DOJ seeks grand jury in Russiagate (08-05-2025--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to vpekcalnershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. So Fox News out with the exclusive. Yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed her staff to act on the criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulci Gabbard related to the alleged conspiracy to tie President Donald Trump to Russia, and the Department of Justice is now opening a grand jury investigation into the matter. Bondi personally ordered an unnamed federal prosecutor to initiate legal proceedings, so this would be a federal grand jury, and the prosecutor is expected to present Department evidence to a grand jury, which would would allow the Department to secure a potential indictment. This is according to a letter from Bondi that was reviewed by Fox News, as well as a source familiar with the investigation, So, Pam BONDI no, I'm kidding. I don't know who it is. So I don't know. Like the key here is where is this federal grand jury going to be impaneled? Right? Because if you're going to do it in Washington, d C, it's pretty unlikely you're going to get convictions for anybody in Obama world except maybe John Brennan maybe, right. I just I have no confidence in the jury pool that you would be selecting from in DC. Now. I have heard reports, rumors, if you will, that they may be impaneling this grand jury down in Florida before I came in, you know, because I basically wrap up my show prep at about eleven ten thirty eleven o'clock, come into the studio. I try to catch back up, but I've not, you know, it's more of a cursory glance to see, okay, anything else moving right now. And I have not seen if there's been any solid reporting yet on confirmation that it's being done in Florida. I have heard that as a rumor. I don't know it to be true. I don't know how you could do that, except maybe if you say, well, Trump was living in Florida at mar A Lago or something. But I don't see how you could make that argument because the stuff occurred in DC, right, And that, like, this poses another pretty serious problem, which is that if you've got Democrats that enjoy complete freedom to break laws and frame people, using government levers of power to do so, and they can they can skate on any kind of charges because the jury pool is so partisan and in the tank for them. But that's a serious problem because that means now that we can't ever hold any Democrats accountable legally for violating any laws. If if they're not going to ever be convicted of this stuff, you got to You're gonna have to move the venue. I like, I just I don't see a way around it. But then of course you've got to ask some of these you know, left wing moon bat brigade judges in the DC area. You're gonna have to ask them to move the venue, and I'm sure they'll say no. Back to the Fox story, the revelation that the DOJ is moving forward with a grand jury probe comes after Gabbard declassified intelligence last month, which shed new light on the Obama administration's alleged determination that Russia sought to help Trump in the twenty SIXTHXEN election. See, so maybe that's how you do it. Trump was a resident of Florida in twenty sixteen, and that's where that's where this stuff or when this stuff originally began, was before he was elected. And so therefore you can go back to Florida because that was sort of the origin story. And if that's the case, then the government's chances go way up. Right, But the conspiracy continued through January twenty when he was inaugurated. But technically he's not in office until January twenty. So if you go you go after the intelligence agency chiefs, the various chiefs of these agencies, you go after them for the crimes committed prior to January twentieth, then then maybe you can make an argument and you can bring the charges down in Florida. Back to the story, former President Barack Obama and his intelligence officials allegedly promoted a contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the twenty sixteen election to help President Trump win, telling or selling it to the American people as though it were true, but it was not. Among the declassified material was a meeting record revealing how Obama allegedly requested his deputies prepare an intelligence community assessment. This is an ICA, that's what they call it, an ICA, Intelligence Community assessment. This was in December of twenty sixteen, so a month month and a half prior to Trump's inauguration. Trump had won, had not been inaugurated, and this ICA allegedly detailed the tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the twenty sixteen election. Gabbard has alleged that Obama and national security officials laid the groundwork for a narrative that then candidate Trump and his campaign colluded to help him win the twenty sixteen election. An FBI investigation and two Special Council investigations loomed over much of Trump's first term, Right, And that's really that was really the point. Right. The first was an effort to help Hillary's campaign do her a solid right out of fear of Trump, orange Man Hitler or whatever. But also Comy was smarting a bit because of the whole Clinton email server investigation. Right, he was getting pressured by Loretta Lynch and all of this. So you had all of this skulduggery going on, and Hillary was not doing terribly well. They thought she was going to just pummel Donald Trump and it wasn't really happening. And there were a lot of problems