is built in reverse think about this right you're a cop on patrol.

You see a fight on the corner. Guy pulls out a knife. God forbid, stabs a guy, right? You stop him, pull out your gun. Police, don't move! He puts his handcuffs on him. You lock him up. You send him to jail. How did that case start, Joe? It started with me witnessing this stabbing, right?

God forbid. I have to then reverse engineer the crime. Reverse engineer what led up to it. i have to then reverse engineer the crime reverse engineer what led up to it you have to interview him hey what happened why did it happen you have to go out and get witnesses you have to get witness corroborating statements um you're going to do a social media uh hunt on this guy see if he was threatening him in the past was it a domestic violence crime did he know the guy was it a random act of violence? Was it terrorism? You have to reverse engineer the crime. And that's where your investigation starts. In other words, crime investigation. That's typically how it happens at the local. I'm not all. I mean, there are there are people who walk into a detective squad in the

NYPD and say, hey, I was defrauded out of a million dollars and the detectives will build a case. But largely in the state and local system, when you're on patrol, you see a crime and then you reverse engineer the investigation. You produce the investigation. The guy goes to court. It's pretty, you know, some people will take a trial. A lot of them plea out.

But in the federal system, it works differently. Federal agents, FBI, Secret Service, DEAa they don't do patrol joe right in other words the secret service is not out on like secret service patrol was it police citizens on patrol police academy so ridiculous those movies tackleberry so dumb but that that's not the way it works there's no citizens on patrol program for the Secret Service. The way these crimes are investigated and prosecuted at the federal level is the way it would work,

we would get a call, the phone would ring. If it was a Friday at five, no one wanted to answer. I'm just being honest. I remember Joanne, she was the office manager at the office I was in.

She'd be like, well, somebody pick up the phone. It reminded me of friends, Matthew Perry and friends. When the phone's ringing and he looks at Chandler, he goes, you'd be like, well, somebody pick up the phone. Reminded me of friends, Matthew Perry and friends. When the phone's ringing and he looks at Chandler, he goes, you see, that'll stop if you pick it up. No one, Friday, five o'clock, he'd be saying, oh man. So yeah, you know, eventually you pick up the phone.

Hey, whatever, it's Bobby. I got a problem. My credit card was stolen. Okay. You take out your notepad. You take some information. Those are the ways you get referrals in the federal system. Sometimes we would get calls from bank fraud investigators. My friend Bob,

who worked for Bank of America, used to call me with really, really terrific tips. Matter of fact, the biggest case I ever worked where we took down hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud case, it was a credit master case, where they had figured out an algorithm the credit card company would use to create credit card numbers. And then they would go probe the credit card numbers to see what worked and then they would print them on credit cards and go bang out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud this case was a monster it had terrorism ties and everything it was like a 7 000 pound gorilla this started with a simple tip paragraph oneagraph one, if you're a regular listener, paragraph one in my report said, hey, you know, Bob, I don't want to say his last name, but Bob called and Bob said that they found some credit cards that were used at an office supply store in whatever, Setauket. And we went out and started. That's exactly how it started. It wasn't Setauket. It was somewhere else. But that's how the case started. So what you do in a federal case,

and the reason this Manafort thing is so unusual, is you build the case first, Joe. You don't witness a crime and then go back and get the evidence. You build the evidence first, and then you proceed, and you go and you say, when you have like 50 or 60 points of information

that are enough to establish probable cause and then some, you'll walk into the U.S. Attorney's Office and you'll say, United States Attorney Jones, that was actually a United States Attorney, United States Attorney Jones, here's my information on Joey Bag of Donuts.

Joey Bag of Donuts is guilty of credit card fraud. I'm sure of it. Here's what I've got. They'll draw up a complaint. You get an arrest warrant and you get him. Now, why would that lead to early pleas in the federal system? It leads to early pleas because you have the information already if a lawyer grabs his client right and it's a murder trial and you just witnessed the murder

on the street you don't have anything yet all you did was you you heard someone say hey that guy just shot that guy right right the case could completely fall apart it could be self-defense whatever the lawyer may know that the lawyer may, we're not taking a plea. We're taking this to trial. When you arrest a guy in the federal system, folks, the case has already been built. This thing is lock, stock, and two smoking barrels. It's over, Johnny. The lawyer knows it, too.

The lawyer, their lawyer, the bad guy's lawyer, when you're a federal agent, can actually be your best friend. Hey, you know, Lawyer Smith, here's what I got on Joey Bag of Donuts. You dropped the file on the desk, Joe. Bing pow. He's got, you know, 70 pages of information, corroborating statements, video, everything. What are you going to tell your client? Well, you know damn well what he's going to tell the client. He walks in the room and goes, hey, daddy-o, you better cut a deal and ASAP.

