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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: In a major about-face, the DOJ and FBI say Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list, did not blackmail powerful men, and was not murdered. My heart goes out to these survivors who I think probably are very upset about today's news.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe. John is off this week, but Cabot Phillips is filling in. It's Tuesday, July 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: And a scathing CIA review reveals how Obama's top intel chiefs pushed the Russia collusion narrative against Trump, even after the Steele dossier was discredited. They spied on my campaign, launched one hoax and disinformation operation after another.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: The Justice Department this week released previously unseen jailhouse footage from the day Jeffrey Epstein died.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Here with a closer look is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: Good morning, guys. The Justice Department released nearly 11 hours of footage from the common area of the special housing unit in the facility where Epstein was held.
--:-- Tim Rice: In a memo, the FBI says that anyone entering or attempting to enter Epstein's cell could have been captured by this footage. And since footage shows no one entering Epstein's cell during that window, the Bureau concluded that Epstein committed suicide.
--:-- Tim Rice: This is consistent with what FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have previously said.
--:-- Tim Rice: So case closed, no controversy, correct?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, not exactly. As you know, there's been controversy surrounding Epstein's death from the beginning, and a lot of people don't believe that he killed himself.
--:-- Tim Rice: They believe he was murdered as part of a cover-up to protect one or more of the powerful people implicated in his crimes.
--:-- Tim Rice: Now, the FBI says there's no evidence that Epstein kept a client list, nor is there any credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.
--:-- Tim Rice: But just a few months ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News news that she had Epstein's client list on her desk.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen?
--:-- Tim Rice: It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That been a directive by President Trump.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: In a briefing Monday White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt defended the administration handling of the Epstein case.
--:-- Caroline Levitt: The Trump administration is committed to truth and to transparency. That's why the attorney general and the FBI director pledged at the president's direction to do an exhaustive review of all of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes and his death.
--:-- Caroline Levitt: And they put out a memo in conclusion of that review. There was material they did not release because, frankly, it was incredibly graphic and it contained child pornography, which is not something that's appropriate for public consumption.
--:-- Caroline Levitt: But they committed to an exhaustive investigation. That's what they did. And they provided the results of that. That's transparency.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Now, the White House says they're being transparent, but a lot of people are saying this is just more of the same.
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, absolutely. We spoke to Lisa Bryant, who's the director and executive producer of the Netflix documentaries Jeffrey Epstein, Filthy Rich, and Ghislaine Maxwell, Filthy Rich.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: I mean, come on. The DOJ even admits Epstein's cell door is not in the camera's field of view in this video. So exactly how does it prove he committed suicide?
--:-- Lisa Bryant: I think anybody following this case would really need to see Epstein actually committing suicide in a videotape to believe it actually was a suicide.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: According to Bryant, there are still questions about Epstein's official autopsy.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: The medical examiner, Dr. Biden that we're talking about, he was hired by Mark Epstein, Epstein's brother, to be there.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: And the evidence that he saw, he says, points to homicide by strangulation rather than suicide by hanging.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: What he's saying is Epstein had numerous visible injuries, including this very key broken hyoid bone, which is kind of around your Adam's apple in his neck.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: Something which he said that he's never seen in 50 years as a result of a suicide by hanging.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: Bryant also believes a lot of incriminating evidence has yet to be released.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: I think there are still these graphic Compromat Black male videotapes and photos that Epstein made of powerful men and many others having sex with his victims that he used basically to leverage and build his empire and make millions.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: Firsthand, you know, almost every survivor have said they've seen cameras, they know they were being recorded, you know, or they'd heard they were recorded.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: That threat was always there. Many of the victims saw cameras in numerous homes.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: So I think, you know, I think their statement in the report today was they found no evidence that he blackmailed prominent individuals. I call BS on that.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: One other thing that Brian noted, Ghislaine Maxwell is facing 20 years in prison and she knows where all the bodies are buried.
--:-- Lisa Bryant: So perhaps this latest announcement will encourage her to come out and reveal some more information in exchange for some kind of a deal.