with the campaign. She had scandals around her, you know, the email one being a big one. And then of course, right, I guess it was Uber or something September maybe when they found the laptop which had not Hunter's laptop, another laptop, the Anthony Wiener's laptop, and it had all of this stuff on it that was coming from Hillary's homebrew server, unsecured server that it all likelihood was hacked by like every foreign adversary on the planet and probably half of our allies as well. And so when they found that, they had to reopen the investigation, and then Comy came out, you know, no reasonable prosecutor would indict her and whatever, and the Democrats blamed Comy for that. Now, what's interesting is when you go back and you look at and listen to the comments that were made at the time, knowing what we know now about the inclusion of the Steele dossier, the lies about how Russia was behind the DNC hacking, and that they did so in order to help Trump, and Putin personally directed them to give it to wiki leagues. Like all of this stuff, the Alpha Bank thing, the you know, the ping on the bed by the hookers in the Moscow hotel room and all of that, and like all of this stuff was being leaked to compliant allied media operators if they aren't outright assets of the CIA. Right, So you got all of these plants in media operations that regurgitate stuff from the intelligence community, and that was all turned on Trump and every little thing leaked out, every little thing, you know, oh hey, we talked to Trump today about the p tape. Now you can publish it, right, comes from Komi and whatever. You have, all of the lies that were built in order to help Hillary win and to oh and by the way, the irony of ironies here, the Steele dossier was likely populated according to the analysis of the Steele dossier, which of course they buried, that it was likely populated with information that was planted by the Russians. So, in other words, the actual people that were using Russian disinformation to affect the outcome of an election was the Hillary Clinton campaign and our own intelligence community. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with high tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at cabins of Aashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Realclearinvestigations dot Com a piece by Paul Sperry how Obama administration turned unverifiable report into Russiagate dynamite. I call it the Russia collusion hoax. Russia Gate is fined by me too. But the collusion was a lie. It always was a lie. It was a lie orchestrated, promulgated, disseminated by the intelligence agencies and Obama administration officials. Paul Sperry documents the lengthy campaign used to smear Donald Trump based on unverifiable information. This goes beyond the Steele dossier. There was another piece of information. It goes beyond the DNC hack That was another piece of disinformation. It goes beyond that. There was a third unverifiable report that was used to sell this croc from the report. Real Clear Investigations the Obama intelligence communities claim that Russian President Voladimir Putin authorized dirty tricks to try and help Donald Trump win the twenty sixteen election was based on quote one scant, unclear and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard intelligence reports. And that's according to the declassified report that was locked away in a CIA vault, the report done by Hipsey House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence or the House Intelligence Committee they call. It to. Nevertheless, and this was one of the documents Tulsa Gabbard released the other day. Nevertheless, former CIA director John Brennan ordered agency analysts to use this claim in their ICA, the Intelligence Community Assessment that was issued during the final days of the Obama administration, even though the ICA itself said that the information on Putin's plans was how it was obtained was quote not explicitly clear. What does that mean? I mean you got some piece of raw intel, but the Intelligence Community Assessment doesn't know how you got it. Well, that was purposeful. John Brennan is at the heart of this. A forty six page report by the House of Representatives released a couple of days back, found that the source of the claim about Putin. Reportedly, this source was a Russian defector living in northern Virginia who was described as anti Trump, and what this defector said was speculation. And this guy was merely speculating to John Brennan about something he had been told by somebody else, namely that Putin was quote counting on Trump winning. And that's what Brennan ran with, that Putin was counting on Trump winning. However, the analysts in the intelligence agencies, including the CIA, they interpreted that phrase counting on in several different ways. In my opinion, the most believable way was that it was actually that they were counting on Trump to win the primary, because that's when this guy made the comment. He made it before Trump was even the nominee. And again, remember this was twenty sixteen. Remember how rough and tumble that primary was. We didn't know who was going to emerge. A the primary season went on and on, like our vote in North Carolina actually kind of mattered for the first time in forever, right, because it was all up in the air, it was up for grabs. Trump kept eking out these wins in different dates all along the way, and people wouldn't drop out, and they kept going and going and going. And so that's