And by the way, in the federal system, they used to have a points-based system, but you can basically get credit for cooperating, cooperating early and acknowledging your role in the crime. F***ing A-right. No PC.

No F***ing A-right. You know, man. the crime. You get credit for that. So the incentive in the federal system is to plea out, plea out early, take the best deal you can get. And by the way, the AUSA is the assistant United States attorneys. They don't want to take your case to trial either. Trust me on that. It's a lot of work. It's a major pain in the caboose. You got to go catalog evidence. You got to show up in court every day. You don't get to sit in your office. It is a pain in the butt. I'm just giving you the real world, folks. I did it. I think one of the benefits to being on this show, in contrast to some others, is I had real-world work experience. I actually had a real job before this, and that's how it works.

I was there. I lived it. I went through two trials in the federal, two long ones, by the way. Nobody wants to go to trial. Listen to me. Nobody. Now that I've established that precedent, why is the Manafort case going to trial? Well, this law and crime piece is actually pretty good.

It's got a couple of hypotheses in there as to why Manafort is not accepting a deal. Because I'm sure he's been offered one. Because why do they want Manafort, Joe? They want him to flip on Trump. In order for him to flip on Trump, they've got to offer him what? A deal. I'm sure they've offered him a deal,

and Manafort said, no thanks. Now, if what I just told you is true, and it is, that even for an incompetent witch hunt like the Mueller witch hunt, no credible United States attorney is going to take a case to trial they're going to lose. In other words, they're going to build a case

and it's probably going to be a decent one. Why would Manafort not take the deal? One of the theories is he's holding out for a pardon, which would make sense that he would eventually hold out and maybe get a pardon by Trump. I don't know. Obviously, I don't, you know, I'm not an advisor to the president.

I don't know. Maybe Manafort's got his fingers crossed. I'm not so sure about that theory. I'm not. He may get a pardon. He may not. Again, I don't know. I don't have any inside baseball on that.

It's a plausible theory, but I don't buy that. He has three or four theories in there. I'll put the piece in the show notes. I encourage you to read it. I go more with theory number two or maybe number three. It doesn't matter. It's another theory he has in there. And I think he's right, the author of the piece.

They got nothing, Joe. They've got nothing. They've got nothing. They've got a crap case it's a garbage case they thought manafort was going to be soft in other words they thought they were dealing with a pampered rich guy political consultant who the minute you threatened his income was going to fold like a cheap suit all right i'll give up the farm. Kind of like, you know, Cohen's alleged to have done, Trump's lawyer, whatever you guys need. And Manafort just doesn't want to do it. Listen, I don't know Manafort. I never met the dude in my life. I have no idea what he did or didn't do.

After the trial, we'll figure it out. If he's guilty, he's guilty. You're guilty of a crime. You're guilty of a crime. You got to do the time. That's the way the justice system work. And I certainly ain't here to apologize for anyone else. I just telling you manafort's not a dope and neither are his high powered attorneys and his high powered attorneys probably looked at the case file they dropped on the desk and said bing pow boom this is a crap case and i know it your evidence is garbage and we are not taking a deal you are going to take this to trial. Don't be surprised at all. What is it? Thursday, 10 a.m. or whatever.

August 2nd, I think. Don't be surprised if Mueller loses this case. Don't be surprised at all. I'm telling you based on my experience, I don't believe surprised at all. I'm telling you based on my experience, I don't believe the pardon theory. I don't. That's an awful difficult chance to

let's hold out. What if he doesn't give you a pardon? Well, we'll stay in jail for eight years and maybe we'll do it when he gets out of office in eight years or six years if he wins re-election, right? I don't think so. Manafort's attorneys are not stupid. Manafort's attorneys have probably looked at this case and said, this thing is weak. Don't be surprised at all if Mueller loses the case, which would be devastating. If we invested all of this time, all of this money into this debacle, this witch hunt, and all you got out of it was a couple of process crimes for fibbing and your major fish that you tried to hook in gets off.

Oh, boy, will that be a disaster for Manafort. And by the way, I mean for Mueller, excuse me. And I think that explains as well why Trump is generally staying out of this thing. Oh, well he tweeted he should fire Sessions, should fire Mueller. He did, but he's not ordering him to do it. Folks, you understand Trump could fire Mueller tomorrow, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trump could fire Sessions tomorrow. They work under the executive branch.

