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--:-- Georgia Howe: The January 6th House Committee allegedly misplaced numerous relevant documents, leaving an auditing congressman with questions. So we need to get to the truth of what really happened. How much more of this report is just made up narrative? How much evidence is missing and did the committee break the law? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, August 10th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: The House Oversight Committee reveals more evidence tracking $20 million funneled to Hunter Biden from foreign sources. We're going to release more bank records that show more suspicious wires that were going into the Biden family's back pockets. What new information was revealed and does it successfully tie the case to the big guy?
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Elon Musk announces a new legal effort to protect free speech. What does it mean for X and the platform's users? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: Republican Congressman Barry Loudermilk says the House Select Committee that investigated January 6th failed to save numerous relevant records before it disbanded. Loudermilk is leading an audit of the Select Committee's findings, but says the committee's shoddy and likely illegal work has significant gaps. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to discuss the missing January 6th files.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Congressman Loudermilk investigating here. Loudermilk sits on the Committee on House Administration and chairs its subcommittee on oversight. He was tasked by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy with auditing the work done by the select committee on January 6th.
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--:-- Tim Pierce: It's worth noting that the January 6th committee was a very partisan exercise. It included no significant opposition since McCarthy declined to endorse it, and its only Republican members were both vocal critics of former President Trump. That would be former House Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Ladermilk was given this assignment to audit the committee's work and ensure a fair account of what led to the riot at the Capitol. Morningwire spoke to Ladermilk, and here's what he said.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Basically, all they did after spending $18.5 million was come out with a manifesto against Trump trying to tie Donald Trump to the attack on the Capitol. And everything that they did appears to be to just come up with that narrative.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, what's missing from the current files? Well, they don't know because they don't have it. Congressman Benny Thompson, the former chair of the January 6th committee, claims he handed over four terabytes worth of data and records they collected over an 18-month investigation. But Loudermilk says he only received two and a half terabytes of information.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what accounts for the massive discrepancy? We don't know, but Ladermilk knows some of what missing For instance defense attorneys working the cases of January 6th defendants asked Ladermilk for tapes of people deposed by the committee When Loudermilk went to retrieve them he didn have them Then later Loudermilk came across a letter that Thompson had sent to the White House and Department of Homeland Security as part of the J6 investigation and found out that a copy of that letter wasn't in the J6 files either.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He's now asking the White House and DHS to produce all communications they have from the J6 committee. And finally, Ladder Milk says he's found little, if any, records related to capital security on January 6th. It could be that they never generated any records. I think there is something there that's more than likely that the team found something that somebody didn't want them to find out, so they suppressed the records.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But there were videotapes of depositions and interviews. Those videotapes were actually used in some of the televised hearings, and so we know those exist. So how did this happen? Why are these files missing? Thompson told Loudermilk in a letter that the missing files were left out because the committee didn't have to archive, quote, temporary committee records that were not elevated by the committee's actions, which means basically anything the committee didn't find useful.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But Loudermilk says that the J-6 committee was required by law and House rules to turn over all their records at the end of the term. So what Thompson has argued is just not correct.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, this has been going on for months. Has he found anything yet? Yes, he has. Ladermilk's investigation has turned up some pretty explosive evidence related to the use of plainclothes officers at the Capitol. Probably the most shocking is that we have verified that there were some plainclothes law enforcement officers who were not Capitol Police who were encouraging people to go into the Capitol.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And what's important about that is Metropolitan Police, law enforcement from the executive branch are not allowed to be on Capitol grounds unless they are specifically asked to be there or there's a pre-existing agreement that is enacted. And we do know that there were law enforcement agencies that were non-Capital Police that were on Capitol grounds before any of the agreements were enacted, nor were they invited.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So basically, they were already on Capitol grounds in violation of our laws. So we need to find out why were they there at that point and what were they doing? This could be a major revelation. Intelligence officials have refused to say anything definitive about the use of plainclothes officers at the Capitol that day. And Ladder Milk has a lot more evidence to sort through.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, it'll be interesting to see what else he finds.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The House Oversight Committee has released bank records purporting to show that Hunter Biden and his associates received more than $20 million from foreign entities. This is the third such memo from Representative James Comer's committee, and it furthers the House Republicans' narrative that the Biden family was making a fortune off of access to Joe Biden.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss the revelation is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. I think the top line item here is a bank record that shows Russian oligarch and former first lady of Moscow, Yelena Baturina, wiring millions of dollars to two shell companies partly owned by Hunter Biden back in 2014.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The memo also notes, as we saw again in Hunter Biden associate Devin Archer's testimony before Congress last week, that then vice president Joe Biden attended a dinner with Batarina and Hunter in roughly the same time period These are really the kinds of connections that the committee is seeking to and frankly succeeding in finding
--:-- David Marcus: And there's no denying that this is all getting closer and closer to the president with an election looming within the year. Right. We also saw the familiar name Burisma in this memo. What did Comer's committee present in regard to that Ukrainian energy company?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah. So according to the records in the memo, and this isn't entirely new information, Hunter Biden and Archer were receiving about 80,000 a month from Burisma between 2014 and 2015, totaling a staggering 3.3 million bucks.
