The Trish Regan Show - JUST IN: Four Plead GUILTY—$550 MILLION USAID Bribery BOMBSHELL!

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

A USAID official and three executives have pleaded guilty in a massive $550 million bribery scheme that exploited taxpayer funds and shattered public trust. This is a CLIP from the LIVE Trish Regan Show episode 151 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

USAID. Look at that. You guys, the camera going out again. Hopefully you could hear me. Hopefully the microphone didn't go. Hopefully that's good. Okay, I'm going to rely on you to tell me. A USAID scheme being uncovered. Don't forget, like this USAID has been a source of a whole lot of concern, right? Elon Musk and Doge, they went in there and they started peeling back the layers and they started getting down nitty-gritty really fast. And we learned there was all this money going to all these crazy projects, kind of pet projects, you know, the DEI musical in Ireland, for example, or, you know, the trans comic book or whatever you have it. I mean, just in Peru, like weird kind of stuff. And you're like, is this how they employ everybody, you know, that's coming out of academia with a PhD and who knows what,

right? Is this where they go? Is this like, you know, that I don't know. I mean, it didn't really make any sense, frankly, at all. You know, I get it. They wanted to. I get it. They wanted advance the U.S. agenda, but when did the U.S. agenda become all that? People are saying, hmm, and there's been this backlash against it. And in an environment where, you know, we can't afford a whole lot, we get news that Social Security is on the brink and it's going to go belly up faster than we ever thought. And you're trying to deal with health care costs and rising inflation, this, that, and the other, do we really have money to be focused on all of these weird projects all over the world? And the short answer is no. Anyway, one of the first of the United, one of the

one of the concerns in all of this was just exactly what the kickbacks were like who was getting what and it certainly was a question on the media front when we saw for example that politico was getting millions of dollars and it was all tied to their political uh like subscriptions that you know you get like a like a Bloomberg subscription right like I get it on Wall Street you kind of need it for trading people have like a Bloomberg terminal well here you need like a political terminal, I don't think so, but they were getting all this money. And if you looked, it actually coincided with the election. Don't forget, Littico was actually the group that they put the letter, right, for the 51x spooks. We were just talking about that, who believes, what is misinformation or disinformation? They kind of had them on speed dials, and they had some of these other organizations, like Reuters, for example, they were getting a lot of USAID money. All these organizations, New York Times was getting USAID money.

And then you wonder why everybody spots the same darn narrative. over and over again. We're not getting U.S.AID money here on the Trish weekend show. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, right? Fully independent. But you've got to say to yourself, is this why they all sing a chorus all the time? And I think the short answer to that is yes. And so we're learning more and more by the day.

Now this breaking story just coming to us. Four people have pleaded guilty in this U.S. AID scheme, which sounds quite colorful, involving country clubs and sports tickets. What do you know? Okay, let's listen. Here's a Fox report on it that just came forward. Well, four people are pleading guilty, all part of a half billion dollar bribery scandal involving USAID. Mike Emanuel has the story from Washington.

Bill, good morning. The scheme involving cash, NBA tickets, and a country club wedding. According to the Justice Department, USAID official Roderick Watson sold his influence starting back in 2013. Contractors Walter Barnes and Daryl Britt funneled payoffs through subcontractor, Paul young to hide their tracks. It doesn't end there. Barnes's company working in conjunction with another firm kept receiving federal funds, $5,000 for human resources

consulting late last year, and then later after suing the government, a contract worth up to $800 million. Matthew R. Galliotti, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, saying, quote, their scheme violated the public trust by corrupting the federal government's procurement process. Anybody who cares about good and effective government should be concerned about the waste fraud and abuse

in government agencies, including USAID. Cutting waste fraud and abuse has been a big focus on Capitol Hill across government, a major priority for House Speaker Mike Johnson. The US Agency for International Development has been a target for those looking to trim government spending, with some suggesting the agency funneled taxpayer dollars

into ideological projects. When USAID blew it, they showed themselves completely irresponsible. It needs to be redone. And then the funds need to be directed properly. Back to the scheme, the Justice Department says this kind of fraud erodes public trust. Bill? Yeah. Wild story, Mike. Half a million dollars. I mean, just kind of erodes public trust. It's clearly eroding public trust. I mean, people are losing faith in these institutions. And I think this has been a critical one. I mean, they've lost faith in a lot of institutions. Let's not get ourselves, right? There was a time when people actually trusted the media. Those days are over for reasons we're all quite aware of. And, you know, USAID, now that we've learned all these crazy contracts that they had that really

didn't seem to make any sense, that's once again bringing into clarity, if you would, this idea that there's a lot of corruption in government. And that's partly what we need to guard against, right? That's why you want to make sure that you're not leaning towards the socialist system where the government's in charge of everything, because that's when that corruption kicks in. Just looking again at the article, actually this is coming from Fox, quote, corruption in government programs will not be tolerated. Watson abused his power of trust for personal gain while federal contractors engaged in a pay-to-play scheme. This is according to the acting assistant inspector general for investigations at the USAID Office of Inspector General.

So a lot more is going to be coming forward on this one. And I think that the bottom line is you've got to restore some kind of trust. Overall, I would say that Doge has really taken a sharp pencil to the USAID program. I should point out that the concern over fraud and waste and abuse has been significant enough to actually reduce the agency's programs by 83%. So the programs that they've cut have been enormous and this is one of the things that also Letitia James is suing on. Letitia's like got her moment in the sun. You know, hey, Jasmine Crockett, watch out. AOC, watch out. I think Latisha James may be coming for your slot. She's looking to sue him on literally everything she can. Yeah, there was $70,000 going for a DEI musical in Ireland. I realize $70,000 in the scheme of

things is really nothing. But I think what's getting people here is the principle of it, right? The That's what's so upsetting. You had a DEI program in Serbia. To advance DEI in Serbia. By the way, I mean, you look at what's going on now with DEI. I mean, people can't run from it fast enough, right? Not to mention that the federal government is now saying, hey, this is actually not constitutional.

Hey, Disney, not constitutional, which is why the FCC is like, you're totally in violation of FCC rules. And it's finding itself in the middle of a rather serious, rather serious investigation, if you would.