Nobody disputes that that is among the president's powers. Why hasn't he done it? Why is he just tweeting about it and rendering his opinion on Twitter? Because they've got nothing. They've got nothing. They've got no case. Listen, smile a little bit here. Smile a little bit because I'm telling you Mueller has nothing.

The Democrats have gone all in on Mueller, hopefully finding collusion and walking Trump out of the White House in handcuffs. It is not going to happen. Ladies and gentlemen who've seen Mean Girls, fetch is not going to happen. Stop trying to make fetch happen. Fetch is not going to happen. Stop trying to make fetch happen. This case is not going to happen. There will eventually be pardons issued. That I'm reasonably confident of. I wouldn't be shocked at all if Mike Flynn gets a pardon, which would be the best pardon in modern U.S. history. He's accused of lying to the FBI. That's interesting because the FBI said

they didn't think he was being deceptive. Manafort, again, I don't know what he did or didn't do. I'm just telling you in the federal system, no lawyer worth his salt takes a case to trial if they think they're going to get worked because you lose the cooperation points, you lose the acceptance of responsibility points, you lose the lesser charges. You lose the acceptance of responsibility points. You lose the lesser charges.

And what the government does to hammer you is they hammer you with multiple counts. So Joe, if you're a counterfeiter and you've passed counterfeit six or seven times, I may have charged you one time in a plea deal. Now it's like you go to trial, we'll charge you with all six passes and we're going to compound them on top of each other.

Bingo. You hear that? My mother-in- each other. Bingo. You hear that? My mother-in-law's doggies. You hear them? Hold on to me. You don't hear that. Now they stop barking. Darn.

The doggies are in town. The dogs are back in town. Baby and Linda. I love animals. I know people kind of get a laugh out of it because I got this square jaw and this hard edge sometimes, I guess. But I love animals. I really do, especially dogs. They're so cute. Doggies. My mother

loves dogs. They're so funny. They pretend to be tough. These things are like big squirrels. Rawr! Rawr! Rawr! Barking like they're Doberman pinchers or something. It's hysterical. Oh, boy. All right. I got a lot more to get through here. Today's show, it's so dark in here today. The sun just went down.

You see that, Joe? It's like I can barely see you. Barely see you. You see me outline him. I look like Casper the Friendly Ghost out here. All right. We have a new sponsor, and this is a really cool company. Back to school time.

You want to, say, get involved with. If there's anybody moved into your neighborhood that may be on some kind of God forbid some list or things like that. You want to find out some stuff? This is an awesome website. Did you ever meet someone for the first time and you have a bad feeling about them? Oh yeah.

Yeah, me too. It could be a look or just something they said. There's a way you can find out if your gut instinct, which is usually right, is right. Using the same research tools private investigators use, government public records. Truth Finder

provides access to background reports for almost everybody in the country. I checked myself out. I did. It was fun. I was like, whoa,

all that stuff is out there? Public record information like criminal records, past addresses. I didn't have one of those. I've never been arrested. Past addresses, contact information, birthdays, and a whole lot more. Protect yourself and your family by finding out if someone has a few dangerous felonies on their record. Look up the address of an old friend or find out if someone is lying about their age.

Military veterans even use Truthfinder to get in touch with people they've served with. This is a really cool site. I had a blast doing it. My listeners can now get 15% off, 15% off when you visit truthfinder.com slash Bongino. Go check this out. Check yourself out first. You're going to be like, wow, all that stuff is out there.

That's 15% off when you visit truthfinder.com slash Bongino and become a member today. You'll get unlimited background checks. As a bonus, you'll get access to Truthfinder's dark web monitoring and protect yourself against identity theft. Just go to truthfinder.com slash Bongino for 15% off and enter a name to pull your first report. That's truthfinder.com slash Bongino. Check it out.

This was cool. I couldn't get off it once I started. I'm embarrassed to say. I was on like the whole day. Because, you know, you look for people on social media, right? And what's the problem, Joe? You look up a guy with the name of like Barry Jones. You get 6,000 hits.

You're like, is that him? Is that him? Truthfinder. Bing, pow. Right away. They'll check social media. You'll get social media. You'll find a person.

Stat. Truthfinder.com slash Bongino. Okay. Let's see. What should I get to next? All right. Let me get to the Cheryl Atkinson piece because it was really good. I think it was in yesterday's show notes.