--:-- David Marcus: As Comer put it, quote, it appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden, end quote. The way Devin Archer described it was the Biden brand. And to Comer's credit, nobody from Biden world has offered any kind of innocent explanation as to why Hunter and his buddy were getting these massive payouts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If Archer is to be believed, it was almost entirely because Hunter was selling access to and influence over his dad, whether Joe Biden was fully aware of it or not. Right. Why would Comer and the committee release this memo now? There seems to be sort of an approach here of slowly doling out new evidence.
--:-- David Marcus: Yes, it's politics on some level and not for nothing. It has been the case of late that every time a Biden brand bombshell drops, there's suddenly a new indictment of Donald Trump distracting from the story.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So yes, Comer is understandably trying to keep this in the news cycle. But frankly, he's also facing real recalcitrance from the Department of Justice in getting answers about the Biden case. The DOJ keeps saying there's an ongoing investigation so they can't comply with his oversight requests.
--:-- David Marcus: In the fall, we'll see some testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland on all of this before Congress. But for now, Comer, he's trying to keep the irons hot.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do we expect to hear from Hunter anytime soon? A few weeks ago, Joe Biden was making a lot of appearances with him, including a trip to Dublin. But that seems to have dried up a bit here.
--:-- David Marcus: It does. And that's a great question. But bear in mind that until a few weeks ago, Joe Biden and his allies were under the impression that this was all about to go away as Hunter's plea deal was going into effect. Obviously, that didn't happen, at least not yet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And ultimately, this question of what kind of legs this scandal has hangs over all of this. Joe Biden did an interview with The Weather Channel this week. the weather check, right? Mainly about the climate crisis, but he can't duck the legitimate questions about his involvement in his son's business deals forever, especially in an election season.
--:-- David Marcus: The questions are coming. Whether he has the answers that get him out of this mess, that remains to be seen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, and meanwhile, the Republicans will keep pulling at this thread.
--:-- David Marcus: Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On Wednesday, we learned that special counsel Jack Smith's team issued a search warrant for former President Trump's Twitter account shortly after the platform was purchased by Elon Musk. The news comes days after Musk vowed to fund legal bills for anyone punished by their employer for posts on his platform.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So Amanda, what did special counsel Jack Smith request Well Smith team first obtained this warrant on January 17th That was a couple of months after Musk acquired Twitter and they wanted information related to Trump Twitter account A court found probable cause to search the account for evidence of criminal offenses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Additionally, the government was able to get a non-disclosure agreement, which made it so Twitter couldn't disclose the warrant. The company said no, citing the First Amendment, specifically an objection to that non-disclosure. It seems Twitter wanted to at least let Trump know if they were being forced to hand over his account information.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Twitter was supposed to hand over the docs on January 27th, but refused. Eleven days later, the judge held the company in contempt and levied a $350,000 fine. Twitter did not fully comply with the order until two days later on February 9th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We still don't know anything about what they're looking for or what they found. Now, pivoting to some news from earlier this week, CEO of X, Elon Musk, made an announcement that he would pay the legal bills for anyone fired for speech and or activity on his platform.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: What were the parameters for that offer? Musk said in a post on X that he will pay for legal representation for anyone who is treated, quote, unfairly by their employer due to posting or liking something on his platform.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He also said there is no limit to the cash he'll put up. Importantly, Musk took an extra step here saying that X would effectively wage a PR campaign against companies that engage in viewpoint discrimination. Here's his direct language. We won't just sue. It'll be extremely loud, and we will go after the boards of directors of these companies too.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Do we know if anyone's actually taken him up on this offer yet? Well, there's at least one case that Musk has shown interest in. A woman named Kara Lynn says she was fired in January from limited-run games, allegedly over who she followed on the platform, and a years-old tweet that was critical of transgender ideology.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A transgender activist called Carolyn a, quote, transphobe who follows a veritable who's who of right-wing transphobic creeps and demanded Carolyn be fired. That same day, Limited Run Games announced a termination, citing a commitment to, quote, supporting an inclusive culture.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Musk exchanged public messages with Carolyn on Sunday about pursuing her case. It seems Musk is indicating here that he wants to represent people who might not have huge name recognition.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that's the point Toby Young, founder of the British organization Free Speech Union, brought up with host Andrew Doyle. Young's group helps everyday people who were fired for their political views and beliefs. People focus on the J.K. Rowlings of this world, but actually it's lower down the scale. We look after bus drivers, train drivers, dinner ladies, care workers. Those are the sorts of people that are at risk of losing their livelihood simply for expressing what they think.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So what are the chances of an employee actually succeeding in a case like this? This would be a tough fight against a private employer, but I think that's why Musk added this component of a bad PR campaign against such companies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Toby Young, whose job it is to help represent people who have been wrongly fired, he believes the threat of litigation from the world's second richest man would be enough to change behavior. If you can make the directors and the non-executive directors liable, then that would put a stop to it, I think, overnight.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: I mean, just the fact that he said this, I think, will make a difference.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, I'm interested to see which cases he takes up.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
