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--:-- Host Georgia Howe: New bombshell reports allege that the Obama CIA authorized foreign government spying on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. This is illegal spying and it's illegal election interference. How is this operation linked to the Russia collusion narrative? We hear from one of the authors of the report.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, February 15th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Congressional committees hear explosive testimony on allegations of Biden family corruption. I've heard Joe Biden say that he's never discussed business with Hunter. That is false. And everything I'm saying is corroborated by emails, WhatsApp chats, and other evidence.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: And at least one person is dead and dozens more injured after a shooting at a Super Bowl parade in Kansas City. This is absolutely a tragedy, the likes of which we would have never expected in Kansas City, and the likes of which we will remember for some time.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Producer Brandon: Hey guys, producer Brandon here. If you haven't tried Black Rifle Coffee yet, now is the perfect time to snag a bag. Right now, you can get 20% off your order at blackriflecoffee.com with promo code WIRE. When you shop with Black Rifle Coffee, your money goes towards giving back to veteran and first responder causes.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: A bombshell new report alleges that the CIA illegally asked foreign intelligence agencies to spy on Trump advisors during his 2016 presidential campaign and prior to any evidence of wrongdoing by the campaign.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, previously, the explanation from the Durham report was that the FBI had opened up an investigation into 26 Trump associates because of what Australian intelligence officials had shared with them. So the FBI said the Australian agents told them that a Trump aide had bragged to an Australian diplomat that he had dirt on Hillary Clinton that he'd received from Russian sources.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, the ostensible Russian collusion intelligence was supposedly incidental, meaning U.S. agents didn't go looking for it. They just organically came upon it during the course of their work and then they acted on it.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, this reporting from Michael Schellenberger and Matt Tybee says that's not what happened. Sources tell them that Obama CIA director John Brennan asked U Canadian Australian and New Zealand agents to spy on these 26 Trump associates starting back as early as March 2016.
--:-- Megan Basham: And again that was before there was any evidence justifying such a move. And this was what led to the FBI opening up its unfounded Russia collusion investigation before the 2016 election.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I spoke to Tybee and he told me that a source directly involved in the investigation told him that the spying was politically motivated.
--:-- Megan Basham: We asked, did this have a broader intelligence community objective? And the answer was, it had nothing to do with our relationship with Russia. It was just leveraging capabilities to undermine a rookie, unprepared Trump campaign.
--:-- Megan Basham: They thought they were easy marks. And if you notice all those stories about sort of the troubling activity that caused these other nations to get on the phone with us, they never actually told us what that was.
--:-- Megan Basham: And I think that was an important detail that needed to be disclosed. And Tybee told me more than one source, including some connected to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, confirmed that the spying stemmed from these political objectives.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, I also saw a lot of buzz about a binder involved in this story. What was that about?
--:-- Megan Basham: So according to the report, potential details about the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign and exactly what prompted it are in a binder that Trump had ordered to be declassified on the last day of his term.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it's rumored to contain top secret raw intelligence that could potentially confirm that U.S. intelligence agents illegally spied on a candidate and interfered in a presidential election.
--:-- Megan Basham: A memo signed by Trump the day before he left office seems to corroborate the existence of this binder, but it has since gone missing and its whereabouts are unknown.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, why would the CIA take this risk for what was then seen as a long shot candidate? Everyone thought Clinton was a shoe-in in 2016.
--:-- Megan Basham: Tybee told me that it could also just be an indication that this is not unprecedented for the CIA. There's an idea, basically, that the intelligence community does this a lot to all sorts of folks.
--:-- Megan Basham: And in this case, the fact that Trump wasn't going to win might have been a motive for more surveillance because, you know, there wasn't a fear that this was going to come and blow back on them.
--:-- Megan Basham: And I think that goes to Tybee's point that while each successive revelation and a long-drawn story like Russian collusion can kind of cause people's eyes to glaze over, this really does have massive implications for our elections.
--:-- Megan Basham: It's completely improper and wildly illegal for intelligence agencies to be engaged in political espionage of a major party presidential candidate or any presidential candidate in an election year.