If not, I'll put it in today's. Cheryl Atkinson has a really great piece at the Hill about a scandal that has seemingly disappeared but should concern you, big time. Now, if you're a regular listener to the show, it's a scandal we talked about in the past, but I want to fit it into the larger picture now. We discussed this, and folks, again, I'm really sorry. I want to apologize. I'm not really into the self-promotion stuff, and I don't want to drive you crazy with my book please become i know i know it gets it does get annoying so just please forgive me for referencing it but the details of this are in my book which is available on amazon i'm not trying to beat you to death with it that's called spy gate but i cover this do you remember

joe uh famous episode number 628 when we? We used to talk in bigger, larger kind of umbrella perspectives about the case. It's gotten so wonky, though. And I understand one of the criticisms I get sometimes is, Dan, sometimes you got to dial it back a bit and take it out to 30,000 feet. Not all of us have been here from the beginning for this epic scandal. I totally get that. I read all your criticisms and your compliments. And it shows for you. I appreciate them. I totally get that. I read all your criticisms and your compliments. And I do, it shows for you, I appreciate them.

I really do. Well, that was one of them. Cheryl Atkinson, Cheryl Atkinson, excuse me, has a piece in The Hill that describes the scandal that we've all, including me, haven't brought up in a while. And it's the unmasking scandal. Folks, remember

the initial genesis of this whole wait was the trump team being spied on was not the fisa warrant the disclosure of the fisa warrant just happened a couple weeks ago now there were some rumblings about it people knew it was out there obviously there was some acknowledgement of an ongoing investigation but the fisaISA warrant to spy on the Trump team, I told you in the past, and I'm going to tell you again, was a part B of a kitchen sink throwing operation at the Trump team. They threw every single thing they had at the Trump team to spy on them. Informants, FISA warrants. But one of the first parts of it that got lost is the unmasking scandal.

What was the unmasking scandal? Why does it matter to you? The unmasking scandal. Do you remember when the word leaked out a while ago that the Obama administration had engaged in record numbers of unmaskings of people they were listening in on, American citizens, their last year in office. The people involved in the unmaskings, and I'll get to what they are in a second. Don't worry. I'm not going to lose you.

The people involved were strange. Some of them were players you would understand, you know, Central Intelligence Agency folks and the like. But two of the other players were interesting. One of them was Susan Rice. Susan Rice, although she was a National Security Advisor, is not a law enforcement officer. Matter of fact, she's not even an intelligence community member. She is a political appointee to Obama

to advise him on national security matters. And the other one was Samantha Power, who has no law enforcement intelligence or national security role at all she was the ambassador of the UN I shouldn't say no national security role but not in a formal way she's a diplomat

Samantha Power the unmaskings were this and Atkinson lays this out beautifully in the piece after 9-11 there was this oh you, you know what? We need to collect information on foreign sources and we're going to do that. Okay. That evolved into step two.

All right, we need to collect information on foreign sources. And Joe, if we scoop up someone who's an American citizen that they're talking to, we'll just get rid of it. And then it became, all right, we need to listen in on foreign sources. But when they talk to an American citizen, ah, let's not get rid of it. Let's keep it, but just for a little while. And then it became, okay, let's talk to foreign sources. Let's monitor. And when they talk to an American citizen, let's keep it. And let's give the executive office of the president the ability to unmask the or or unhide the identity of that american citizen basically wiretapping people now atkinson has a killer source in this piece and she's always

been a terrific terrific reporter you've had her on wcbm right oh yeah a few times she's always been a terrific, terrific reporter. You've had her on WCBM, right? Oh, yeah, a few times. She's great. She's awesome. I mean, she is a pit bull on these things. And she has had her computer hacked. She had her stuff monitored. Right.

So Atkinson is obviously all over this stuff about government surveillance of people, including the Trump team. government surveillance of people, including the Trump team. She has a source in the piece who says, listen, this was out of control under the Obama administration. And going back to 628, where we discussed this, they were using unmaskings of American citizens in a reverse targeting way. Folks, this is devastating stuff. This I haven't taken it out to 30,000 feet in a while, but this is important because she just wrote this piece about this is the forgotten scandal now because the scandals have been

so scandalous, we're forgetting other scandals. What is reverse targeting? Why does it matter? This case has seemingly disappeared from the headlines. Number one, Samantha Power, whose name was used to unmask the identity of some of these American citizens. Samantha Power said, hey hey wasn't me wasn't me daddy-o wait what do you mean your name is on that stuff so i have two notes i have to get to your paper trail number one your name is there

and secondly the reverse engineering i got a little bit out of order there the reverse targeting reverse engineering of these this is how it works i have the authority as an intelligence community member to listen to someone overseas now joe joe you know joe armacost let's say joe's involving a massive terror cell poor guy he's way outside of his felonious mopry duties. He's into like hardcore terrorism now. And he calls a contact in Chechnya. We can listen to the Chechen. And eventually for national security reasons, if they need to, they need to, they can unmask the identity of Joe too.