--:-- Tim Rice: Thanks for reporting.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: As the war between Israel and Hamas continues Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the White House Monday for a high stakes sit down with Donald Trump.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the latest on the meeting and more.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot a packed day in Washington. Let's start with Netanyahu visit.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, a lot of folks ease into their first workday post-vacation. President Trump evidently not getting the memo.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It was a very busy day in Washington as he hosted Prime Minister Netanyahu for his third White House visit in six months.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: No other foreign leader has been invited more than once. So it gives you an idea of just how important this relationship is to the president.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: First, the two took a victory lap of sorts, celebrating their successful strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, which they say set the regime back years in their pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We have scheduled Iran talks and they want to talk. They took a big drubbing. I think when we hit the three sites, really, I would say the three sites, not just the one.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The one was a big one, and it was deep in granite, and it was obliterated. It turned out the Atomic Energy Commission said it is obliterated.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For his part, President Trump has warned Iran that he would be willing to strike again if they restarted their efforts to enrich uranium.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I hope we're not going to have to do that. I can't imagine wanting to do that. I can't imagine them wanting to do it.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They want to meet. They want to meet, they want to work something out. They're different, they're very different now than they were two weeks ago.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Is there a date yet for the Iran talks or a city? Do you know when and where the next round of Iran talks will be?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, I can tell you, I'd rather not say, but you'll be reading about it tomorrow or seeing it tomorrow.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And in one really stunning moment, Prime Minister Netanyahu commended Trump for his role in fostering peace in the Middle East and announced that he had officially nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The president has already realized great opportunities. He forged the Iran reports. He's forging peace as we speak in one country, in one region after the other.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's nominated you for the peace prize, which is well-deserved, and you can get it.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: So what would a potential deal in Gaza look like?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the two sides have been negotiating in Qatar over the last few days. And by all accounts are making progress.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At the moment, the terms include a 60-day ceasefire during which Israel would allow for increased levels of humanitarian aid into Gaza, while Hamas, for their part, would release the 50 or so remaining hostages in their possession, that is, if they are still alive.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But the main holdup is that Hamas says that they will only free the remaining hostages if Israel agrees to fully withdraw from Gaza and end their military operation entirely.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Then Yahoo has made clear from the very start that he will not end until the terror group has been totally dismantled or surrenders and hands over all of their weapons, which does not seem likely.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: From what we've been told, Trump, who famously loves dealmaking, has been using his action in Iran as leverage with Netanyahu, essentially saying, I hope to end your war with Iran. Now it's time for you to end things with Hamas.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: The CIA has finished a probe into the Obama administration's conclusion that Russia interfered to help Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: The spy agency's review found that the Russia investigation was markedly unconventional and potentially corrupt from the start.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Here to break down the CIA's findings is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hey, Tim. So first, back us up a bit and tell us why the CIA is now looking into this decade-old intelligence assessment in the first place.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, nine years later and Russiagate continues to be a major story. President Donald Trump ordered this review on his first day in office.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It was part of a wider push to correct past misconduct by the federal government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the intelligence community.
--:-- Tim Pierce: CIA Director John Ratcliffe then began to look into the origins of the Rushgate scandal, and he found that it looked corrupt from the start.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So let's get into the report. What exactly did these new findings show?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Last week the CIA declassified a memo that gives an overview of what the agency found.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Investigators determined that in the initial stages of the probe into Russian interference in 2016, the process to finish the assessment had, quote, multiple procedural anomalies.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Those anomalies included, quote, a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And all that, according to the memo, hurt the integrity of the CIA.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Steele dossier provides one of the best concrete examples of this.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So the Steele dossier was essentially a report on unsubstantiated rumors about Donald Trump and Russia and the 2016 election.
--:-- Tim Pierce: There's no basis that any of it was true, and there never really was.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the Steele dossier to be included in the 2016 report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He even overrode concerns voiced by two top CIA officials that raised significant questions about the dossier's reliability.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to Radcliffe's report, Brennan, quote, appeared more swayed by the dossier's general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And according to this memo, Brennan was backed up in his decision by then FBI Director James Comey and then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And then there is former President Barack Obama, who ordered those three to investigate Russia's role in the election.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Ratcliffe says that Obama pushed forward this assessment to get it finished six weeks before his presidency was over.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And Brennan, Comey, and Clapper cut a lot of corners to do it.
--:-- Tim Pierce: For example, according to the memo, they excluded 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies from reviewing their work.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Really stunning findings there.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So what sort of reaction have we seen to this new information?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, it's had a mixed reaction from Republicans who you'd think would be more united on this.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But Arkansas Congressman Rick Crawford, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said that this report actually whitewashes what really happened in some ways.
--:-- Rick Crawford: The thing that I have a problem with is that the analysis here was a lot like, you know, the Fox guarding the henhouse.
--:-- Rick Crawford: Essentially, an analyst did an analysis on the analysis.
--:-- Rick Crawford: And what they left out were some of the key players.
--:-- Rick Crawford: So, yes, they said, OK, well, look, we knew, you know, Brennan bad, Clapper bad, Comey bad. That's easy.
--:-- Rick Crawford: But what they forgot to mention is that most of the people that were involved in that outside of those three headliners, they're now getting promoted.
--:-- Rick Crawford: They are part of the senior executive service.
--:-- Rick Crawford: And they have essentially, you know, held up this report and said nothing to see here.
--:-- Rick Crawford: We knew the three bad guys are. So let's just move on.
--:-- Rick Crawford: And I'm not willing to move on because, as you know, this runs a heck of a lot deeper.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for reporting.
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