--:-- Megan Basham: They just can't do this. And whether they dress it up as foreign surveillance or not, it's just not allowed.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: That's all for now on the CIA spying allegations. We'll be back after this break.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: This week, the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees interviewed Tony Bobulinski, the decorated veteran who was in business with Hunter Biden abroad.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Bobulinski shook Washington back in October 2020 just before the election when he accused then Joe Biden of lying about his knowledge of his son Hunter's business dealings.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: I received an email concerning allocation of equity, which says 10 percent held by H for the big guy. Hunter often referred to his father as the big guy or my chairman.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: On numerous occasions, it was made clear to me that Joe Biden's involvement was not to be mentioned in writing, but only face-to-face.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Now Bobulinski has provided his sworn testimony to congressmen leading the impeachment inquiry.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak has the new developments.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Hey, Luke.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So first, give us some context here for the testimony this week.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Sure, John. So Bobulinski was CEO of a company called SinoHawk that was in business with a Chinese Communist Party-linked company called CEFC.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: At that press conference in 2020, he held up phones that he said contained emails and WhatsApp messages detailing a Chinese business scheme involving the Biden family.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Fast forward more than three years, and he told Congress on Tuesday that no government investigators ever requested to see his evidence.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So to be clear, the officials tasked with investigating Hunter for tax and foreign influence crimes, they never contacted his business partner, and that's despite him publicly saying he had evidence.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Yeah, and that's all the more remarkable because Bobulinski was a decorated military officer with a top-secret clearance.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: He's got credibility that would seem to be appealing to any criminal investigator. On top of that, he's not some Republican with a political vendetta.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: He was a business partner of Hunter Biden who donated to Democrats. He did say that Hunter and James Biden defrauded him by cutting him out of a business deal, something that made him concerned about their ethics.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: And after Joe Biden said he never discussed business with his son, Bobulinski decided to come forward.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: He said that in October 2020, he walked into the FBI's Washington office with three phones and spoke with FBI agents at his request, but that they never followed up.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: He never testified before any grand jury. In the meantime, the statute of limitations on some potential crimes has run out.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Now, Bob Alinsky's testimony was not the only development in this case this week, correct?
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Right. The congressional committees this week also released an interview by Rob Walker, another Hunter Biden business partner, who told them that he received $3 million from CEFC around the time that then-Vice President Biden met with company leadership.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: But Bobulinski is likely to be a more cooperative witness.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Here's what he said in his opening statement, quoting here. Joe Biden's immediate family members were enriched to the tune of tens of millions of dollars from some of her most dangerous adversaries.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Joe Biden was more than a participant and a beneficiary of his family's business. He was an enabler.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: A celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory turned into tragedy on Wednesday. Shots rang out, prompting chaos and leaving at least one person dead and more than 20 people injured.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Many of the details remain unconfirmed so far, but what we do know has shaken the Kansas City community and prompted calls for more gun control from the White House.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, as you said, there are still a lot of unknowns here. But what we do know is that someone, possibly multiple people, opened fire after the parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The gunshots prompted chaos, as you'd expect, and left at least one person confirmed dead. The victim has been identified as Lisa Lopez, a 44-year-old Kansas City disc jockey and mother of two.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Friends of Lopez told the Kansas City Star that she died during surgery. Along with Lopez, more than 20 people were injured, many from gunshot wounds, and a handful of the wounded appeared to have suffered severe injuries.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said Wednesday that 22 people were hit by gunfire. It appears that several of the people injured were children.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Some outlets list the age ranges from as young as 6 to 15 years old. A spokesperson from Children's Mercy Hospital said of the 12 patients being treated there, 11 are children and nine had gunshot wounds.
--:-- Tim Pierce: She said all are expected to make a full recovery. While there's still a lot unconfirmed, we do know that none of the victims were members of the Kansas City Chiefs, as the team announced that yesterday.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, there have been multiple suspects taken into custody. And again, some conflicting reporting there. What have we learned on that front?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Chief Graves said at a second press briefing that three people are detained for investigation.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Various images and video have been circulating online reportedly showing suspects, including one viral video of fans tackling an alleged suspect.
--:-- Tim Pierce: One of the men who tackled him, Paul Contreras, spoke to a local station, KETV7. I didn't think about it. It was just a reaction. I didn't hesitate. It was just, just do it.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So I went to go tackle him, and another gentleman did the same thing. And as I'm tackling him, I see his weapon either fall out of his hand or out of his sleeve.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So when I seen that hit the ground, I'm like, oh, you know, we got to take this guy down. And so, like I said, I did, and another good Samaritan did, and we held him down.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And it seemed like forever, but it probably wasn't. It was like 30 seconds holding him down.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Do we know anything about motive? Officials have not given many details about the suspects or specified a motive yet.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: The investigation is very much ongoing, but local and state officials did address the public yesterday.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Here's Police Chief Graves. I'm angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: We had over 800 law enforcement officers, Kansas City and other agencies, at the location to keep everyone safe. Because of bad actors, this tragedy occurred.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: And here's Mayor Quentin Lucas giving an emotional statement at the press conference. I saw a number of agencies, including the Kansas City Police Department, officers with guns drawn who are running towards danger.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: We thank them for that. As I was leaving the scene, I saw members of our Kansas City Fire Department administering aid to folks who are seriously injured.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: I want to say thank you to those who are making sure that we are safe today, those who are investigating this incident and those who will continue to make sure that those who committed these acts today are brought to justice.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: As you mentioned at the top, we've also heard from President Biden who issued a statement yesterday reiterating his calls to, quote, ban assault weapons, limit high-capacity magazines, and strengthen background checks.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, we're still finding out more about what actually took place and we'll be sure to provide those updates as they come.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Yes, we will.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Thanks for reporting, Tim.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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