But let me give you an example here. And I gave you the worst example. All right. Actual terrorism. And a legitimate reason, although I still think you should get a warrant, a legitimate reason that you could target Joe. What if I didn't have a legitimate reason? Let's say I know Joe and I know Joe does business overseas with just about every single connected

person or person involved in politics or business does. What if you say, hey, who does he call often? He calls Sergey Bag of Donuts over in Chechnya. Oh, he does? And let's say Sergey hasn't done anything wrong. Well, here's what we can do. We can monitor Sergey Bag of Donuts. We'll know he's talking to Joe, person A.

Joe, big wink and a nod. to Joe. Person A. Joe, big wink and a nod. Person A. Person A. Everybody's sitting around Obama's office. Person A. Everybody knows who Person A is. It's Joe. Now you say, if they know who Person A is,

well, why unmask it? Well, you unmask it because you need to leak it. You need to leak it to people in the press and you need to leak it to people up on the hill. Oh, just like that lady, Evelyn Farkas, said on MSNBC right after the election. If Donald Trump only knew how we had this information on the Russians, you know, we had to get that up to the hill and tell them right away. Oh, how'd you know that, Evelyn? How would you? What information?

Why is this scandal gone away I'm gonna tell you point number two so you get the reverse targeting right they say they're targeting Chechen Sergei bag of donuts they're not they know Joey bag of donuts calls them so they tape Sergei bag of donuts knowing person one her Joey bag of donuts is in fact Joey Bag of Donuts. They unmasked the name to be able to leak it. Funny how Power is like, Samantha Power's like, I didn't ask for that. Someone signed your name. This brings up point number two. This is why this thing's going away and you haven't heard squat from the media.

I'm so glad Atkinson brought this up. Yes, because there's a paper trail. That's how Power's name came up. That's how power's name came up that's how rice's name came up ladies and gentlemen there's a paper trail who unmasked it why they unmasked it and who they gave the information to there's a paper trail why is dan bongino bringing this up, doing a Bob Dole? Bob Dole, why am I bringing this up today? Because if you listened to yesterday's show, which did bonkers numbers, please listen, and we described to you that I think the redactions in the FISA application, in other words, the information the government's hiding about why it targeted Carter Page of the Trump team

and tried to spy on them, I believe that the information is devastating. I think those redactions describe an intelligence operation on foreign soil that should have never happened. I described this in yesterday's show. They may also describe an operation to unmask Trump people's identities. And I don't think they would lay out the reverse target. They're not going to indict themselves in a court document obviously but they may have some information about the extent of this operation the unmasking one that is folks do you understand

how they threw the kitchen sink at this guy this started with a and and again i'm sorry but the book does lay this out how it started joe as a criminal investigation into a server communicating with trump tower the criminal investigation turned up nothing the server the russian server communicating with the russian server and trump tower we go into extensive detail on this it was a a bust it was a spam operation it was not an operation with it was not some kind of illicit back channel connection so operation number one let's criminally investigate the trump team ah zippo nothing happens operation number two let's unmask the trump team we're getting from foreign sources that they may be communicating with Russian officials.

How do we know that? We know that because there were already media reports out there in The Guardian and elsewhere about foreign intelligence, British and otherwise, telling the Obama administration about Trump officials talking to people in Russia, which last I checked, Joe, is not a crime. Bob Dole says you're right. Bob Dole! That's right! You're a trip.

You can't see me. Can you see me laughing? I'm just so dark in here. Funny guy, brother. People love you. I get all kinds of emails about you. They know they're talking to people in Russia. I got an idea.

Let's pretend we're listening to those Russians and unmask the Trump people and get that up to the hill. What turns up from that? Nothing. I've got an idea. Operation number three. They just hired this guy Carter Page to work as an advisor. So we use Carter Page as an informant to go nail some Russian spies. So so so let's just say he's a russian spy and we can get an actual fisa warrant on him and we can use the two hop rule to hop from pages emails to anyone else on the trump team to anyone else and tried to inside the trumpeter circle yes we got it now this is what the book lays out this is what happened this is why the

unmasking scandal got lost because it got lost in the f This is why the unmasking scandal got lost because it got lost in the FISA scandal. But the unmasking scandal is just as big of a deal. Yeah. Because just like the FISA warrants, there's a paper trail. Now, they're going to rely on the fact that, well, unmasking is legal.