when this guy made the comment that Trump was going to actually win the primary. It wasn't about the general at that time. That's my that's my theory, So it's not eme of a theory like that's that's my estimation. My analysis. ICA participants that different ideas about what this phrase could mean. Many NSA and CIA officials read the words counting on as meaning the same thing as expected, which is much different than the language that Putin preferred Trump. Right, Putin expecting Trump to win doesn't mean that he prefers Trump win. The Congressional Review determined that the ICA did not cite any classified report where Putin directly indicated helping Trump to win would be the objective. There was never any proof, no direct evidence of this. Ever, the report says that the ICA judgment on Putin's thoughts about helping candidate Trump does not stand if Brennan's single interpretation of the fragment is wrong, because there is literally no other intelligence corroborating it. All Right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why, Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You could check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Andy the Plumber says, Hey there, Pete, great show as always, Thank you, Andy. Keep telling the truth and reporting it as it happened. History, Actual history is not easily refuted. These events happened. We witnessed the undermining of a presidency when they couldn't when they couldn't find anything, they made it up top to bottom. All who participated should be held to account for it. Thanks for all you do well. That's and Andy, I appreciate it. That's that's why I cover this like I cover it because I don't think people being ignorant of it will help drive account of ability. Another message from somebody else in ATO three number. In your opinion, do you feel anybody will be charged with a real crime that sticks. I don't know. I don't know, but the impaneling of a federal grand jury on the matter that was announced, that's a good sign. Make their case show the evidence. So let me, uh hang on a second. Oh, I have this other thing breaking news. The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Attorney General Jeff's sessions in relation to the Epstein case. So back to Paul Sperry's piece at Realclearinvestigations dot com. The Obama Intelligence Community Assessment or the ICA of Russia's intentions? Did Russia did putin intend to help Trump win? The assessment changed sharply after Trump won. Before he won, the memo said nothing made no mention of Putin aspiring for a Trump victory, although the Russian defector had shared his thoughts about Putin with John Brennan way back in July, months before the election. The CIA director's November sixth memo said Putin expected Clinton to win. That's what it said before the election. But then after the election everything changed. In early December, after Obama ordered a new assessment, Brennan dusted off that informance secondhand hearsay, which had been shelved as unreliable. The CIA director, who had previously worked for Obama in the White House, suddenly insisted that it underpin the new conclusion about Putin's motive. It's also at that time Barack Obama did an interview with NPR, and it's instructive to go back and listen to what he said. This was December sixteenth, twenty sixteen, so he's right, so they're already rewriting the ICA and listen to what he says. Now, did the Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee and other targets actually affect the results of the election? In your view, there's no doubt that it contributed to an atmosphere in which the only focus for weeks at a time, months at a time were Hillary's emails, the Clinton Foundation, political gossip surrounding the DNC, and that whole swirl that ended up dominating the news meant that number one issues weren't talked about a lot in the coverage. Huge policy differences were not debated, and vetted elections can always turn out differently. You never know which factors are going to make a difference. But I have no doubt that it had some impact. Everyone now acting surprised by the CIA assessment that this was done purposely to improve Trump's chances. And my only point was that shouldn't be treated as a blockbuster because that was the worst kept secret in this town. Why was that? Was it the worst kept secret? Well, Brennan was shopping this information around via the Steele dossier. This is after Trump won, and now they're retconning, retroactively, retroactive continuity. They're going back and trying to stuff some pieces to make it fit and to cast dispersions on Trump as this Russian asset. Like everybody knew this was coming. Now we have this assessment. So the interview ends and in the NPR piece they show a graphic that says. After the interview, Obama returned to the room to say one more thing about the CIA, and here's what he said. You had something you wanted to add. When we're discussing the issue of the Russia, Hank, and I think it is worth noting that when it comes to the motivations of the Russians, that there are still a whole range of assessments taking place among the agencies. And so when I receive a final report, we'll be able to, I think, give us a comprehensive and best guess as to those motivations. But that does not, in any way, I think, detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately that in fact, what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton administration the Clinton campaign that it had for the