So unmasking is legal while targeting foreigners, not reverse targeting U.S. citizens. Stop with the scams. Such BS. All right. I got a couple more things to get through. Excuse me. I got to stop moving away from the mic. I that uh understandably so drives some of you crazy um all right today's show also brought to you by our buddies at we the people holsters these are the

best holsters out there i love this holster you can adjust the canth on at the ride maximum comfort some of those inside the pants holsters can be really uncomfortable if you can't adjust them because it rubs up against your hip bone not these holsters supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh has been blasted on social media and liberal news outlets as the man who will steer scotus towards broader gun rights hate to break it to you liberals but your old friend president obama actually opened the floodgates of gun ownership sales during his presidency by wanting to increase restrictions on gun ownership boy did that backfire a perfect example is our friends over at We The People Holsters. We The People Holsters are custom-made holsters made here in the great old USA.

They design their own holsters in-house. What does that mean? They don't use third-party molds for their holsters. They design them right here in Las Vegas, and they cut every mold to fit each firearm perfectly. They update their designs. Each design, they change every month. They add new designs every month. It lets them stay up to date on new models that come out.

The fit is perfect. You get that click. You can adjust the tension. I really, really, really like these holsters. They're terrific. You can adjust the cant and the ride. It has four holes on the clip that makes it adjustable for maximum comfort. It also has an adjustable tension screw.

You want the firearm to fit a little more snugly? little turn you want it to be a little looser quick little turn the other direction so simple you can't mess it up they have custom printed designs they do in house then blue line it didn't red line the constitution camo an american flag and more coming out each month their holsters start at just 34 but they come with a lifetime guarantee every holster ships free and if it's not a perfect fit, send it back for a refund. But here's the but on the price. But, but, but. If you go to wethepeopleholsters.com slash Dan.

wethepeopleholsters.com slash Dan. Listeners of this show can use code Dan. That's D-A-N. Code Dan at wethepeopleholsters.com. And you will get $10 off your first holster, making it just $24 with free shipping. Yeah, baby, yeah. Okay, two more economic stories that I want to get to before we roll because this is important. Came out yesterday that it looks like the Fed is going to hold on interest rates.

It's a big deal. I wouldn't mind the bump up in interest rates a tad bit more, but looks like they're going to hold. It's a big deal because when there's a lot of indexing that goes on to these federal interest rates that come out from the Federal Reserve Bank. I shouldn't say federal interest rates because the Federal Reserve Bank is supposed to be independent. There's always been an argument if they really are or not. But if interest rates go up and interest rates throughout the economy will typically go up as well, meaning it'll be more expensive for you to finance, not buy, but finance a car,

finance a home, mortgage a home, which is what a lot of us do. Americans borrow a lot of money. So I would have liked to see money become a little tighter. I'm afraid inflation may be around the corner. The Federal Reserve has a bunch of assets on its books it's going to have to get rid of, which at some point is going to flood money back into the economy. So I'm a little bit concerned about that. I'd like to give you an honest take on the economy. I think we're in really great shape. One of the positive

numbers I saw, the investment numbers have bumped up. Non-residential fixed investment has gone through the roof. It's gone up by a factor of five or six since Obama's left office. And remember, saw the investment numbers have bumped up uh non-residential fixed investment has gone through the roof it's gone up by a factor of five or six since obama's left office and remember that investment folks even at the higher interest rates that were and we're still relatively low historically but that's why i said i think we could use a little bit more of a bump um that investment is going to turn into better uh higher quality products in the future uh it's going to result in new factories, new machinery that make better products and make them faster. Not only results in better products, but it results in cheaper products as well.

I mean, think about flat screen TVs, right? When they first started, they were enormous. They weighed like a thousand pounds. Now you get a flat screen for 200 bucks in Best Buy and I got one right in front of me. I don't know how much this thing costs, but it wasn't expensive, I can tell you that. It's a studio TV, but it's a flat screen. And that was from investment, investment in technology. So keeping interest rates low, it's important.

May keep the economy motoring along a little bit, and that's the good news. The bad news is I'm a little bit concerned about inflation because the Fed bought up a lot of assets. They bought up a lot of, they printed a lot of money, the Federal Reserve, and bought up a lot of U.S. bonds to keep U.S. denominated treasury assets, I should say, to be precise. They did it to, gosh, they're texting me like crazy to go on the air. This is unbelievable. I keep ding, ding, ding.

I can hear it in my earpiece. It's driving me nuts, folks. It goes off in my headphones because it's attached to my iMac. Are you available then? Are you available now? It's unbelievable. It's good. It's good to be Nelson Muntz. It's good to feel wanted, though. I love those guys. But the good news, the good news, interest rates will remain low. You won't have to pay high interest rates on a car loan or a house loan. It's a good news. The bad news is if the economy keeps humming along and that money that the Fed printed up to buy those U.S. denominated assets eventually is going to have to filter back in the economy, more money chasing the same amount of goods will almost always result in significant inflation.

The effect of higher interest rates would kind of mute the effect of that a little bit by making it harder to pull money out of the economy because interest rates would be higher. You don't want to borrow money at 5% if you can borrow it at 3%. Does that make sense, Joe? Yeah. Higher interest rates have the effect like a sponge with water. They can suck up extra water on the counter. Higher interest rates suck up extra money because it's more expensive to get a loan. Right. If I get a 10-year loan of $100,000 at 3% and I get it at 6%, the monthly payments on those loans are going to be a lot higher at the 6%.

Significantly higher. So as interest rates go up, they can suck up extra money out of the economy it's a simple way of saying it but i'm just trying to tell you that there's a good and a bad to this it came out yesterday it's worth reporting they're going to hold on interest rates that's good news because the economy can continue to invest at those lower interest rates the bad news is the fed's holding on to a ton of money and if it starts making its way out in the economy we can see significant inflation and we're going to need those higher interest rates at some point to suck up that extra money. You don't want inflation, folks.

Once it sets in, it's really, really hard to stop. Once that inflation train sets in, oh, boy, you could have some real trouble. That's one note. On the second economic note, for those of you who have been listening to the show for a while you know I am now and have been for a long time very down on tariffs I just don't like tariffs I hate them

having said that I really respect what the president's doing on tariffs now it's the strategy's becoming clear and I said this but I wasn't strong enough on it and I regret that because I didn't see the strategy fully at the time the president who is constantly underestimated

by his critics there's something going on right now and I missed it too and I'm willing to say that because I owe you the truth the president this guy is a master dealmaker. And it's not me kissing his butt.

I missed the angle he took. Here's what he's doing now, and it is working like a charm. I hate tariffs. Apparently, even though he tweeted otherwise, so does he. How do I know that? Because if he hated tariffs, why would he just meet with the EU and agree to move towards a zero-tariff environment? Again, Joe, as we've said from day one with this president,

don't pay attention exclusively to what he says. I'm not saying that as a pejorative. Sometimes what he says is a bargaining tool. It's not what he means. He's trying to get something done by engaging in verbal judo with the other guy. We love tariffs. Tariffs not what he means. He's trying to get something done by engaging in like verbal judo with the other guy. We love tariffs. Tariffs are great, Joe. Wink and a nod. The Europeans go, oh my gosh, it's never going to end. This guy's going to hammer us with tariffs.

We're not going to be able to export our products to the United States. They're going to tariff the hell out of everything. What do we do? Man, you better go cut a deal with Trump. So what did he do? By breaking up these multilateral agreements NAFTA and other ones and dealing with people one on one I think he scared a lot of these countries German auto dealers and otherwise into thinking man we better do

something quick the EU guy comes over hey all my members are complaining we better fix this thing he agrees to move towards a zero tariff environment with the Europeans. What does that have to do with what I'm going to get to?

Folks, the Chinese are terrified right now. I don't care what you hear from the left-wing media. The Chinese are running scared. Their stock market is tanking. Their GDP growth, although 6.7% is not horrible,

for a country at their longitudinal level of development, they should have been a lot higher. Fixed investment in China has gone down. Their currency is being devalued. They are panicking. Remember, this is a socialist regime full of central planners that if they lose the public's confidence, it's over, Johnny, because they got nothing to fall back on but tyranny.

They're panicking. The strategy now is pretty clear. Come in like a bull in a china shop, Joe. Break up all of these multilateral deals. Now tell everybody you love tariffs when you don't. Scare them into thinking, oh my gosh, this guy's serious. He'll get in a trade war with everyone.

Drive them to the table. Crush your enemies, have them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the world. You ever see that, Conan the Barbarian? You ever see that, the originalbarian? You ever see that? The original Conan? Conan, do you have any advice?

Crush your enemies. Have them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the world. That's in the original Conan. It's clear as day. He had a strategy. He was going to come in like a bull in a china shop, frighten the heck out of everyone with the tariffs who were engaging in non-fair trade with us.

Bring them to the table. Once they're sufficiently panicked enough, because, gosh, they lose the United States market, it's over. We're the world's biggest economy by far. All right, we'll go to zero tariffs in the EU. Now that he gets the EU to the table, an enormous trading partner with us, Joe,

the Chinese are like, oh boy, what do we do now? Now they've got the EU. If we don't have made in China, they can just have it made in the EU. The European Union, they won't need our stuff. Ladies and gentlemen, if we stop buying from China, it is over for them.