Trump campaign. I think you're stopping short of endorsing the CIA conclusion that the hack was designed to help Donald Trump, as opposed to some other objective. Now, remember the CIA conclusion had not actually been reached. At this point. The CIA conclusion was being shopped around to media as high confidence. They were saying, this is a high confidence conclusion, when it had not actually been a high confidence conclusion, yet it hadn't been done yet. And when the report was done and they said it was high confidence, what we now know was that the analyst said it's not. But they were bigfooted by their bosses, Brennan and Comy and Clapper. This is how the information laundering works. You put the information out there and then you give them a little nibble here. You give some high ranking officials to go anonymously off the record, but give you the intel, give you the information, and now you are laundering that smear. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while try and sending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come. Who you are, visit creative video dot com. So my understanding, my guests, let me say that I guess as to why Obama left the interview but then came back, returned to the room, so he had something else to say about the CIA, and I think he forgot to make the connection that this was done to help Trump, right, and that the intelligence is writing up its ICA and it's coming forward. But he doesn't make the assertion. And the NPR reporter asked, it sounds like you're stopping short of saying that they did this to help Trump, and here was Obama's response. Well, I think the point I'm making is that right now, what you've had at our CIA leaks not an official document, and I think it's important for the process of various agencies comparing notes and thinking about these assessments, because it's not as if in any of these circumstances, you know, you just have a signed letter in regarding Russian intentions that's floating around. These are all assessments made based on a wide range of evidence, and different agencies are still looking at all that stuff, gathering it together and hopefully putting into a single package. That's precisely why I've asked that report to be issued before the twentieth, so that those aspects of at least that are not classified can be presented in some form to the public. Those aspects of it that are classified can be presented, as we've consistently done on a bipartisan basis, to the members of Congress and the relevant committees. Right, so there you go. I'm going to walk you right up to this. I'm not going to say exactly like this is definitive, because we're still waiting on the assessment. But when it's done, you all will see. Right now, you just have leaks. We'll have the final package before Trump is sworn in. The major high confidence judgment of the ICA rests on one opinion about a text fragment with uncertain meaning. This text, which would not have been published without John Brennan's orders to do so. Is cited using only one interpretation of its meaning and without considering alternative interpretations. That is a violation of statecraft of the intelligence community director of two three. One alternative was that Putin was quote counting on Trump winning the primary and the nomination at the GOP convention, which was in July, which was two weeks after the informant provided the tip. That was the relevant timeframe. He said this two weeks before the GOP convention, when there was talk that they were going to try to deprive Trump of the nomination. Remember, they were going to have a contested convention. But this informant guy some anti Trump Russian defector that is unnamed and supposedly could not be named because he would have been whacked by Putin. Yeh slight problem with that story. Brennan's informant and apparently this was Brennan's informant who he refused to identify to anybody. It's now understood that this informant is Oleg Smolenkov, who previously worked in the Russian embassy in Washington and later as a government foreign policy advisor in Moscow before he moved back to the DC area in early twenty seventeen. Brennan said that his source could not be revealed because Putin might have him executed. However, reporters easily found him living in a six bedroom home in Stafford, Virginia, listed in his and his wife's real names. Smolenkov was also Brennan's source for the Intelligence community assessments claim that Putin ordered the hacked DNC material to be leaked to wikiliques. Same guy, and his information is based on somebody else telling him that that's what they think is the case. The report from the House Intelligence Committee also discovered that Brennan personally directed this CIA informants tip not be circulated within formal intelligence community channels, and Brennan only briefed the team that was working on the ICA. He only spoke about it. He never put it in print, never put it in emails, which raised suspicions among the team that he was tailoring his message to different officials in order to convince dissenters that the tip was legit when he knew basically that it wasn't. It wasn't legit. Brennan knew it wasn't legit. It wouldn't pass muster among the actual analysts that were compiling it, but he would go around and talk to people about it in order to induce an outcome which was then promoted by all levels of the Democrat Party and the media. But I repeat myself, all right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.