Not only is it over for them. Folks, not that this would be anybody's goal, but the country would have significant food shortages and they know it. That's why they stocked up on soybeans in advance. It's how they feed their livestock. They consume them themselves. The Chinese made an enormous purchase of soybeans recently. Why? Because they're panicking. They're worried Trump is serious. Now, the current news story and how this ties to this is how do I know they're panicking? And how do I know that Trump,

this guy's a genius, I'm telling you right now. How do I know it? Because he comes out yesterday, and what does he say? Hey, those 10% tariffs on China? No, no, no, no, no. We're going to make them 25%. Wait, what? The Chinese are like, we were screwed at 10%. Now you're upping the ante to 25%. What's it going to be next, 100%? This is a big one.

I'm dying. Get out of my house. I'm coming to join you, honey. the ante to 25 what's it going to be next 100 this is a big one i'm dying that's exactly what they're saying right now 25 tariff nobody would buy chinese goods anymore their only benefit because a lot of this stuff was not even that high quality was that it was cheap made in china which sadly has not been known for technological excellence. But if there's a 25% tariff, the products won't be cheap. It'll dry up the Chinese economy. They're freaking out. Now, you watch what happens in the coming weeks. Ladies and gentlemen, in this war of attrition, the Chinese can't possibly win.

You see where I'm going with this, right, Joe? Yeah. His plan was genius. Yeah. He has replaced them with the EU. Again, I'm not a fan of tariffs, but he's replaced them with the EU where he's already moving to zero tariffs. Free trade, baby.

The EU, we don't have to worry about them stealing our intellectual property like the Chinese do. Trump's saying, hey, see you, fellas. Oh, by the way, we're just going to tariff the snot out of your stuff. Have a nice day, but thanks for playing. The Chinese are being driven to their knees on this. I guarantee you, in the next few weeks, maybe months, the Chinese cannot win.

And by the way, it's not a trade war yet. It's been largely threats but i guarantee you the chinese come in and say okay zero tariffs on american products and by the way we'll come to a mutual agreement to not do forced technology transfers and intellectual property theft because what they were doing in china was saying hey you know a ford motor company whatever it may be you want to open up in China? You're going to transfer. They're called technology transfers. You're going to transfer some of your high-end technology to a Chinese company.

They're going to take your technology and steal it. You may be like, why would we be dumb enough to do that? Because they've got a billion consumers in China. Companies have to make money on the international stage. That has been a huge scam. They've been screwing us over forever trump's tariff threats don't have them running for the hills they don't know what to do they think he's serious another reason i want to sum it up this stop me trump is not lying to you dude

this is almost too simple it's it is it really is it's a marketing thing he's a marketing guy he's a real estate guy he's been in show business he understands how to sell things he needs the foreign consumers to believe his tariff threats are real. You don't get people to believe tariff threats are real, even if you are a zero tariff guy like he is, by tweeting, tariffs really stink. I'm not being serious when I say I'm going to tariff you. What does he do?

He tweets out, we're going to tariff the media. He's a liar. He's a liar. He went to the EU and said, now zero tariff. Henot out of the media he's a liar he's a liar he went to the eu and said now zero he's not lying you idiots he's setting these people up just like he's doing the chinese right now the chinese by the way i think he's serious i'm not messing around i think he will institute these 25 percent tariffs because he's a he's like i'm not backing down. I think he will institute these 25% tariffs because he's like, I'm not backing down. And he's dead serious. And the same thing applies to the Russia thing.

Oh, but he said Putin was what can be worked with and he's a nice guy. Yes, he's bobbing the snot out of these 200 Russian mercs over there. Not him personally, but again, I'm not suggesting we should be getting involved in that. I'm just telling you. Don't buy everything the guy says at face value. He's clearly a bargain guy and a dealmaker who's got to put on a different public facade than what's going on behind the scenes. I can't believe the media, these people who we're supposed to listen to because of their

vast brainpower is so stupid that they don't get this. My gosh, I'm so tired of these people. They are so dopey. All right, folks, thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate it. That was a good show. I really enjoyed doing that. And please, again, go pick up my book on Amazon Spygate, The Attempted Sabotage of Donald

Trump. I really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. And please subscribe to the show. It's free. You can do it on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, iHeartRadio. It helps us move up the charts. We really appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. I will see you all tomorrow. You just heard the Dan Bongino Show. Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com. You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud. And follow Dan on Twitter 24-7 at DBongino.